Ideas and Ideals

The author has devoted his article to the consideration of the moral aspects of such an important phenomenon of human communication as a RESPONSE. In our responses we humans behave honestly / dishonestly, resolutely / hesitantly, directly / evasively, respectfully / impudently, responsibly / irresponsibly, humanely / ruthlessly, adequately / with servility. It happens not only on the atomic level of the relationship between two individuals, but also where there is a line connection between an individual and a group, between two groups, an individual and a community, a group and a community. And there is every reason to attribute the answers, given by the actors to each other, to the semantic field studied by the ethical science. The answer is not simply a reaction to the event that has caused it. It's an emotional experience, a thought, an evaluation, or an action of the subject caused by significant moral circumstances. In response, people actively express their attitude to the events, showing their moral culture. Consideration of the generalized situation structure where there is a morally significant answer (SUBJECT – ADDRESSEE – OBJECT – CONTEXT – MOTIVATION – PURPOSE – TOOLS – RESULT) extends the ethical philosophical possibilities in understanding human culture, identifying the moral resources of an individual, a group, and a human community.

The article describes foundations of Post-Operaism in particular and ontology of abundance in general in their connection with the problem of precarity. The critique of the debatable theoretical aspects of the congruous ontological constructions and especially anti-capitalist socio-political projects based on them is represented. Much attention is paid to the question of nomadism – the idea of nomadism was transferred from the context of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to the soil of contemporary autonomous Marxism and it has become an important aspect of the post-operaist theory (precarious homeless multitude), from the point of which nomadism is perceived as emancipatory. But we can’t help noting its resemblance to the late-capitalist ideology of mobility.

On the basis of analysis of the normogenesis concepts the author proposes the formulation of the foundations for the integrative approach to the issue of the nature of normativity. The possibility of such approach is viewed in the reference to the anthropological sense of normogenesis.A human as a special kind of being, as the basis of his being constituted the dynamic equilibrium of the individual-collective ability to live within a certain socio-cultural model of evolution. A variety of shapes and characteristics of the normativity phenomenon can be explained by means of bringing together to the relatively stable unity of the ontological foundations: substantial, cultural and historical, and discursive. The resulting theoretical model allows to link different concepts of normogenesis and obtain heuristically and prognostically a significant idea of the establishment of norms.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the role of mercantilism in the context of economic policy during the crisis of the XVII century. Traditionally, the study is carried out within the mercantilism
economic history discourse. However, the author has given his analysis not only from the standpoint of the theory of fi nance but also from the standpoints of historical sociology, demography and climate. The
author believes that mercantilism can be: a political practice, a perceived need, and a destructive fi nancial technology. The negative aspects of mercantilism as an economic policy and a fi nancial technology are mainly considered in the article. The basic requirements of mercantilism ideology provoked an aggressive foreign policy: intra-wars and the seizure of colonies. It is concluded that mercantilism has metaeconomic reasons: demographic and climatic. The policy of mercantilism was the result of European societies being caught into the Malthusian trap in the XVII century due to overpopulation and global cooling. There are two ways out of the Malthusian trap. The fi rst one involves external aggression with the aim of increasing the proportion of ever diminishing amount of resources of the world economy during the crisis. The second way is the creation of a new, broader resource base through innovations and cheap labor of the marginalized layers of the population. The practical application of the mercantilism ideology in the XVII century became a self-fulfi lling prophecy, which stigmatized the category of “duty” and thus destroyed the people’s credit system in the preceding era in England. Credit money was replaced by metal cash in circulation and marginalized workers labor became the prerequisites of the industrial revolution.