Ideas and Ideals

The article identifies the social-philosophical roots of neoliberal ideology, which as a project is in a very strong position in today's globalizing world. Classic authors of the neo-liberal approach are Western scholars Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek, who developed the concept of "open society" ("extended order"), where the reference methodological designs are hard anthropocentrism, evolutionism and market relations. According to theorists of neoliberalism, the meaning of the historical process as a movement from "closed society", support for which was made by the collectivist structure, to the "open society", where relations of exchange based on individual aspirations and initiative are at the forefront. From this follows the introduction of a number of concepts, turning into a neo-liberal ideology – individual freedom, a market. The article shows the limited explanatory possibilities of the theory of Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek, as well as the abstractness of the mentioned ideologies that often forces neo-liberal leaders to resort to double standards in the course of political practice. However, the strength of neoliberal tenets are not in scientific, but in their class nature that makes them useful as expressions of the interests of leading social groups.

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.

The author considers the degradation of peasant labour culture in the Soviet kolkhozes, which still affects the modern village. Peasantry is presented as the community of rural inhabitants occupied with crop growing and cattle breeding who possess socio-cultural legacy of ancestors. The author highlights the idea, that traditional culture of peasant labour in Russia was very high. To prove the fact, the examples from the research work of classical writers of the Russian history, ethnographers’, foreigners’ evidence about Russia and the Russian folklore are given in the article. According to the author the policy of collectivization led to the socio-cultural degradation of the traditional labour culture of peasants. The absence of private property, material and moral interests as well as super-exploitation of peasants by the state, low-paid work, cultural revolution and "equal rights" for everybody were the main factors, which led to degradation. And as the result, such phenomena as low productivity of labour, economic indifference, imitation of labour were formed and all the previously mentioned factors led to moral degradation. The author supports the formulated conclusions with the testimonies of former peasants which have been collected in the new scientific genre "oral history". In the opinion of eyewitnesses of collectivization and the author of the article for the modern village recovery it is necessary to give peasants private property and freedom of creativity.

The paper analyses how the set of images and events in the poem “Dionysiaca” by Nonnus of Panopolis reflects the ancient notion of time. The immortal gods of Olympus abide in eternity; however they have to reckon with the earth time and the order of things. Nevertheless, the time of the gods and the time of human beings are represented by different gods: Chronos and Aion, respectively. The original ancient gods, Phanes, Chaos, Chronos, can claim to be fully independent of the time of the mortal, and they abide in a sort of “timelessness” rather than eternity. Thus, there are three positions in relation to time: timelessness – complete independence from time of ancient gods, immortality, and eternity. At the same time, there is Olympic gods’ involvement in the earth time and complete subordination to the laws of the earth time on the part of the mortal. Dionysus is characterized by a spiral pattern of time. Zagreus, Dionysus, Iovakh are both a single whole and different. They are the past, the present and the future. Events in their lives are repeated, but not precisely. The above corresponds to the Platonic interpretation of time, and substantial similarity can be noticed.

Principles of the formal structure of the axiological system are analyzed in the article. Ideology is considered as a variant of this system. It proved that political ideology unites all other options are ideological constructions, including the value of the right of submission. It is shown that the elemental composition corresponds to the structure of the political ideology of the political relationship. The formal structure of political ideology allows for meaningful interpretation and samples historical types of political value judgments are given in the paper.

The article tells about a base anthropological conflict between properly human indefinite and free integral part and his/her biological animal nature. The conflict is the fact, that having anxiety and fear of excess of their anthropogenic freedom, people create corporate culture for recovering their biological balance broken by freedom. In this context, culture is a try of reviving of animal natural state harmony. A great number of symbols and ideas sacralized by culture serve to this purpose. But freedom cannot exist with the normative construction. All unpredictable dynamics of human history is based on the continuing process of the conflict.

The author attempts to explain the changes taking place in different historical periods in the private and public spheres of social life. The content of these transformations is described as social privatization. The direction of social privatization is defined as the movement of the society towards de-politicization, de-socialization and privatization (ochastnivaniye). The author provides the examples of changes, the essence of which is social privatization; he also considers a decrease of civic activity of the population, the emergence of fenced and quasi-public spaces and turning of the state into a private corporation. The author argues that social privatization can act as a mechanism by which individuals and groups are trying to adapt to adverse changes in the social environment. Socially dangerous consequences of social privatization are characterized by the inability and unwillingness of people to hear and see each other, to carry out collective and cooperative activities in the public interest. The book is intended for sociologists, social philosophers, historians, graduate students and students of social theory, sociology of management, sociology, state and law, sociology of the city.

The book contains the articles of a well-known Russian philosopher; M. A. Rozov (1930-2011) devoted to the problems of culture perception, understanding of the social life of people, the issues of philosophical ethics and anthropology. The author developed an original theoretical apparatus for the analysis of complex cultural, historical and social phenomena (the so-called "reflection systems"). Thanks to the theory of “social relays” developed by him, the author was able to offer a non-trivial approach to consider the so-called problems of human life’s meaning. In his philosophical and journalistic works the author considers the problems of space-time existence of a human being, axiological questions of regulation of human activities and behavior, the relationship of scientific knowledge and values. The author analyzes the specifics of existence and reproduction of philosophy in modern Russia, the difficulty of teaching the principles and techniques of philosophical thinking. The book also presents essays, memories of famous Russian philosophers written by M. A. Rozov to various anniversaries and events. Some of the works have never been published yet. The book is designed for philosophers, culture experts, historians, as well as teachers, students and graduate students specializing in the field of philosophy of culture, ethics and philosophical anthropology.

The monograph was prepared by the author in the English version [The Information Resonance in Social System: Monograph / V.I. Ignatyev - Novosibirsk: NSTU Publisher, 2016. - 287 pp.] by the order of the Novosibirsk State Technical University with the aim of expanding overseas readership of NSTU Publishing.   The reason which inspired the author to present his view on the role of information in the modern world was a premonition of a new revolution in social theory, the desire to acquaint the reader with ideas, which stimulated the author in recent years to publish articles on the effects of information taking place in the social structure. The author believes that the fundamental social theories potential of the last half of the past century, is largely exhausted. The transformation of information into the substance of the society requires a revision of the ontological foundations of the modern social theories. The author proposes to discuss a new social ontology - the information ontology.

The artcile considers the Max Weber's interpretation of the interrelations between economy and religion. The concept of «elective affinities» which played one the central roles in explaining complex correlations between the material culture and the religious experience is in the focus. The article argues that Goethe's famous novel «Die Wahlerwanschaften» (1809) and various critical replies do help to understand better the logic of Weber’s essay “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1905). In addition, this interpretation gives an opportunity to show the formal similarities and the content differences of the role of Protestantism and Old Belief (Schism of the Russian Orthodox Church) in the economic modernization of Europe and Russia.