Ideas and Ideals

The article is devoted to the role of modern culture in the situation of permanent reforms. This is an understanding of the problem identified by Orekhovsky P. A. and Razumov V. I. in the journal “Ideas and Ideals” at the end of 2021. The author continues the discussion about the consequences of the spread of “narcissistic culture” in different areas of life. The author of the article studies the problem from the standpoint of a systematic approach. This methodology allows us to see the built-in social changes in the structure of the social system, the stabilizing role of culture as a “supersystem”. Such a methodological position excludes the possibility of criticizing the system from within, being one of its structures. Instead of critical analysis, a humanistic-semantic one is proposed, based on understanding, explanation, prognostication.

The methodological complex is built on the combinatorics of the humanistic-semantic, constructivist, systemic approach. The author proves the thesis of the all-penetrating nature and the stabilizing role of culture in modern managerial processes of updating the subsystems of society. The methods of the constructivist approach help to explain the distribution of new social roles. Society is differentiated into reformers (dominant actors) and those who are subject to reform (statistical actors). The theatrical terminology of the dramatic approach explains the playful meaning of social actions. The main game of the reformers is a “mousetrap”. It reveals the ‘pure’ qualities of the initiators of the reforms. The author studies the social roles and the specifics of their distribution in the processes of reformation.

The article considers the processes of reforming and reformation. Differences in the meanings, goals and tools of these processes are shown. Reforming is a social process based on the principles of humanism and justice. Reformation is a game which action takes place on the ‘fields of attraction’of discourses. Reformism is defined as a fashion for reform, for novelty, a trend for constant renewal of the structures of the society system. The goal is to receive benefits and advantages from the social position of the reformers. This is a game of dominant actors defending the right to change the rules of the game, access to resources. Reformation does not lead to the solution of social problems, exacerbates the course of socio-cultural processes. The risks from the consequences of reformation are anomie, social changes of a traumatic nature which all relevant actors feel, regardless of their dominance in the ‘fields of attraction’.

The system is brought into balance by culture with its system-forming functions that provide normative order. Using the techniques of integral sociology, the author shows the stabilizing role of the value core of culture in the life of the ‘society’ system.

The “ruins” of cultural institutions have become the subject of sustained academic interest today. Traditional ideas about the educational mission of museums, the principles of museum exhibits are a thing of the past, are essentially rethought, replaced by new formats. The article aims to analyze the trends that have emerged in museum practice in the last decade. One of them is the actualization of the principles of museum criticism as a developing interdisciplinary field.

The gap between museum theory and practice has been considered and discussed many times. The 3rd issue of the journal “Ideas and Ideals” for 2021 published texts united in the heading “Museum in Contemporary Culture” and allowed to speak about the unity of views [3, 8, 16]. One cannot but agree with the opinion of the authors that museum criticism, along with criticism of art, literature, music (as, finally, restaurant or sports), predetermines various cultural priorities and extremely problematizes the sphere of taste preferences. In this regard, the need for critically informed practice takes on a pragmatic aspect. It is on this basis that a new idea is formulated about the possibilities of interaction between a professional museum worker and a modern visitor. The postulation of the significance of the “critical approach” in the professional self-determination of the museum is of fundamental importance. It is internal criticism as a necessary corrective factor that makes it possible to maintain the academic status of museology as an independent field of scientific activity.

This research in the area of social philosophy is a creation of an integrative theory, which addresses the question of what makes a marriage a lasting marriage. Sources of information are scientific results of different specialists in the field of close relationships and marriage. In the process of research and reflection, the following social-scientific theory arose: the dynamic of a lasting marriage is realised through such drivers as Meaning, Love, Commitment, Trust and Ritual. This dynamic is realised by interaction of these drivers. Love constitutes the foundation for all close relationships. The metaphysical basis, meaning, is necessary for the emergence and existence of commitment. Commitment fosters and encourages love as an attitude. Ritual is commitment expressed by actions and is responsible for loving actions. The most vivid and experimental of them is the sex act, in which all drivers of the dynamic of a lasting marriage are realised practically. It takes meaning from the highest purposes, such as morals, expediency, duty. Sex is an expression of love, and its repetition again and again is indeed a ritual. And in order to support the exclusivity, frequency and custom of this love and ritual commitment is crucial. For full realisation of sexual intimacy, which arises from love, ritual and commitment, we need trust. This way the sex act is an existential means for the interaction of all drivers of a lasting marriage.

            Contribution of this work consists in unifying already studied and known drivers into a joint structure, where each of them in its own right contributes to emergence, maintenance and strengthening of close relationships.

The newness of this research consists in the dynamics of interaction which creates an existential structure which maintains and fosters a lasting marriage, as an emerging property.

Philosophy of love as a subfield of moral philosophy and history of philosophy questions the very foundations of how people love each other. Within the philosophical debate, not only the sources of love but forms and types are questioned. Does the source of love correspond to a concrete form of love? What is the difference between parental love and friendship love? What is the main difference between romantic love and the abovementioned? A philosopher from Chicago, Raja Halwani made a methodological and pithy impact in the debate. On the one hand, his main achievement in the recent debates is the distinction between two kinds of love: romantic love 1 and romantic love 2. Halwani notes that the main disagreement among philosophers stems from the fact that philosophers usually don’t see this difference. And if philosophers would keep this difference in mind, it would clarify our debates. On the other hand, professor Halwani doesn’t propose a conceptual novelty but interestingly refines the current debates on love’s aspects. These debates are debates concerning the main characteristics of love and how we can defend these characteristics. Halwani clarifies the central concepts of romantic love such as “constancy”, “exclusivity”, “uniqueness”, “irreplaceability”. The philosopher devoted special attention to reflections upon how exactly we can apply existing moral theories to love. At the end of the article, an attempt is made to compound many of Halwani’s statements about RL1 and RL2 in a unified table.

This article examines the texts of the Indo-European tradition, which narrate about the myths of the origin of peoples. Thus, a segment of the Anglo-Saxon runic series correlates with Tacitus’s description of the origin of the Ingevon tribe. As a result, the parameters of the ethnically derived text are reconstructed. The parameters explain the choice of the sequence of the runes of the Anglo-Saxon Futhark. The restored text testifies that the Ingevons, who had the totem deity Ing, lived on the shores of the Ocean, and this was their homeland. Ethnogonic texts also tell about the correlation of totem and ethnonym in past eras. The German influence on the choice of the ethnonym Rus, determined by the alliterative connection of the name of the country with the name of Rurikovich, has been explained. The Rurikovich themselves came from the name of the Rhos tribe.

Many ethnogonic texts are associated with sacrificial rituals. In this context, of interest is the name Italia, which takes its origin in the sacred texts of the high sacred style. The most ancient Indo-European inscription in the Lusitanian language, written in a high style and telling about the origin of the Veaminikori tribe, is analyzed. The choice of the names of sacred animals is contrasted with the profane names of the Latin prayer to the god Mars. The suouetaurilia prayer bears witness to the repertoire of sacrificial texts about dairy animals. As a result, it becomes clear that the name Italy is derived from the name uitulus in a high sacred style.

Thus, the thematic contours of Indo-European texts containing ethnogonic myths about the origin of peoples are revealed. The boundaries between cultures are erased, and the Indo-European prototext comes to the fore, giving impetus to the genesis of ethnonyms, the naming of totems, as well as the names of their own tribal leaders.

Thus, we can conclude that the sacred names of young dairy animals are represented in the Lusitanian language. In the rite of sacrifice, the scale of high style is attested. The name Italia refers precisely to the solemn sacred layer of vocabulary, but already as the implicit name of a Latin prayer to the god Mars.

In the proportions of a proper name, rules for handling a name are incorporated, which vary from tradition to tradition. Attention is drawn to the special nature of ethnogonic texts that shed light on the origin of peoples. Cultural boundaries can be the limit that generates recognizable patterns that migrate from culture to culture.

The research attempts at solving the problem of tolerance compatibility with Orthodox values. The concept of tolerance arouses ambiguous feelings in Russia. A fairly common point of view is that tolerance is recognized exclusively as a Western value, being completely foreign to the Orthodox tradition. The article analyzes different approaches to the concept of tolerance and reveals its key meanings. As for the very concept of tolerance, the author agrees with those researchers who argue for this term to be clarified, since tolerance cannot be reduced only to being patient. Patience must be supplemented by the recognition of the ‘other’ as an equal. The analysis substantiates the argument that the real recognition of the ‘other’ and a different system of values as well as otherness as such is possible only in the format of a dialogue.  The article reveals the ontological essence of love and examines the Orthodox understanding of love, which is opposed to tolerance by its critics. For the analysis of the Orthodox viewpoint the author relies on the patristic heritage, primarily on the works of the pillar of Orthodoxy, the monk Maximus the Confessor as well as St. Theophan the Recluse and others. The process of comparing a tolerant position with a love-based strategy of behavior reveals some points of convergence, such as: respect for the other, recognition of his right to be himself, refusal of violence against the individual, refusal to look at a person as a means to solve their own problems, irreducibility of a person to his beliefs or behavior. At the same time, the research leads to the conclusion that there is a significant difference between tolerance and love, with this difference being related to a diverse view of human nature.  From the Orthodox point of view, love as a life position is a view of a person as a being endowed with spirituality that determines one’s essence. This is a view of man as a potentially divine being, while tolerance views man as a representative of the human race whose life is limited to the earthly matters. The author substantiates the conclusion about the meaninglessness of contrasting tolerance and love, since these concepts reflect the stages of a person’s spiritual ascent, whose top is love.

The article draws attention to the fact that the phenomenon of marginality is the formation of one's own environment, although not completely dissolving into it. Traditional culture goes into the "basements" of society or manifests itself in the life and mentality of marginals. In a society affected by crisis, several cultural trajectories collide: descending, ascending and, for the marginalized, breaking traditional ties and creating their own, completely different world. In fact, marginality is the third culture, a special socio-cultural state. The article discusses its corresponding components.

The prerequisites of global transformation are considered. The situation in Europe begins to change fundamentally at the turn of the I-II millennia. The formation of the era of European Transformation can begin with the XI-XIII centuries, when "Catholic" Europe appears. Phenomenal in its results was the "Renaissance of the XII century", the first truly pan-European Revival at the origins of the era of Transformation. With this, the movement towards a High Renaissance began. The Crusades (XI-XIII centuries) are particularly highlighted. After the Crusades, two variants of capitalism become promising and predominant in Europe and North America, and then their slow convergence continues.

The XIII century became a milestone for contemporaries. On the one hand, Europe, it would seem, reached the end of history by creating some kind of optimal model. On the other hand, the reverse side of the idea of the "end of history" became clearly visible. The Mongols, having captured most of Eurasia, reformatted the ethno-political space. In this century, capitalist Europe is born, in fact, as a special development option.

Highlighting the era of transformation does not mean that we should abandon the usual division of European history into known periods: antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times. This periodization successfully emphasizes social and economic aspects and provides a chronological understanding of transitional processes. The era of Transformation is more voluminous, since we are talking about the transition from a centuries-old traditional society to a new stage of human development.

Neither the Renaissance nor the Reformation created a new culture, the so-called bourgeois culture will have many faces, both international and national. The main thing is seen in the liberation of man from the former powerful civilizational model, Latin-Christian, i.e. Imperial-ecclesiastical, and ultimately - in the formation of a new type of man.

Abstract

The article is devoted to researching Islamic professional oral music. Maqam is the most high form of this, its conception is spiritual catharsis. Maqam is a chain of ascending parts, each of them elaborating on the main theme of the music. It progresses to a culmination and then descends to the cuitial stage. Maqam’s spiritual contents are the sorrow of love in the form of improvisation first of all, but also songs and dances. Maqam unites dramatic and lyrical characters. Every maqam has its own semantic canon, which is actualized by means of the deepest research of human feelings. Semantic and structure canons connect with the performer’s liberty in emotional detail. Maqam represents a peculiar type of authority (not in absolute form of composer’s art) and is based on classical orient poetry. The highest form of maqam is instrumental (without singing), which expresses the character of its singing-instrumental “parent”. The maqam’s performers must have a special complement of musical abilities and study in music empirient schools. It is necessary to mark particular antithesises, which illustrate a “emotion–ratio” relation in macam’s dramaturgy: passionate contents and strict verified form; originality and canon; euphoria and self-control of a performer; melody and polyphony (instruments imitate singing). Maqam represents a penetrating, “endless” melody with its ability to develop. The elite character of maqam’s genesis and contemporary democracy of the genre are explored, as well as the relations between two forms of maqam: maqam-tune and maqam-genre.

The development of digital technologies creates the conditions for a new stage in the development and dissemination of audio culture. Radio plays have been replaced by audiobooks, audio podcasts, and audio series. The book market is experiencing an "audio explosion". There is a steady growth of interest in audiobooks, which compete with musical content. The authors of the article turn to the study of the current state of the culture of the "audible word". This article examines the audiobook reading of student readers, who were socialized under the conditions of the large-scale spread of digital technologies. The aim of the research: to consider audioreading in the context of leisure and educational practices of young people. The study is based on theoretical approaches that consider the phenomenon of audio consumption in modern media (V.Y. Bal', M.Y. Gudova, J.P. Melentieva, V. Erlmann, W. Hagen, A. Kassabian, J.F. Lehmann). The study examined students' perceptions of audiobook reading, its place in leisure and educational practices. The authors conducted a sociological study (December 2020) with the participation of 85 students in order to identify the perceptions of audiobook reading. Qualitative methodology of analysis of answers to open-ended questions was used for the study. The design questionnaire included questions on preferred types of reading, use of audiobook reading in educational and leisure practices, reasons for interest in audiobook reading and possibilities of audiobook reading as a type of educational content. The study identified students' preferences in the choice of book format (paper, electronic, audiobooks), students' ideas about the reasons for wide distribution of audiobooks, advantages and limitations of audiobooks, convenient contexts for daily life, practices of using audiobooks in educational and leisure activities. The authors consider the potential of audiobooks in the organization of educational and leisure activities of students.

The COVID-19 pandemic refreshes the view of urban spaces as objects of consumption. The article describes the constituent elements of urban space and the process of human interaction with it, mediated by sign-symbolic perception. The socio-philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of consumption as a phenomenon developing within the framework of understanding the praxeological relationship of human to world is presented. The study contains a synthesis of several modern concepts based on a sociocultural approach. Based on the concept of A. Warde, the author proposes that consumption be seen as a process that is a moment in the many practices of everyday life which is characterized by evaluation, use and appropriation. The act of consumption is viewed as an internally-oriented, goal-rational human behavior aimed at achieving emotional experiences, as a part of the self-determination of the individual (G. Schulze). The conceptual link explaining the articulation between emotion and consumption is to be found in the notion of “imagination”, understood, following E. Illouz, as the socially situated deployment of cultural fantasies. In everyday practices of the development of urban spaces by man, a combination of creation and use is found, which seems to be possible to conceptualize through the moment of appropriation, in the course of the act of consumption, considered as secondary production (M. de Certeau). Changes in everyday practices and human attitudes towards urban spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic are analyzed based on domestic and foreign research. The possibility of consolidating new forms of everyday practices is comprehended. Strengthening of a person's intrasubjective orientation is stated.