Philosophy and Culture - rubric Meaning and silence

Abstract: The object of this research is one of the most important and relevant questions of Hesychast controversy that took place on Byzantine Empire in the XIV century, namely the meaning and correlation of the two approaches towards cognition of the divine reality – vision of God and apophatic theology, reviewed from gnoseological and existential perspective. The subject of this research is the discussion of Gregory Palamas with Barlaam, in the course of which had established and crystalized his views upon the role and place of the apophatic theology in work of the experienced contemplation of God. Using the phenomenological and analytical method, the author examines the problem of interrelation of these distinct methods of the cognition of God, which results in conclusion on the existence of the two opposite approaches towards the practice of spiritual and thinking activity of a human. The article demonstrates the distinctness of the apophaticism of Hesychasm, which is different from the traditional Christian apophatic theology, as well as a specific role of the religious experience. The author analyzes the crucial for Palamas criterion between the essence and energy of mind and his doctrine about theosis. The author underlines the close connection between the gnoseological and anthropological problematic, because the possibility of cognition of God directly depends on the way of human existence, which includes not only his intellectual and emotional spheres, but also the corporeal practices. It is noted that there are elements of spiritual succession between the Byzantium Hesychasm and the Russian religious philosophy that gained momentum on the basis of the unified Eastern Christian traditions. The article also examines the question of expression of mystical experience, which is connected with the problem of religious and metaphysical authority. The conclusion is made that Palamas’ clarification of mind outgrows the initial ethical-psychological level, and reveals its essence in gnoseological and ontological dimension.

Keywords: apophatic theology, knowledge of God, Gregory Palamas, Byzantic philosophy, palamism, Hesychasm, theosis, asceticism, mysticism, vision of God

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2018.7.26862

Abstract: The object of this philosophical-theological research is the Indo-Tibetan and Chinese traditions of Mahayana in the aspect of conceptualization of the Path: a comparison is drawn according to the method of posing and solving of the problem of “gradual”/ “sudden” path, conceptualization of correlation between the “gradual” and “sudden”. The author analyzes the place of “sudden” (“quick” or “straight”) methods of achieving enlightenment in the Indo-Tibetan Mahayana; describes the controversy of “gradual” and “sudden” in the Chinese Buddhism and its origins in the traditional patterns of Chinese thought; reveals the meaning of the notions “gradual” and “sudden”. The article applies the comparative historical-philosophical methodology and cross-cultural method of philosophical research of Buddhism based on the principle of coupling of the “external” academic approach and “internal” approach of the representatives of classical Buddhism learnedness. The scientific novelty is associated with the choice of a subject of comparative philosophical study, with the applied cross-cultural philosophical method that alongside the academic standards of scientific rationality takes into consideration the Buddhist criteria of philosophical rationalism. A conclusion is made that the two main traditions of Mahayana – the Into-Tibetan and the Chinese have significant differences in conceptualization of the Path, as well as solution of the problem of “gradual” path / “sudden” path, understanding of their interrelation that allows stating that in a certain sense they are the alternative strategies of achieving of one and the same soteriological goal of Mahayana – the state of Buddha.

Keywords: Tantra, Swift Path, Sudden Path, Gradual Path, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Mahayana, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, Ch'an, Daosheng

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2018.1.23352

Abstract: This article is dedicated to examination of the process of origination and development of the concept of tolerance in Germany. The first occurrence of the theoretically substantiated views on tolerance, in the sense of religious tolerance, took place at the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. Germany plays an important role in this process due to the heated discussions in the questions of natural law, which is considered the foundation for resolving the questions of tolerance attitude towards the adherents of different faith. The views of Christian Thomasius represent a particular interest in this regard, as we can observe a sustainable trend to justification of the credentials of secular authorities in resolving the religious disputes based on the formulated by him principles of natural law. Thus, Thomasius can be referred as the ancestor of the traditional comprehension of tolerance. Although, within the Russian research space, the heritage of Thomasius are utterly weak, the West, and especially Germany, marks a growing interest towards studying the thinker’s works, primarily the natural law views and comprehension of tolerance. The author underlines that Thomasius suggests the social structure, in which the tolerant attitude will be guaranteed by the norms of secular (rather than religious) law. At the same time, even in this fairly secularized version, we can notice a number of substantial peculiarities of the phenomenon of tolerance, the principal of which is the Christian spirit. In essence, tolerance was perceived as a new form of Evangelization, based not on the forcible conversion, but the personal example of moral life that is impossible without the neighborly love. Therefore, a conclusion can be made that tolerance is a cultural phenomenon that could establish only in the Christian Europe at certain stage of its development, due to which it is inaccurate to apply this concept to the other cultural regions alongside the ancient polytheistic societies.

Keywords: secular monarch, commandment of love, Christian doctrine, evangelization, secularization, Early Enlightenment, Christian Thomasius, tolerance, Natural Law, religion

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2018.6.26078

Abstract: This article determines the philosophical aspects of translation, which as demonstrated, relate to the problem of the identity of meaning. This problem has not been successfully resolved in the logical semantics. The author criticizes the “theory of expression”, according to which a thought (meaning) is formed at the pre- and extra-linguistic level, while merely being expressed in the language; as well as the “paradigm of name”: perception that the main function of language expressions is the denotement of a subject, that the world as such divides into the subjects, properties, actions independently of the language. The article analyzes and compares the existed in classical philosophy and present in modern philosophy approaches towards the problems of understanding, meaning of the text, correlation of mind and language. The author advocates the theory that translation always means interpretation. It can be realize at various levels: denotation, connotation, intertextual connections, etc. As the meaning of text generally is a “thing-in-itself”, because the meaning does not exists before and besides its expressions, we cannot compare different translations with a certain absolute standard. Thus, there do not exist the absolute criteria of an unequivocally accurate translation. The interaction of semantic worlds can bring out the new shades of meaning.

Keywords: interpretation, connotation, naming paradigm, theory of expression, thought, language, translation, sense, text, intertextual connections

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.1.21326

Abstract: The subject of this research is the nontraditional theatrical-staged form of production of the spectacles of the French equestrian theatre “Zingaro”. Its originality consists in the fact that psychedelic distraction from one realty forms a different – atmospheric-association reality. This happens through the creation of audiovisual plastic-demonstrative mises-en-scène (placing on stage), which do not have a direct cause-and-effect relation, as it is common to the traditional production. The logic of narration of the plot is formed by the virtue of theoretical sequence of the precisely selected associations, caused by the action-plastic character of structuring the mises-en-scène. Namely them provide an opportunity for this demonstrative-staged theatrical form to transform the Reality. Such transformation changes the perception itself. This is a philosophical-psychological theatre. During the demonstration of “Zingaro” perforamces emerges a steady (associative) connection with subconsciousness of a spectator, which uses the potential of human mind to finishing (gestalt) of the incomplete images, theoretically shapes the chain of storyline and action collisions (mises-en-scène) into a certain logically proven notional concept that forms the imagery-artistic wholeness (completion) of a theatrical oeuvre and the corresponding structure (sequence) of its perception. It would be appropriate to pursue analogy with teleportation (in sense of the form of certain psychological effect), which serves as a conductor into the “world of recalls”. Thus, the audience is able to journey into the psycho-emotional essence of the “imaginary” reality. The Reality is viewed through the projection of “existence” in a completely new, and earlier uncharacteristic to it, perspective.

Keywords: Archetype model, Religious existentialism, Theatrical performance, Situational-action modulation, Existential-psychoemotional abstraction, Demonstrative-action line , Imagery-conceptual context, Atmospheric-associative reality, Dramaturgical modelling of associations, Staged-demonstrative form

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.9.23929

Abstract: This article is dedicated to interpretation of the word glamour in the scientific research literature and its transformed perception by mass consciousness. The latter is associated with history of the word, in the process of formation and spread of which have established the following divisions: gnoseological, due to the loss of meaning as a cognitive-educational process; ontological, substantiated by the gap between the reality and imaginary glamorous world; and axiological that led to the shift of accents in the value scale of an individual dreaming about entering the world of glamour. At the same time, the aforementioned divisions appeared to be unknown and unnoticeable for the mass audience. The indicated issue is viewed based on the hermeneutic and phenomenological methods, which help specifying the peculiarities of the modern understanding of the word glamour. For the first time, the history of the word glamour is considered through the prism of gnoseological, ontological, and axiological divisions, which somewhat united its conceptual content. The work keeps the connotations identified with the magic and enchantment that lie in the foundation of comprehension by mass audience. As a rule, glamour is interpreted as a word of magic and miracles; a continuous celebration, which makes any person involved in it charming and delighted. The material can be used in further research of the glamour as a sociocultural phenomenon alongside its various manifestations.

Keywords: consumption for show, ontological division, luxury, myth, epistemological break, enchantment, axiological division, grammar, glamour, magic

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.1.68578

Keywords: Archetype model, Religious existentialism, Theatrical performance, Situational-action modulation, Existential-psychoemotional abstraction, Demonstrative-action line, Imagery-conceptual context, Atmospheric-associative reality, Dramaturgical modelling of associations, Staged-demonstrative form

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.3.14726

Abstract: The subject of the research is a semantic field of culture, as well as transient and qualitative changes observed in it. A modern global crisis is interpreted as the consequence of implementation of the idea of narrowing of a semantic field of culture. Multiple cultural phenomena of the last century indicate a change of a tendency and a turn to the expansion of a semantic field. The transitional process that has already begun is viewed by the author as a big semantic shift – an utmost shift towards infinite number of meanings. As an example of this semantic infinity a new technique of canonical Orthodox iconography – Kuznetsov icon painting – is given. The special feature of this technique is the exclusive use of an ornament and a colour dots. The author considers Kuznetsov icon painting as the end of the searching of non-figurativeness in visual art that has begun in neoimpressionism and Russian avant-garde, the supplementation of non-figurativeness of forms with the non-figurativeness of colour. The method of comparative analysis of different cultural phenomena in their projections on the semantic field of culture and the method of analogies were used in the research. The novelty of the study is in the interpretation of the phenomena of modern culture and in particular Kuznetsov icon painting as visual embodiment of semantic vacuum – environment with infinite number of meanings. The main conclusion of the study is the indication of the transitional process in the semantic field of culture as an utmost shift towards infinite number of meanings – a large semantic shift. The cultural and anthropological crises receive new hope for their solution being viewed from a large semantic shift perspective.

Keywords: Icon, Yuri Kuznetsov’s icon painting, Pointillism, Sign, Meaning, Essence, Crisis, Semantic transition, Figurative, Nonfigurative, icon, Kuznetsov icon painting, pointillism, sign, meaning, sense, crisis, semantic shift, figurativeness, non-figurativeness

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.3.67728

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.6.12050

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.6.65123

Abstract: One of the features of Russian poetry of the XXth century is a different attitude to the relation between voice and silence compared to what it was in Russian classical literature. In the XIXth century people were silent but kept ‘the word within themselves’ as Russian writers thought. In the XXth century people became absolutely voiceless. Was is a consequence of a ‘long historical slavery’ Alexander Herzen warned about or a result of Bolshevik transformation of the Russian world based on totalitarian grounds? Voice and silence as an expression of the national spirit are studied by the author of the article by using the methodology of ‘understanding and compassion discovery of the internal tendencies and singularity’ (Semyon Frank’s quotation). As a result, the phenomenon of Ann Akhmatova’s poetry is being studied as a result of the collective silence and collective talking of the Poet and the People. By comparing Akhmatova’s poems with the poetry of Osip Mandelstam and the prose of Andrey Platonov from this point of view, the author of the article defines the common features and the differences that have never been mentioned by other researchers.

Keywords: poet, people, poetry, power, creativity, voice, silence, history, social consciousness, Akhmatova.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.8.19448

Abstract: The goal of this article is to examine the modern myth about glamor from the perspective of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy. Glamorous myth along with all mythical as a whole, possess the three structural components – form of thought, contemplation, and life that reveals its content. It also aestheticizes the being, in which we can observe manifestation of the sacred, miraculous, and divine that encourages avoidance of reality. The myth becomes an eternal symbolic form, which encompasses glamorous narratives that makes it impossible to distinguish between the real and fictional. The author reveals that the traditional laws of mythopoeia (participation, metamorphose, similarity, identification of image and thing, antithesis of sacred and secular) are also present in modernity, acquiring glamorous modality. The three-part structure of a myth highlighted by E. Cassirer allows analyzing the contemporary glamorous narratives, in which the main characters are the archetypes of ancient gods.

Keywords: form of life, secular, sacred, form of meditation, form of thought, Ernst Cassirer, myth, glamor, staging, archetype

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.8.68138

Keywords: form of life, secular, sacred, form of meditation, form of thought, Ernst Cassirer, myth, glamor, staging, archetype

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.10.12496

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.10.65539

Abstract: The article is devoted to the phenomenon of cultural trauma as a reflection of the collective identity crisis experiencing by the society under the conditions of its modernization ‘transit’ to the industrial stage of development. Overcoming of the social crisis and restoration of the previous identity or acquiring a new identity are shown as a unique traumatic process that has its own logic of development and affects, first of all, the central system of values and the institutional system of society. According to the author, without the analysis of the socio-cultural trauma it would be impossible to develop relevant ‘coping strategies’, i.e. particular patterns used by the society to overcome this trauma. Speaking of the methods used in the present research, it is necessary to note that in addition to Edward Shils’ concept of ‘center and periphery’, for the first time in academic literature the author analyzes Piotr Sztompka’s concept of cultural trauma as one of the methodological bases for studying socio-cultural dynamics of modernization in general and imperial modernization of Russia in particular. According to the author, analysis of Russian philosophical and philosophical-legal heritage of the second half of the XIXth –beginning of the XXth centuries (involving the following ‘immigrants’ decades as well) will allow to see efforts of Russian philosophers to ‘see, understand and present’ to the society the cultural traumas experienced by them, ‘coping strategies’ of dealing with these traumas including active (‘cultural –creative’) and passive (‘ritualistic’) strategies. Even though those efforts did not play the essential role in society’s understanding of ongoing social transformations, today they allow us to better understand the ‘hidden flows’ of the socio-cultural development of the imperial modernization of Russia.

Keywords: cultural trauma, collective identity crisis, modernization theory, transformation of values, system of values of society, institutional system of society, coping strategies, the age of changes, social crisis, transition epoch.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2013.12.10317

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2013.12.63608

Abstract: The topic of research is the phenomenon of ‘zero identity’ – the term which was first described in post-modernistic literature. The word ‘identity’ and other terms that have a close meaning have been long developing in Western philosophy from Ancient times to modern analytical philosophy. Groups of people who managed to acquire at least some unity have eventually survived much better than the groups that did not acquire it. Based on Alvin Toffler, all societies have so called ‘mental sphere’ that covers social ideas and concepts starting from formation of communities and identities. Thus, the concept of ‘relation’ or ‘commonality’ and the process of identification with others are the main fundamental links between all human systems. The author of the article uses the methodological principle of hermeneutic analysis in the course of research. Writings of other researchers allow to successively proceed to the final phenomenology of ‘zero identity’. The author also provides a critical analysis of the concepts evolving around the term ‘zero identity’. He argues with other researchers who consider ‘zero identity’ as complete absence of content. Whereupon, it is possible to understand the phenomenon of zero identity only from the point of view of individual and group identities. This is the new approach offered by the author. According to the author, zero identity has particular content. Zero identity can present disintegration of individual and group identities or numerous identities.

Keywords: ethnocentrism, philosophy, identity, culture, religion, sub-culture, marginality, nationalism, multiculturalism, psychology.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.12.13104

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.12.65972

Abstract: Discussions about the idea of the commonness of human history have been going on for the past century. In this article Voronin raises this question again and offers a mental experiment when he tries to imagine what the fate of civilization would be like if we unconditionally adopt the ‘common history aim’ doctrine. The subject of research is the sources of this idea in different cultures and minds of individuals living in different times and different ‘countries’. Voronin tries to prove that the idea of the unity is ambivalent. The research method is the mental experiment performed in the genre of ‘fantasy’ using techniques of defamiliarization and broken collage composition. The article contains both the proof and disproof of the idea of the common history, moreover, the latter is closely connected with the former and even result from them. According to the author, both approaches to history have had many variants and their contradictory relation creates the grounds for both the development and degradation of civilizations. The main conclusion made by the researcher is that there is certainly a problem but no solution has been found so far, therefore new discussions are necessary.