Philosophy and Culture - rubric Theological foundations of being

Abstract: Resume: the article is devoted to the key process of the modern culture, - confluence of the two types of self-comprehension (as the hero and non-hero) and transformation of the traditional teleology. If the traditional theme of the European “heroic” culture was to become like gods, the new teleology needed new purposes and goals since it was completely non-metaphysical. When such mythological quests became quite popular in the European culture back in the 19th century, the new meaning was found in mythological creatures such as vampires and werewolves. Thus, “non-life” or factual animality became the final point of the human development instead of becoming god or super man.

Keywords: philosophy, self-idolization, immortality, death, super man, animality, collectivism, personalism, vampire, werewolf.

Abstract: Review: the author continued to reflect on the two mathematical conceptions of the infinity. This time he focused his attention on logical foundation of antinomy of the truth and false proposed by Florensky, mathematician and priest

Keywords: philosophy, infinity, topical, potential, Cantor, Zenkin, Florensky, antinomy, Antichrist, religion

Abstract: The article covers the questions raised by the bright philosopher who lived in the period of after-October immigration, Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev (1877-1954). These questions are devoted to the role of tragedy in a personal and social life. The author studied the ethical meaning of a human free will, antinomic nature of freedom and moral law and the Russian philosopher’s criticism of the so called ‘law ethics’. The author described both the negative and the positive sides of freedom, arbitrary behavior, failures and misfortunes. Special attention is given to the dialectics of tragedy, sublimation acts and ‘tragic’ optimism (particularly, in Orthodoxy). The article contains an analysis of very difficult questions for a Christian philosopher, the questions of arousal and overcoming a personal tragedy as well as God’s and the human’s role in dealing with tragic situations.

Keywords: philosophy, freedom, necessity, sublimation, tragedy, perception of the world, ethics, God, human

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2018.8.27106

Abstract: The subject of this research is the conceptual correlation between the criticism of metaphysics and post-secular paradigm. The object of this research is the metaphysical concepts relevant to the philosophical discourse on the post-secular as post-metaphysical. The author meticulously reviews the deconstruction of quasi-metaphysical concepts of the “religious”, “secular”, and “post-secular” in their interrelation in the analytics of the leading contemporary critics of post-secular ad post-metaphysical philosophy: Habermas, Taylor, Caputo, Meillassoux, and Barber. Special attention is given to the history of metaphysics as a factor and environment for the formation of quasi-metaphysical forms of post-metaphysics and post-secularism. The main conclusion lies in the statement that the condition of cogitability and transcendental soil of the paradigm of post-secularism is the criticism of metaphysics. The author determined that the criticism of metaphysics alongside any anti-metaphysics is certainly not the overcoming of metaphysics, but continue to reproduce the metaphysical structure. The deconstruction of the post-secular leads to overcoming the key metaphysical binaries, including dualism of the religious and secular. The author comes to a conclusion that talking about the post-secular implies talking about the various paradigms of correlation between the quasi-metaphysical concepts of the “religious” and “secular”, rather than interaction and transformation of the specific religious confessions and philosophical traditions. The scientific novelty lies in demonstration of the fact that the specific historical form of faith and mind, theology and metaphysics do not align with the quasi-metaphysical and refined forms of the “religious” and “secular” that function within the discourse of post-secularism.

Keywords: Habermas, deconstruction, post-secular, secular, religion, criticism of metaphysics, Taylor, Caputo, Meillassoux, Barber

Abstract: The article studies a religious approach to the problem of the meaning of the universal existence and human earthly life. This approach insists on the spiritual basis of the Universe, uniqueness and absolute value of life, heavenly origin of life and divine destiny of a human. The meaning of human life is mainly connected with the answer to the question about the origin of the world, with the problem of the arche and understanding of the basic principles of the Universe and hierarchy of the visible world. For Russian philosophers creationism became the basis of understanding the Universe. Creationism opposed to evolutionism, in other words, it suggested the transcendental instead of the immanent principle (approach) to understanding of the Universe. This and other scenarios of how the Universe and Human were born contain (or do not contain) the purpose, meaning of the Universe and earthly life of Human.

Keywords: philosophy, Russian religious philosophy, life, death, cosmology, evolutionism, creationism, meaning of life, ontology, anthropology

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2018.2.24092

Abstract: The object of this study is the influence of the book of one of the best authors of the XX century, Rudolf Otto. The subject of this study is the conceptual core of his teaching: the state of otherness and its transcendence through the numinous feeling. Phenomenology of religion R. Otto is consonant with the theme of interconfessional and interreligious dialogue, as it puts in front of the researchers the actual issues of interaction between secular and religious, liberal and conservative, legal and moral. What are the principles and levels of interreligious and interconfessional dialogue? Is interaction possible between religious and secular discourses? Are religious discourse and religious rhetoric permissible in politics, education and other "secularized" spheres of public life? The idea of the paper is to reveal the phenomenology of Otto as a method of transcending humanistic communication.The paper is based on general scientific methods of theoretical level: comparative, genetic, system, and structural types of analyses. General scientific methods of the empirical level are represented by an counting. From general methods, the author relied on analysis / synthesis, abstraction / concretization, generalization / restriction. From the private scientific philosophical methods, hermeneutics was used. The toolkit of scientific research includes the following arrays of scientific knowledge: rsl.ru, elibrary.ru, google.scholar.ru. The main conclusions of the conducted research are: 1) the construction of socio-cultural objects is connected with the individuation and concretization of diverse cultural worlds; 2) the Rudolf Otto’s phenomenology of religion is a method of contextual correlation of various spiritual practices, that contributes to the formation of consensus formations, semantic clusters; 3) "Das Heilige" establishes communication between rational and irrational trends in philosophy, seeks to resolve their disputes; 4) the phenomenology of Otto is of value to the state policy in the field of religion representation in secular societies. The novelty of the research is the positioning of Otto on the field of the pluralistic-synergistic process of the noosphere among K. Jung and R. Fricke, W. James and M. Eliade. The field of application of the results: history of philosophy, phenomenology of religion, intercultural communication.

Keywords: phenomenology of culture, the Sacred, Das Heilig, Mircea Eliade, Rudolf Otto, transcendence, Other, numinous, Otto's phenomenology, life world

Abstract: The article is devoted to apocalyptical movement against codes. Based on the author, this movement fi ghts against virtual human life and against human turning into post-human. The author of the article analyzes confessional denominational religious movement against codes. The author concludes that among numerous communities and organizations participating in this movement, the major role is given to the Protestant fundamentalism and truly-Orthodox movement.

Keywords: philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, apocalypse, virtual world, confessions, globalization, mysticism, fundamentalism, technology

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.12.24844

Abstract: The object of this research is the philosophy of Maximus the Greek (Michael Trivolis), the prominent thinker, interpreter, and religious-cultural figure of Russia of the XVI century. Based on the analysis of his works of various genres, styles and themes, the author comprised a single and cohesive image of his philosophical views. Examining the philosopher’s ideas and way of thinking is conducted in the context of the religious-cultural situation of the era, as well as peculiarities of his personality and public activity. The author applies the historical-analytical and phenomenological methods, relying on the method of historical-philosophical reconstruction. In the course of analysis of the texts of Maximus the Greek, was formulated his comprehension of philosophy and external sciences, which allowed referring to his gnoseology that includes two different ways of cognition. The author was able to establish the fundamental link between his philosophy and the tradition of Byzantine-Athonite hesychasm, within which were developing the main intentions of his works. The article analyzes the teaching of Maximus the Greek on the mind and soul that traces its origin in ancient philosophy, but saturated with the Christian content. The author also examines the thinker’s concept regarding human autocracy and free will.

Keywords: Christianity, Orthodoxy, Russian philosophy, asceticism, knowledge of God, poverty, hesychasm, Maximus the Greek, Christian philosophy, religious culture

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.10.22293

Abstract: The subject of this research is the problem of essential personal existence of a human in the philosophical-religious heritage of Paul Tillich. Anthropology in the works of P. Tillich is inseparably related to the general ontological problematic. The thinker leans in the fact that the mechanically objectified scientific consideration of human is false, because it leave out of account the holistic aspect and freedom of the individual. Arguing against the transformation of personality into a thing that can be controlled and calculated by the technical sciences, against the “natural” and “biological” understanding of human, P. Tillich deals with the “existential human”, who is involved in any situation as a coherent personality, existing in multiplicity of interaction of its dialectical levels. P. Tillich doctrine on personality is viewed from the perspective of origin and development of the creative approaches of the thinker in terms of their eristic orientation with regards to other models and problematic of filiation of the ideas. The scientific novelty is substantiated by the fact that despite the permanent keen interest to the works of P. Tillich, his personalistic problematic did not find extended coverage in the Russian historical-philosophical literature, but rather manifested as one of the components without accentuating the problem of personality as such. This article sets the goal to fulfill such gap.

Keywords: holism, world, personality, human, essential being, anthropology, ontology, being, Paul Tillich, existentialism

Abstract: The article analyzes various approaches to solution of the problem of the Trinity in Western patristics during the 4th-6th century based on the trinity teachings by Marius Victorinus, Augustinus and Boethius. The author describes the three basic conceptual trinity models: metaphysical, psychological and formally logical. Eve though all of them are based on antique philosophy introduced by Aristotle and Neo-Platonists, these philosophical conceptions are transformed and start to serve for the teachings of the Church based on the Biblical Revelation of the Triune God.

Keywords: philosophy, patristics, antique philosophy, mediaeval philosophy, Christianity, religion, theology, the Trinity, western civilization, knowledge of god.

Abstract: The article is devoted to rarely mentioned Hegel’s views on communal morals which, nevertheless, have been discussed by philosophers since the times of Aleksey Khomyakov and Konstantin Kovelin. The author tries to show that Hegel’s interpretation of ethical and religious issues of the commune life can help not only to understand his ‘dark and abstract’ philosophy (including the unit of the Substance and the Subject) but also, for Russian philosophers, to dispute with his teaching.

Keywords: philosophy, communalism, substance, subject, personality, Christianity, Kant, sense, Enlightenment, spirituality, reconciliation

Abstract: The article is devoted to the opinion of a catholic philosopher Roussat on the modern age and the future from the point of view of eschatology. The author shows anti-reformation orientation of Roussat’s eschatological conception. Roussat’s thoughts about the end of times were based on the Medieval tradition of thought (Roger Bacon, d’Ailly and others) that suggested an interesting synthesis of orthodox eschatology and astrology. Using astrology, Roussat made an attempt to discredit apocalypticism typical for different Reformation tendencies and to create an alternative eschatological perspective. From that perspective, apocalypses is moved from the nearest future to the distant future and thus loses its significance. As a result, the entire eschatological logic of Reformation was questioned because it viewed those ages as the ‘last times’, the Antichrist epoch and a fast outcome. The study of Roussat’s works provides additional facts proving that the distance of eschatological expectations was a specific tendency typical for the catholic perception of the world during Reformation.

Keywords: cultural research, astrology, apocalypticism, eschatology, anabaptism, millennialism, Antichrist, Reformation, Catholicism, theology.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.3.15090

Abstract: This article analyzes a popular in the contemporary Western theology approach, under which the Christian ontology is replaced by the existential philosophy, and the notion of the Identity of God – by the faceless deity. The work is based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, who became an inspiration for many of the Western theologians in both, Catholicism and Protestantism. The most powerful theoreticians, who expressed the essence of this approach, are Paul Tillich and Karl Rahner. The author bases the discourse on the analysis of the theories of these thinkers. In the author’s opinion, the replacement of God by the notion of being is questionable, at least in three aspects. Firstly, God, understood as a power of being and name of the depth of existence, transforms from a specific magnitude to an abstraction, which leads to reduction of faith in the living God to contemplation and states of subjectivity. Secondly, the notion of “foundation of being” applied to God immanentizes Him. God loses its autonomy and transcendence with regards to the world and human. And thirdly, God understood as the foundation of being, becomes a man-needing God, By rejecting the concept that God is a Persona, theology excludes the ontological hierarchy. God is being viewed is everything in everything, as a faceless deity. And in this substitution of the Personal God by the notion of sacred, the author sees manifestation of pluralism that replaces the principle of the Absolute. In place of God come “gods”. In such type of immantenism and pluralism, the author observes the phenomenon of the death of God.

Keywords: Theology, Personal God, Immantenism, P. Tillich, K. Rahner, Theology of mystery, Modernism, Death of God, Christianity, Sacred

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.3.67730

Keywords: Theology, Personal God, Immantenism, P. Tillich, K. Rahner, Theology of mystery, Modernism, Death of God, Christianity, Sacred

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.3.11534

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.3.64170

Abstract: The subject of the present research article is the Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism as the two main monistic systems of the Indian philosophy introduced by Shankara and Abhinavagupta respectively. Philsophical and religious (mystical) monism was the paradigm in their works. The author of the article compares the two paradigms of monism, Shankara’s advaita (non-duality) and Abhinavagupta’s para-advaita (the highest level of non-duality) by comaring their idea of the Absolute. The author’s approach allows to describe the understudied philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism in comparison with the most famous and the best studied system of the Indian thought. The author conducts his comparison based on Sanskrit sources in both monistic systems including expressions and arguments used by the two great representatives of monism. In particular, the author analyzes Shankara’s and Abhinavagupta’s views on the Absolute as the central concept in their philosophical doctrines represented in the two different monistic paradigms as the ‘static’ or inactive Absolute (Brahman) of Advaita and the ‘dynamic’ creative Absolute (Anuttara, Shiva) of Para- Advaita. The topic raised by the author o the article is quite perspective and important for Russian studies of Indian philosophy in particular and history of philosophy in general. The author manages to cover the annoying gap and provide texts in philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism as the most poorly studied branch of Indian philosophy today. Growing interest of the West towards this branch of Indian philosophy encouraged the growth of attention of Indian researchers, too. Meanwhile, in Russia literature on Kashmir Shaivism is mostly translated from English and there is no researches or thesis works written on the matter besides the thesis research by N. Isaeva. A few articles and translations of extracts from Sanskrit sources do not cover the gap, either. The author of the present article appeals to Sanskrit sources, most of them have never been translated into Russian, as well as the Western and Indian researches. The author introduces new concepts, Sanskrit terms and other information in Russian science. The article will be of interest not only for those who study history of philosophy, but also for those who are involved in cultural research, religious studies, Indian studies and interdisciplinary research.

Keywords: monism, Indian philosophy, Shankara, Abhinavagupta, Advaita Vedanta, advaita, para-advaita, Kashmir Shaivism, Vedanta, Pratyabhijña.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2013.6.62760

Abstract: The article presents an analysis of the categories of being from the point of view of philosophy and natural science. The author underlines the heuristic function of this category for a number of physical, biological and cognitive sciences. Taking into account opinions of modern scientists, the author suggests and proves the hypothesis about information programs of material development, living systems and mental and cognitive structures. The author also provides the general description of being as unified information environment of the universe and culture.

Keywords: philosophy, being, material, life, consciousness, creative ideas, information, program, science, culture.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.6.10014

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.6.65124

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes the relation between the two phenomena, the phenomenon of the sacred and the fear. The author describes the two strategies of understanding fear. The first strategy is related to the psychological definition of fear and postulates the ambivalence of the sacred experience. The second strategy is related to the mystical understanding of fear that excludes the problem of contradictory attraction to and fear of the sacred. Psychological fear means that fear is viewed as an affect or a sensual response. This kind of fear is related to the flee strategy. Quite on the contrary, mystic fear is more of an ‘attraction to’ rather than a ‘fee from’. According to the author, psychological definition of fear and the concept of the ambivalent sacred experience involves the concept of the immanent human with the adventurous personality and influences all the following conceptualization of the sacred, in particular, ideas about the blood and the relation between the sacred and the world or the sacred and the affect. Noteworthy that the first strategy is typical for the European tradition and the second strategy is more common for the Russian tradition.

Keywords: sacred, ambivalence, fear, Fear of God, numinous, disgust, transgression, philosophical anthropology, humbleness, prohibition.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2013.8.5006

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2013.8.63104

Abstract: The article contains the approaches in religious studies towards the True Orthodox Christian movement. The modern studies of the apocalyptic TOC attempt to capture its phenomenon in its whole throughout almost a century of its existence. The author evaluates the similarities and differences between the Orthodox Christianity and True Orthodox movement, analyzing them in detail.

Keywords: philosophy, religious studies, Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, True Orthodox movement, Apocalyptic, movement against the codes, anti-globalism, post-secular, modernity.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.9.10589

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.9.65493

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes the ‘sacral and secular’ opposition that is traditionally used by European researchers when describing religious phenomena and creating theories of the sacral. This opposition has such deep roots in the Western mind that it caused contradictions which was left unnoticed even for researchers themselves. Today it is difficult to find a European researcher who would not use such a similar theoretical instrument. Moreover, most of Russian researchers also take this opposition as a definite axiom. Separating facts from theory, the author emphasizes the problems related to using the ‘sacral and secular’ opposition. These problems include the contradiction between the local cult offered by the opposition and searches for the possibility of the ‘total existence’ lying in the basis of theories of the sacral. As an argument, the author analyzes peculiarities of the religious consciousness based on the example of Christianity. Being ‘total’ by nature, religious consciousness cannot be explained by the ‘sacral-secular’ opposition that assumes there are two completely irreducible spheres which questions the adequacy of the opposition or, at least, the universal application of it. Another problem is the transition between the two spheres. The author opposes the Russian tradition solving this problem by conceptualization of the terms ‘mystery’ and ‘cult’ to the European tradition which does not focus on that problem at all. According to the author, the reason why European researchers leave the ‘transition’ problem unattended is the ‘hidden’ anthropology which is based on the model of the ‘immanent human’.

Keywords: philosophical anthropology, sacral, secular, consciousness, mystery religions, cult, mystery, theatre, Christianity, antinomicity.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.12.21291

Abstract: The subject of this research is the study of V. V. Rozanov’s texts as a peculiar way of achieving the being, realized as the understanding of style of things – their inner form, associated with the human perception, which allows the thinker to see the world as collected (attained) integral (order, meaning) on one hand; and as deprived of its integrity individual, which in its absolute expression represents the beginning of the chaos. The real world, living and undefined, in Rozanov’s understanding is the irrational combination of these beginning that preside over the life of mortal man. The reconstruction of V. V. Rozanov’s apophasis is being realized with the help of dialectical method; reconciliation of the two antagonistic beginnings is performed through the third, which is defined by the mutual coexistence of the first two. Thus, the animosity between the heavenly and earthly in Rozanov’s works finds its resolution in the phenomenon of family. The scientific novelty consists in examination of the thinker’s texts using the apophatic method. It allows demonstrating not only the inner logic of separate fragments of Rozanov’s texts, but also mark their conceptual dominant understanding of the being as emptiness, the filling of which in various situations leads to either supremacy of the absolute order (divine being defining the world as the harmonic whole), or supremacy of the chaos (irrational beginning of the world associated with Paganism). Their interaction, in Rozanov’s opinion, is valuable a priori.

Keywords: destruction, Apophasis, death, life, sublation, vacuum, antinomy, being, thing, devaluation

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2016.12.68326

Keywords: destruction, Apophasis, death, life, sublation, vacuum, antinomy, being, thing, devaluation

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.12.13410

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2014.12.65973

Abstract: As a rule, measure is not viewed in terms of cultural studies. At the same time, the author of the present article believes that the concept of measure may explain many cultural phenomena. For example, it is quite obvious that culture is some kind of a measure of human existence. Nicholas of Cusa did not isolate measure as an individual object of cognition. However, he often used the concept of measure in his philosophy to define other concepts such as ‘academic ignorance’, ‘absolute maximum’ and ‘non-other’. Although, his concept of the absolute or ‘most accurate measure of all substances’ has a certain delicate feature which the philosopher implied but did not consider it necessary to focus on it. In his research Polischuk has used the rules of deductive and inductive logic, applicable analytical procedures, hermeneutic and phenomenological methods. ‘Academic ignorance’ is necessary to understand ‘nothing’ as the absolute unity and measure of existence. What existence? The author replies – human existence, i.e. existence of culture. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the entire teaching of Nicholas of Cusa refers to philosophy of culture and ontology of culture, in particular.