Ideas and Ideals

The round table participants discussed a number of interrelated questions: how can we evaluate the relationship between the Church and society in Russia at the present stage? What is causing the obstacles for the dialogue between the Church and other social groups in modern Russia? Is there a possibility for such a dialogue in modern Russian society? What is the actual and possible role of intelligentsia in the formation of a neutral space for such a dialogue? The participants discussed different aspects of the problem: the history of the church and society relations, the problems of these relations at the present stage, the role of the church in the life of modern Russian society, the problem of the dialogue between the Church and atheists. The participants also discussed the burning problems of the Church's participation in the formation and education of youth, issues of influence of the church on the processes of cultural development, the acute problems of the fight between the Orthodox church and religious extremism, the danger of which influence, especially on young people, is often underestimated. In the final analysis, there is a multi-dimensional picture of the relationship between the institution of the Church and civil society represented by different social groups.

The article deals with the economic culture of the Old Believers, known as «chasovennye», who live in North and South America. The interviews and observations, collected during the expeditions to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Canada; as well as previously published works became the material for the generalizations. The first part outlines the nature of the activities and the economic culture of the Old Believers in America, and the second part deals with the Old Believers’ choice of the place of residence and their main activity; finally, the third part reveals the phenomenon of the dialectics of escape from the world and earthly success. A comparative overview of the economic life of a community of Old Believers named “chasovennye” shows the intensity of movements and the voluntariness in choosing the place of residence. In terms of theory, the article shows the dialectical logic of economic and religious choice. Economic success, followed by the loss of traditional ways of life and the language, provoked searching for the new places of residence. Like medieval monasteries and mendicant orders, the Old Believers, who had consciously chosen isolation and escapism, often found themselves in even more advantageous economic conditions, as it can be seen in Alaska and the Canadian Alberta.

The authors present the main statements of the original Mongolian religious and philosophical doctrine – Аrga bilig, which means the unity of two opposites. This doctrine is considered as the culture constant. The authors analyse the Mongolian fine-art works on the basis of Arga bilig. The article substantiates the hypothesis of the universal character of the doctrine for the world view of Mongolians. The analysis and interpretations are made on the basis of works of art.

  A quiet town of Ascona, located on the shores of Lake Maggiore, became a place of concentration of public life in Switzerland in the late XIX-early XX centuries. The colony of vegetarians "Monte Verità" (“Hill of Truth”) studied and tested new philosophies, developing new special systems of dieting and physical exercises. Zurich artistic community concentrated in that very colony "Monte Verità" in Ascona at the end of the First World War. It was there in 1924, where an artistic association "Big Bear" was formed, which included seven artists: W. Helbig, O. Niemeyer, E. Frick, A. Kohler, G. McCoy, O. Rice and R. Zivald. The ideological leader of the group was Marianne Verevkina. She actively participated in exhibitions of “Big Bear” artists in Zurich, Lugano, Berlin. In Ascona M. Verevkina was the first director of the Museum of Modern Art. It was she who persuaded many artists to donate their paintings to the museum. Marianne Verevkina had a leading role in the cultural life of Ascona right up to 1938.

The article "Russian Universities and the Russian Intelligentsia" was written at the request of Inna Kizhner to work with students. According to Inna, it was in 1996, when she was working with a group of economists. She might be wrong. I remember that year very well: A.I. Fet was in America for a long time and returned to Russia only in December. Apparently, he started writing this article not earlier than in 1997. He wrote about half of the text at once up to the chapter "Russian Universities before the Revolution and the Emergence of the Russian Intelligentsia," and then he gave it up for a few years. At some moment, Inna reminded him of her request. A.I. Fet half-heartedly returned to the writing of his manuscript, having marked in it that it is necessary to insert a certain section from "Instinct." At that time, he was absorbed in the work on the book, but, yielding to Inna’s insistence he wrote the last half, ending it with the words "Russian universities, Russian science and science education will have to be rebuilt. We need to overcome this tragedy quietly. You cannot be angry with these swindlers: they do not know what they do". As such, the article was ready in 2001; then A. I. Fet added the chapter "The Russian Intelligentsia" from "Instinct", prefacing it with a small foreword.

The article analyzes G.D. Gachev’s reflection of philosophical thought genesis in its ethnic and cultural conditionality. The authors believe research experience of G.D. Gachev to be the implementation of methodological directions by Moscow logic study group to update the genesis of knowledge not on the basis of formal logic but content genetic logic. G.D. Gachev considers that the form and content of philosophical thought emerge in the bosom of national culture and preserve its characteristics.

In the article the author considers the tendencies of transformation of human life in the conditions of permanent sociocultural complexity. The social structure becomes more and more complicated, saturated with knowledge and information and a human being at the same time falls apart into functional subsystems – modules. Getting adjusted to the new conditions of sociocultural complexity a person risks to lose his/her ontological status. In the article, using the idea of modularity, the author describes the image of sociocultural complexity and the place of a person in the emerging conditions. The author comes to the conclusion, that a modern person, adapting to sociocultural complexity, turns into a «framework» construction comprised of «modules», deprived of any independent ontological status.

The author considers melancholy and its companions "anguish and fear", which play an important role in the formation of personality. He also examines melancholy as a state of mind, not a diagnosis, which affects the human perception of the world, when a number of opportunities for self-actualization are open before a person. Each historical period has its own emotional ways of expressing feelings in the state of melancholy either by one person or a society as a whole. Also the article analyzes the historical problems of the appearance of melancholy, its symptoms, feelings, which at one time was considered to be a depression, in another time - hopeless despair, anguish, grief, sorrow of mind, in today's world it is considered to be "the twenty-first century plague."

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon "aestheticization of politics". The authors present political aesthetics within the boundaries of "symbolic politics" concept. "Symbolic politics", as a special kind of political communication, fits into the modern context of political life "virtualisation". The aesthetic mode of politics perception is viewed by the authors as socio-cognitive practices that are relevant to modern standards and principles of rationality. The paper studies the discourse of an "information war" in the context of correlative coherence of aesthetic and pragmatic elements of symbolic politics.

The article focuses on the modernism/postmodernism terms definition. The author conceptualizes the two terms in the three theoretical frames. Firstly the dichotomy of modernism/postmodernism is described in the context of artistic practice and aesthetic programs. Secondly the two notions are analyses as the stages of cultural evolution. Thirdly the dyad is comprehended as the two ways of world understanding. The core issue in the differentiation between modernism and postmodernism, in the author’s opinion, is the category of integrity. The article is addressed to philosophers, specialists in cultural studies and aesthetics, cultural scientists and educators.