Ideas and Ideals

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.

The article analyses the text of the mystical «Revelations» of st. Birgitta and references to her “Revelations” in diplomatic correspondence during Hundred Years' War. In this text she calls on those warring parties for laying their arms down in the name of Jesus. The focus is on the argument in favor of the authenticity of the divine origin of the "Revelations" contained inside the text, and in external comments. These techniques of persuasion, as addressed to the recipient of the message, attempt to use conventional conceptions of established law. Based on a detailed analysis of how they were used, as well as how and why they were successful, we can reconstruct the role of religious elements in the legal and political relations of this era.

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.

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.

This culturological essay identifies the interpretative codes of the Orphic myth in world culture. A century ago, Innokenty Annensky astutely observed that ancient myth determines not only the material, but also the forms of our creative thought. The criterion here is not accuracy, but depth... This is the space of discoveries, revelations, foreknowledge, and existential insights. The book explores the borders of the essayistic chronotope from Alexander Pushkin and Gérard de Nerval to Vladimir Nabokov and Wystan Hugh Auden. However, the logic of the how the study unfolds is dictated not by chronology, but by associative and unpredictable links of interpretative meanings. The Orphic myth reveals how the old truth and its new artistic and philosophical understanding can be linked together.

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.