Abstract: At the end of XIX century Japan was about to jump from feudalism into a modern world. How would it be possible to perform such transformation in history? Experience of Europe mostly showed that it would be impossible without a social revolution. As many social philosophers assumed, only a social revolution could enable a fast shift from one socio-economic system to another. Of course social reformation was also taken into account, but it was believed that only social revolution would break the ties of traditions. From the political point of view, all revolutions need a destruction or neutralization of inner enemies as well as forces incompatible with their historical orientation. A revolution would never be over unless that target was achieved. At the end of the century Japan dreamt of coming back to the Emperor’s reign. As a famous American researcher R. Benedict noted, Japanese tried to protect Japan from the influence of the other world and come back to the golden epoch of X century when the government was not ‘shared’ by the Emperor and Shogun. R. Benedict meant Meiji Restoration’s reforms (1867-1868) — so called bourgeois revolution in Japan when the institution of ‘shared government’ was eliminated and the Emperor’s power was restored. However, many Japanese did not like such outcome.

Keywords: philosophy, reform, revolution, history, society, evolutionism, social studies, politics, management, economics.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes issues arising from the fact that psychological experience of justice includes reactive altruistic emotions. Such emotions apparently contradict to the central idea of morals — a demand to perform self-initiated altruistic actions. Some philosophers of morals and moralists eliminate this contradiction trying to prove the thesis that true justice has nothing to do with reactive anti-altruistic feelings such as indignation and, in particular, envy and rancor. The author of the article uses results of various researches in social psychology, socio-biology and psychology of moral development proving that that aforesaid statement is wrong. However, this connection does not demean psychological experience of justice because both envious and rancorous emotional impulses are held back and considerably transformed in the process of moral development.

Keywords: philosophy, ethics, morals, psychology of morals, socio-biology, justice, emotions, envy, indignation, rancor.

Abstract: The article is devoted to patters and reasons of corruption drastically becoming the part of human spiritual life and his system of values. The author of the article focuses on socio-cultural factors of corruption development and fixation in social life. Special attention is paid at the need to research this anti-social and illegal phenomenon of corruption from the point of view of socio-humanitarian science and philosophy of science. The author particularly underlines how important the opinion of modern society on corruption and philosophical evaluation of an ontological status of corruption are. These aspects are paid special attention and these moments are to be taken into account by experts and researchers in the sphere of law.

Keywords: philosophy, corruption, power, society, state institution, values, norms, community, meaning, culture.

Abstract: The article describes peculiarities of fundamental historical processes in Russian government. These fundamental processes include colonization, modernization and globalization. The author of the article provides definitions of the mentioned processes and reveal what they mean. The author analyzes these processes in the ‘space-time’, ‘center-periphery’, ‘extensive-intensive’, ‘vertical-horizontal’ coordinates. Special attention is paid t peculiarities of the Russian space and time and the influence of the Russian space-time continuum on fundamental historical transformations. It is stated that there are certain Russian historical (but not only geographical) conditions, circumstances and mechanisms of development of these processes. One of the defining moments here is a frequent appearance of the phenomenon of pseudomorphosis in Russian history. This makes it the method and type of development in Russia and for Russia. Besides that, the author analyzes the influence of an active historical person on how the aforesaid fundamental processes go as well as the role of violence in colonization and modernization projects and forms of opposition to emanation of violence.

Keywords: colonization, modernization, globalization, space, time, center, periphery, extensity, violence, opposition.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of Lev Tolstoy’s philosophical thoughts and diary notes on philosophy of art as well as his critics of interpretation of art as a mere recognition of beauty. The author of the article proves that Lev Tolstoy’s definition of art as a mean of communication and exchange of feelings is still quite topical and demanded nowadays for a modern understanding of the relations between philosophy, religion, art and science as well as development of particular methods of humanitarian science and philosophy of culture.

Keywords: philosophy, epistemology, constructivism, radicalism, realism, art, Lev Tolstoy, beauty, feeling, communication.

Abstract: The author of the article raises a question whether it is actually possible to create a general theory of human behavior, and makes an attempt to outline the area of valid analysis of such a theory. Choice is viewed as a concrete union of external conditions and internal motives. Conscious choice is not the same as the rational choice because consciousness is not the same as rationality. The author of the article focuses on the analysis of organization of consciousness in mass culture and its relation with the socio-cultural environment. A classical dilemma of the rational (Kant) and fideistic (Kierkegaard) grounds of moral choice does not work in a modern situation. Differentiation of rationality and philosophizing is interpreted as a deep socio-cultural shift that caused changed in social mind along with the other factors such as forced inconsistency and axiological reorientation of the society. The author also developed the definitions of ‘identification matrix’ as a ‘cell’ of self-consciousness of homo-demos and offered particular terms for describing true collisions of human facing the problem of choice.

Keywords: choice, environment, motive, rationality, values, self-consciousness, identity, identification matrix, mass society, philosophizing.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of symbol and myth in Vyacheslav Ivanov’s philosophy. The author of the article defines peculiarities of philosophy of a Russian symbolist conditioned by his believing in the priority of belief and the second role of the rational thinking. The author describes peculiarities of the Medieval perception of the world that was reflected in Ivanov’s philosophy, too. The author also studies Vyacheslav Ivanov’s definition of symbol and the difference between Ivanov’s philosophy and French symbolism. The author describes several features of Friedrich Schelling’s works which made a considerable influence on Vyacheslav Ivanov as well. Studying Ivanov’s interpretation of myth from the point of view of its relation to a symbol, the author makes a hypothesis about special antinomic unity of symbol and myth. The author describes Ivanov’s thoughts on communicative features of myth and views the problem of the language expression of symbol as well as symbolic features of language.

Keywords: philosophy, symbolism, theurgy, esthetics, beauty, myth, art, mystery, language, artist.

Abstract: Kant’s critical metaphysics is described in three chapters against the old and new tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Anselm, Foma Akvinsky, Heidegger, Levinas) as the anticipation of future metaphysics. By origin Heidegger’s philosophy has much in common not only with the Christian beliefs and theology but also Kant’s metaphysics Thus, a famous remark about the language from a conversation with a Japanese makes us refer to Kant. The expression shows that origin always means future to come.

Keywords: philosophy, critical metaphysics, mind, theology, rational theology, belief, prosyllogisms, paralogisms, evidence of God’s existence, Kant’s philosophy.

Abstract: The article is devoted to theodicy and its role in Kant’s and Dostoevsky’s philosophies. The author of the article tries to show that the problem of theodicy appeared in Kant’s and Dostoevsky’s work as a part of the question about the moral ideal, freedom and responsibility. Despite different approaches and quite obvious difference in their concepts of rationality as well as philosophizing methods, both of these philosophers have many topics in common. In particular, they both talked about the relation between the absolute and personal freedom, from one side, and the problem of the moral idea form the other. Both Kant and Dostoevsky were also interested in the problem of self-will and how it relates to freedom and autonomy. However, despite the philosophers’ belief that it was impossible to solve the problem of theodicy, the author shows that Kant and Dostoevsky had very different definitions of freedom as well as borders and logic of moral reasoning.

Keywords: philosophy, ethics, Kant, Dostoevsky, theodicy, freedom, absolute, autonomy, ideal, morals.

Abstract: The article contains a review of modern Russian researches devoted to categorical analysis and philosophical-cultural research of the terms ‘value’ and ‘cultural value’. The topic about cultural values is proved to be important for our modern Russian philosophy of culture and theory of culture. According to the author of the article, it would be perspective to conduct the kind of researches that would search for the solution of the axiological crisis of modern Russian culture. The author also makes an assumption that Heinrich Rickert’s philosophy of culture could help to find the conceptual and methodological grounds for the supposition that cultural values are the priority in all spheres of existence of a modern Russian society. The author also points out that cultural values have a transcendental existence in culture.

Keywords: cultural studies, cultural values, ideals, axiology, Heinrich Rickert, methodology of culture, methods, humanitarian sciences, theory of culture, individualizing method.

Abstract: A classical concept about self-knowledge as the ‘appeal of the knower to himself’ (reflection) faces a difficulty: in order to make it possible for one to understand himself by the means of reflection, it is necessary for him to have the basic knowledge about his own structures (such as temporality and intentionality) allowing to state that it is him who is being the object of reflection. Spontaneous features of the knower create the grounds for credibility of facts discovered during the process of reflection. As a result, a gap between the knower and the other world can be created. The author of the article shows that critics of the Cartesian paradigm, caused by the above difficulties, is limited to subject-object relations and does not touch upon reflection as the process requiring certain knowledge about ourselves. As a result, concepts that do not take into account the role of the knower are dependent on reflective structures and certain difficulties caused by these structures. In order to overcome these difficulties we need to deny the supposition about initial equivalence of the knower and the object of self-knowledge.

Keywords: philosophy, subject, reflection, consciousness, self-consciousness, knowledge, intentionality, phenomenology, temporality, self-objectivation.

Abstract: The author of the article views Karl Marx’s contribution to the philosophy of technology from the point of view of the modern state of development of this philosophy and discovery of certain ideas in Marx’s studies which could appear to be significant in XXI century. The author discusses the role of machines in transformation of labor structure, birth of the ‘iron man’ who opposed an ‘alive’ worker in the production process. It is shown that this event, which is paid much attention in Marx’s teaching, was possible only under conditions of the ‘infrastructure of social time’ ensured by working hours and schedules. In its turn, technological progress caused revolutionary changes in old infrastructures and creation of new ones. Infrastructure introduced a global element into technology, inevitably changed and continues to change our social life.

Keywords: philosophy, machine, time, labor, capitalism, hours, time, infrastructure, Marx, Hegel.

Abstract: Adam Smith was lucky to receive brilliant and versatile education. He received his primary education in his native Scottish town Kirkcaldy and then studied in such great universities as the University of Glasgow and Oxford. In 1759 he published his first significant work that made him famous. Then Smith gave lectures at universities in his native land — those were lectures in ethics, law, politics and economics. At the University of Glasgow Smith actively participated in the first political economy club ever created. In 1764-1767 Smith and his student visited Paris where Smith got an opportunity to expand his knowledge communicating with famous intellectual leaders of the time such as Turgot and others. In 1767-1776 Smith created his most significant work ‘The Wealth of Nations’ that gave him the fame of the pioneer of classical English political economy. However, Smith did not manage to solve the contradiction between the two most important categories in his works — altruism and egoism. Studying the history of ideas, Smith disagreed with Plato’s and Aristotle’s conception about inherited differences between people and talked about natural equality of all people instead.

Keywords: philosophy, University of Glasgow, Watt, Yum, Pitt, egoism, altruism, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

Abstract: A hundred years ago positivism ruled in the science of history. Followers of positivism believed that elements of the truth could be easily found in concrete sources and described facts about the past life. But is it actually the only way to discover the order of events in history? Positivists denied all other approaches. They believed that first historians had to discover as many facts as possible, search for different sources, if possible, and only then build the cause-and-reason relations that could help to describe laws of historical development. The book ‘Selected publications 70’ by a famous expert in Russian philosophy, history and culture Mikhail Gromov is some kind of a self-report devoted to Gromov’s 70th birthday. The book is full of facts about Russian history. But there is no positivistic manner to collect particular details, events and dates there. Even though Mikhail Gromov is a true historian, he is also a philosopher so the question about research methods appears in the very first paragraph of his book. Based on Mikhail Gromov, Russian philosophy can be viewed using different research methods while none of these methods can be the only ‘correct’ one. Yet, altogether these methods reveal a perspective for creation of broad and adequate understanding of the historical process.

Keywords: philosophy, history, value, art, peasantry, Orthodoxy, creativity, culture, spirituality, Hesychasm.