DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10769

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63931

Abstract: Over the last years there have been many literary researches about the war being the necessary evil for the humankind. Telling us about the new methods of murdering people, some researchers even complain that the government does not try to create new weapon. The governors tend to believe that the future war will use only traditional and wellknown methods of destroying the enemy while the experts try to convince them that they are wrong and should master the new weapon as soon as possible. However, there are no researchers who would say that the humankind should stop having wars at all. They tend to believe that wars cannot be erased from the human history. We can’t do without wars because it is in human nature to be evil and aggressive. The author of the present article questions whether this position is the sober thought or just the wrong belief directly related to the apology of war. The author of the article uses the historical and phenomenological approaches to the problem. Researchers’ views on war are traced back historically from myths to modern science and philosophy. The author also analyzes the concept of war and shows that the definition of war needs to be corrected. Nowadays there are wars not only between governments but also between different classes. At the same time, social, confessional and ethnic groups are recruited during the war. Serous contradictions also arise between developed countries and other countries that are only trying to catch up. According to the author, the most important aspect of the definition of war is the statement about socio-political, economic, religious, ideological and other contradictions between states, nations, social, national, confessional and other groups being resolved (or not resolved) by the means of armed violence. In addition, the author tries to provide a special analysis of the phenomenology of war and prove that it is possible to eliminate war as the way of conflict resolution.

Keywords: philosophy, psychology, war, conflicts, humanity, traditions, values, civilization, armament preparation, catastrophe.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10514

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63932

Abstract: The article is devoted to the 100th anniversary of birth of the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus. The main sources of feeling absurd includes the ideal picture of the world created by the human mind, existence of human in the immanent and transcendental worlds, development of the consciousness of a new-born and creative and destructive tendencies of human. Absurdity has a singular, contradictory, irrational and almost insane logic. The positive role of absurdity is the possibility to think different when we face the absurd. The author of the article also shows the role of absurdity in new paradoxical findings made by scientists. Even creativity is fed by absurdity and uses absurdity for its purposes. By using the method of hermeneutic analysis, the author of the article studies the sources, forms of appearance and different functions of absurdity. Along with the absurd, there is always a regular non-absurd existence. The absurd has a relative meaning and always depends on a particular historical period. Today the absurd can be found in all spheres of human existence from social politics to science, religion and culture. The absurd should be also opposed to the common sense and civic courage in the socio-political sphere.

Keywords: absurd, logic, death, transcendental, creativity, culture, religion, science, paradox, psychoanalysis.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10703

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63933

Abstract: Modern philosophical anthropology tends to combine paleoanthropological and socio-biological data with the latest information technology. The main purpose of the article is to analyze this tendency. Based on that, the author of the article interprets the nature of human society as the form of global community of people living in the synergetic society that exists for the purpose of mutual help without the need for the state government and armed forces. Unlike the modern homo sapiens, the new human is called homo intelligens. Great achievements of the information society raise lots of questions for the humankind. Will the longing for knowledge remain the undeniable impulse for creative activity? What will the survival instinct be like? To what degree will we be able to stay biological creatures? The methods of the research include comparison of the classical model of homo sapiens with the homo intelligens. The author also uses the hermeneutic approach in order to create a new appearance of philosophical anthropology. The results of the research show that information processes of the global world cannot be studied without applying the integrated theory of philosophical anthropology. When touching upon the ‘global human’ and the problem of self-identification in the society of ‘real virtuality, we cannot follow the logic of computer technologies or impersonal information environment.

Keywords: philosophical anthropology, human, society, information environment, self-identification, technology, hermeneutics, intellect, paleoanthropology, technology.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10397

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63934

Abstract: The subject of research is to analyze non-humanity in a human being. The aforesaid problem has many aspects. Firstly, it is related to religious topics. Religious literature views human as a sinful creature falling into the first sin. Secondly, the topic of ‘non-humanity’ is associated with morals and interpreted as the human susceptibility to evil. Thirdly, the concept of non-humanity in human is the result of gradual disappointment in human as a god’s creature as it was depicted in the medieval literature. This has led to another phenomenon which Nikolay Berdyaev called ‘the impairment of human’. Psychoanalysis started a new stage in the development of this concept. Psychoanalysts introduced the phenomenology of the unconsciousness and the nature of the instincts leading to aggression and destruction. Fromm wrote a special book called ‘The anatomy of human destructiveness’. Finally, non-humanity becomes the subject of modern trans-humanistic philosophy. Researchers started to question whether it was possible to embed something into human which would allow to change the human nature and create a new human. The author bases his research on such significant methods as the hermeneutic and psychoanalytical analysis of texts allowing to reveal different aspects of non-humanity. The novelty of research is the introduction of the topic which has never been viewed as the subject of independent analysis in Russian sources. The author of the article makes an attempt to trace back the development of the historical and philosophical tradition with reference to this problem. Even though there have been some discussions about Adam’s descendants and some features they may have different from Adam’s nature. However, this topic has never been discussed from the point of history and philosophy. The author of the article describes how this problem has been developing from ancient days till today. The author underlines that without being opposed to non-humanity, humanity can’t fully reveal itself.

Keywords: human, non-human, evil, destructiveness, human existence, soullessness, cruelty, biophilia, necrophilia, violence.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10434

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63935

Abstract: The present article is devoted to studying life and creative work of the German-American psychologist, reformer of psychoanalysis and one of the leaders of Neo-Freudianism Karen Horney. The author of the article traces back the atmosphere in Karen Korney’s family that defined her personality as well as her further development as the doctor of medicine, psychoanalyst of Freudian school and the founder of her own concept of neurotic personality development. The author also describes Karen Horney’s views on woman’s psychology, marital problems and nonprofessional psychoanalysis. The author studies Karen Horney’s critical review of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. As a result of her critics, Karen Horney refused from Freud’s genetic approach in favor of the current relations of a patient and his future life experience as the reason of neurosis. The main method used by the author of the article is the thorough study of the main terms and concepts in the five books published by Karen Horney as well as the detailed analysis of her life and activities based on English sources. By analyzing Karen Horney’s main ideas introduced in the five books that were written and published in the USA and made her famous all over the world as well as ostracism by a number of her colleagues for her withdrawing from classical psychoanalysis, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that if the first book by Karen Horney discussed neurosis as a result of disturbed interpersonal relations, then the concept of the idealized Self opened the gates to the intrapsychic life. The author of the article shows that Karen Horney created the theory that built some kind of a bridge between the psychobiological concept of human created by Sigmund Freud and socio-cultural personality concepts developed in the second half of the XX century.

Keywords: Neo-Freudianism, psychoanalysis, female psychology, neurosis, marital problems, non-professional analysis, neurotic development of personality, character neurosis, anxiety, idealized image of Self.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.10594

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63936

Abstract: The author of the article views dream images as a particular case of mental models. She establishes that the patterns and rules defined for dream images will apply to all mental models. It is assumed that the word plays a dual role for the psyche. On one hand, it is the element of the second signaling system. In this regard the word is viewed as the component of consciousness, a sign or a meaning. On the other hand, the word is the element of the first signaling system, i.e. the sound. It is assumed that the images of the highest order have the acoustic component that can be presented as the combination of incoherent sounds, generalized parts of words as well as words mechanically recorded by the memory with reference to the images of these phenomena. This is the element of the first signallig system. It is unconscious and does not relate to the meaning of words. The author analyzes over a hundred of lucid dreams described by the participants of the web community called ‘The Road of the Dream’. A lucid dream means a dream when we realize that we are asleep and therefore we can control some part of our dreams. The results of research show that the acoustic component can be present in the dream images both in active and passive forms. The active sound is associated with the dream images of the highest order (people, rarely animals and space-like formations). Passive vocalization is possible when a dreamer addresses a question to his dream image. Passive vocalization is possible for all kinds of images including images of inanimate objects. The author also studies the phenomenon of recollection of an image based on a word pronounced by the dreamer. Noteworthy that the recalled image can sound similar but have a completely different meaning than the word.

Keywords: psychology, images, dreams, lucid dreams, mental models, images of the highest order, signaling system, consciousness, words, meaning.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.9943

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63937

Abstract: The authors of the article present a correlation research of personality features in accordance with the two levels of processing of social information by an individual: explicit (central) and implicit (associative) levels. 152 University students participated in the research. The researchers studied the Big Five of personality features from the point of view of the paradigm of multivariate analysis. Explicit features were measured based on the Big Five Inventory questionnaire and the implicit features were measured by the means of the Implicit Association Test. Implicit feature tests had a greater intra-method correlation than the explicit features. Moreover, the inter-scale and intermethod correlation of personality features was significantly low compared to the intra-method correlation factor but only in case of implicit features. The 1–fator model of the implicit features proved to be practically applicable which allowed to support the hypothesis about the general personality factor at the implicit level. The 1–factor model of explicit features proved to be not applicable. The level of extraversion had a better coherence of the explicit and implicit levels. It has been stated that at the first stage of testing the implicit features, individuals had a good control of their emotions which was expressed in better and more socially desired reactions.

Keywords: personality features, implicit social cognition, Big Five, multivariate analysis, openness to experience, Implicit Association Test, extraversion, friendliness, fidelity, neuroticism.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.9704

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63938

Abstract: The article is aimed at studying the influence of gender identity of the ethnocultural appearance on the degree of positive attitude and evaluation. The author of the article makes an assumption that the degree of positive evaluation based on one’s appearance may be conditioned by the ethnocultural and gender identity. The author of the article provides the results of the comparative analysis of positive/negative esthetic evaluations, attractiveness for the opposite sex and the degree of correspondence of the appearance of different ethnocultural groups to the male or female gender. The author of the article used a modified variant of ‘the estimation and interpretation of the appearance and its correspondence to the gender and age constructs’ (published by v. A. Labunskaya in 2009). This method evaluated the following types of appearance: slavic appearance, caucasian appearance and asian appearance as well as their gender identity. The author shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the degree of positive evaluations of different appearances depending on the ethnocultural type. The gender identity of the person being evaluated also has an influence on the degree of positive evaluations of particular types of appearance.

Keywords: gender, ethno-cultural appearance, Slavic appearance, Caucasian appearance, Asian appearance, degree of positive assessment, discrimination, ethnocultural group, integral assessment.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.9439

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63939

Abstract: The author of the article proves the need for and possibilities of social and psychological preparation and psychological and pedagogical accompanying of the institution of substitute family. This social trend is gaining importance in modern Russia. The main authorities dealing with the problems of substitute families are child protective services. The author of the article states that it is not enough for an efficient functioning of the institution of substitute family in the modern world. The author analyzes the current experience in preparation of both biological and substitute parents in Russia. Preparation of biological parents is usually local and depends on a situation. The author states that according to the new legal requirements, preparation of substitute parents is a mandatory and system measure. The author defines and describes the main problems in organization and functioning of the centers of preparation of substitute families and substitute parents.

Keywords: substitute, family, social, psychological, parenthood, preparation, experience, competence, center, efficiency.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.9232

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0722.2014.1.63940

Abstract: The author of the article presents a new modified version of G. Keseling’s method ‘Overcoming difficulties in writing’ and analyzes peculiarities of the original method, its limits and opportunities and therefore makes the first step towards adjusting this method to the CIS environment. Modification of the method was conditioned by the need for introducing changes into the structure of interpretation (key) for processing of results in accordance with the specifics and socio-cultural environment of the Russian education. The method viewed in the article is quite a new one in psychological and pedagogical diagnostics. It has much potential for researchers and proves to be very useful because it allows to define not only difficulties in writing but also offers good strategies to overcome these difficulties. Particular recommendations and special exercises allow to minimize the obstacles to writing experienced by school students.

Keywords: new version of a method, difficulties in writing, processing of results, higher education, obstacles to writing, wrong addressee, writing production, false start, the problem of generalization, contradictory concepts in writing.