Ideas and Ideals

In various epochs, the peculiarities of human language were described in comparison with sounds made by animals. Such recourse to animals deserves special analysis, since, in essence, it is directed at a better understanding of man and human language. All the thoughts expressed in connection with this are equally important, as landmarks in the history of ideas, irrespective of the fact whether they had followers or remained as author’s original concepts. The man-animal paradigm, studied in the context of language, undergoes significant changes with the passage of time. In antiquity and in the Middle Ages a hierarchical attitude with the prior role of the man was established. In the modern era, alongside with the traditional interpretation, a version of correlation emerges: the talking bird and the man are placed on the same rank in the story about a cognitive parrot mentioned by Locke. In the beginning of the 20^th century Vossler goes even further. Creative ability serves as an evaluation criterion for him; proceeding from this he observes in man features characteristic of the parrot. However, in the structure of man conceived this way, the hierarchy of antique-medieval model is observed again.

It is an important question – what power brings people to the Revolution? Why many revolutionaries completely change their vision and ideas as soon as they reach mature years and put away their dreams to change the world and to create a new society manifesting a new culture? Why someone becomes famous after just one episode of a secret group activity while another one is forgotten by the History even remaining faithful to the youth ideals till the very end?  In this report I’ll try sort out the intricacy of the fate of one Russian woman-revolutionary and to fill up one of the gaps and return the name of a woman who dedicated her life to fighting for “happiness of all mankind” sacrificing her personal happiness, happiness of a wife and a mother.

In the article the First World War is seen as the transition from the ideology of Enlightenment to the emerging world of mass man. The specific features of this war are formulated which radically distinguish it from previous conflicts of different scale. It is shown that the First World War has discovered and tested a new control over human masses. The particular importance of the First World War for Russia is analyzed, for which it has become the beginning of the cultural catastrophe. The ideology and practice based on the belief that any person can be transformed by changing the external forms of his existence have succeeded, while the intellectual parties of opposition, particularly the KD’s aspired to democracy and respect for individual rights. After the formal end of the First World War it continued both in domestic and foreign policy of several European countries, primarily in Germany and Russia. This continuation is reflected in the labour armies, reinforced by the propaganda, in the shift from religion to ideology, in the establishment of totalitarian regimes, deriving its power from the idea of the constant struggle. At the end the First World War opened up the possibility of transition to mass man, united in humankind.

In this article the peculiarities of perception and interpretation of "The Diary of a Writer" by F. Dostoevsky are considered from historical and functional points of view in the following aspects: literary, cultural and political. The new paradigms of its study on representative examples of the latest research are identified. In the focus of modern interpretations intermedial and metadiscursive nature of Dostoevsky’s magazine, writer’s syncretism of creative thinking, the limited actuality and justification of many of his prophecies in the context of our time are substantiated. As a result, we can observe the full rehabilitation of “The Diary of a Writer” as one of the greatest works of Dostoevsky, which is remaining the standard of journalism and artistry.

The article studies topical problems of teaching philosophy at musical colleges. The author proves that the main goal for students of creative specialties to study philosophy is in offering a set of basic visions motivating to choose consciously the purpose of existence. The article consistently expands on issues of cognitive theory, ontology, sociology, axiology, aesthetics, and ethics, essential for the formation of a student’s personal and professional status. In modern conception of Russian higher education, the searches of new role and meaning of philosophy are far from being finished. The process of decreasing the subject’s teaching hours in college programmes is accompanied with students’ significant loss of interest in philosophical problematics. This drastically decreases both the learners’ general thinking culture and their inability to confront challenges of life concerning their personal identity and behaviour. The possibility to group the essential topics of European culture philosophical experience around the current aspects of a professional musician’s formation is one of the ways to increase the efficiency of teaching philosophy at a musical college.

In this article the author offers arguments in defense of the view that philosophical-historical views of K. Leontiev and his historical vocation of Russia cannot be included in the system of Eurasian views without significant restrictions. The similarity between the views of Leontiev and views of classical Eurasians 20-30-ies of the XX century is only superficial. A comparative analysis of Eurasian concepts with the views of Leontiev, taken in their systemic integrity, on the contrary, reveals the deep contradictions between them. While the Eurasians were concerned to make relevant state-political form peculiar and coherent Russian (Eurasian) culture, Leontiev claimed that Russia is a loose, amorphous and heterogeneous in cultural terms "body", the integrity of which is supported by external bonds of Russian statehood and the Church. "East project" in the process of working out which philosophical, historical and political views of Leontiev became systemic integrity, called for the creation in Russia of a new cultural and political center in Istanbul, around which in the distant future needs to encounter a fundamentally new world civilization (cultural and historical type). This civilization will unite in the synthesis of higher-order Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam, would include the Greek, Slavic, Romanian, Turkish, Persian, and other ethnic and cultural components. Russian culture and culture of other peoples of Russia will join this new civilization only along with many other ethno-cultural components. Thus, also the "East project" and the concept of the Eurasian cultural-historical specificity of Russia differ from each other in such essential traits as K. Leontiev considered as a direct predecessor of Eurasianism, in the author's opinion, hardly acceptable.

The article discusses the "lingua-cultural type" - a fairly new concept used in research conducted at the intersection of cognitive linguistics and cultural linguistics. The study of this phenomenon makes it possible to approach the understanding of the national language picture of the world and all its components. In the article the author presents the lingua-cultural description of "a bohemian man" concept, which has a number of characteristics and distinctive features, taking into consideration the Russian world view. In order to get the most complete understanding of the lingua-cultural type of "a bohemian man" in the perceptions of Russian speakers, the author conducted the following experiment: she studied the perceptual and value characteristics of “a bohemian man” image from the point of view of people of different ages, education levels and occupations.

The article discusses the features of intercultural communication process from the aspect of globalization of the modern society. Globalization creates special conditions for the interaction of different cultures. The authors highlight the idea that cultural foundations of the globalizing socie-ties are being transformed and it can even lead to certain changes in the state of mental structures of people. According to their opinion, multiple simulacra (illusory images that replace the reality and substitute traditional values) have a significant impact on the spiritual transformation of mental structures in the globalized society. In these circumstances, the global community faces the task of finding new forms of intercultural communication. The authors emphasize the fact that the most important foundation of intercultural communication is mentality (a special way of thinking and emotional reactions, allowing a person to form a complete image of the world). Then, the article analyzes two forms of intercultural communication – a monologue and a dialogue. It is noted that a monologue is based on the dominance of one of the communicating parties and leads to its cultural domination, which has a negative impact on the second participant of interaction. The most effec-tive form for the establishing cross-cultural understanding is an intercultural dialogue, which will enable the participants to maintain their mental specificities and adequately understand the partner.

The article reviews the specifics of modern business communication on the basis of English words and expressions conceptualized around the notion of business and recorded in Word Spy online dictionary of neologisms within the last three decades. The newly coined words are analyzed through extra- and intralinguistic motivators of their emergence in the language inventory, the formal and semantic composition, pragmatic properties actualized in English business discourse. As the majority of neologisms possess the metaphorical potential, their intensive use in modern business communication tends to create the uncertainty effect and through it enhance the ideological impact on the audience. Thus, with the traditional norms of business communication being violated, English professional discourse recently experiences the loss of its conventionality in favour of increased efficiency of every single communicative act.

The article continues the earlier begun research in “Ideas and Ideals” (№-s 19, 21, 23). Now we examine the ethical aspect of the music function. ‘Music contributes to the moral perfection of people’- this well-known statement we meet in a great number of scientific and literary sources from Ancient Greece (music ethos, the “kalokagathia” doctrine – unity of Beauty and Kindness) till our days. The article's task is to argue our hypothesis about the moral aspect of music, describing the mechanisms of this impact. The main idea of the hypothesis is that it is the professionalism of a composer (as a talented person) that creates moral perfection of people and personal moral values of the composer have nothing to do with this process. The masterly organized music form triggers the mechanism of moral perfection. Just “well-made” music (not any accidental sounds' connection) evokes positive emotions, which have wholesome influence on listener's moral. The beauty of music forms has influence on auditorium; music harmony (in narrow and wide senses) contributes to the development of a harmonic person. The article contains some literary examples with the author’s music analysis, which prove the hypothesis (“Mozart and Salieri”, “War and Peace”). The highest form of this music transforming function is moral purgation (catharsis) as a result of emotional “explosion” during music listening. Music catharsis confirms “The Moral Law Within Me” (Kant).