Abstract: ‘Demagogue’ was quite a common word in the history of political thought. However, it’s been forgotten over the last decades. Other terms were started to be used to describe a leader’s activity in a negative light such as ‘manipulator’ and ‘populist’. Tracing back the history of this phenomenon, the author shows that this word now has different shades and meanings. It came from antique Greece and underwent radical changes in its meaning. Initially, the term had no negative meaning. For instance, when Aristotle wanted to express his attitude towards a leader or a governor who could make people follow him by using such methods as speech, actions or gifts, he called him a demagogue. Demagogues actually expressed people’s interests and protected their rights. Tyranny was well known in the Antique times. To protect people from despotism and to express their problems in a rightful way – this was what demagogues strived for. The author of the article also tries to compare the terms ‘social demagogue’ with ‘populism’ and ‘propaganda’.

Keywords: philosophy, social demagoguery, people, politics, leader, governor, power, Populism, propaganda, manipulation.

Abstract: Spinoza is thought to be the most consistent representative of philosophical rationalism. However, it does not mean that Spinoza always followed the rationalistic ideal in his philosophy. The article studies the relation of basic theoretic concepts in Spinoza’s philosophy to empiric interpretation of the rationalism in thinking. For this purpose, the author of the article views the empiric meaning of these concepts adopted by Spinoza from traditional theoretic philosophy and thought over in accordance with his own system of philosophy. On one hand, the study showed uncertainty or insufficient consistence of Spinoza’s rationality lying in the basis of these concepts. On the other hand, it has been proved that within the framework of Spinoza’s philosophy, those concepts admitted theoretical empiric interpretations.

Keywords: philosophy, empiric, meaning, rational, infinity, substance, scholastic, speculative, ontological, existence.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the issues of singular terminology of Slavophilism and Neoslavophilism. The author of the article describes how these two movements developed and were related to each other. The author describes the general features as well as the main, fundamental difference in theoretical heritage of the main founders of early Slavophilism, late Slavophilism, Pochvennichestvo and modern Neoslavophilism of the XXI century. The author of the article underlines that today it is impossible to solve the main problems and key issues of history and culture raised by the first Slavophiles in the XIX century. The author of the article formulates a series of general provisions of early Slavophilism that are mandatory for all modern Slavophilism theories (critics of mindless imitation of Western experience, idea of the distinctive character and origin of the Russian culture, acceptance of Orthodoxy as the spiritual basis for our national culture and etc.). The author shows how topical and important these ideas are for today’s society and how these ideas can be used for formation of a perspective model of Russia’s future development.

Keywords: slavophiles, neoslavophiles, distinctive character, culture, tradition, succession, world view, perspective, Orthodoxy, modern age.

Abstract: There have been obvious ups and downs in the development of the Russian culture. But despite discrete and catastrophic character of culture admitted by almost all researchers, Russian culture remains united and unique. The author of the article advances an idea that such unity is caused by the expansion of the central, ‘core’ ideals to the most of cultural spheres. Such ideals provide exceptional stability and sustainability. For Old Russia such ‘core’ ideals were based on Orthodoxy. However, along with Orthodoxy, Byzantium also gave Russia the theory and practice of Hesychasm –mystical and ascetic Orthodox tradition. Synergism is one of the main concepts of Hesychasm. Introducing the term ‘Synergism’ in his study, the author makes an attempt to describe the periods of golden age of the Russian culture from the point of view of the fullest expression of Hesychastic and Synergistic ideals. One of such periods fell upon the Old Russian culture, in particular, the XIV–XV centuries. It was the period when Russia adopted most of Hesychastic ideas form Byzantium which resulted in formation of a monastic culture, spread of the starets movement and expression of Hesychastic ideals in Andrey Rublev’s and Theophanes the Greek’s works, fresco painting, architecture of religious buildings and literature.

Keywords: Russian culture, Orthodoxy, core of culture, Hesychasm, Synergism, Hesychastic-Synergetic core, Asceticism, icon painting, starets (eldership), monarchism.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the constitution of the phenomenon in Kant’s philosophy as it is given in his Critique of Pure Reason. The author of the article views two ‘polarizable’ syntheses as Husserl says: synthesis of Self and synthesis of Subject. The constitution of the phenomenon is defined by these two opposites.

Keywords: philosophy, constitution, phenomenon, synthesis, polarization, Kant, Post-Modernism, intersubjectivity, Self, subject.

Abstract: The author of the article compares the reemergence of the main hero in ‘Resurrection’ with the ‘spiritual rebirth’ of Lev Tolstoy himself as well as with the philosophical interpretation of the ‘borderline situations’ represented by existentialists. The author makes a conclusion that Tolstoy’s hero behaves the same way as a man in a borderline situation described by existentialists. Noteworthy that Tolstoy did not appeal to existentialists and such likeness is caused by objective processes ongoing in a man’s inner world. Generally speaking, the process of ethic choice (or Tolstoy’s ‘spiritual rebirth’) consists of the following stages: decisive affect, borderline situation, conviction, despair, awareness of one’s possibility to make an ethic choice, ethic choice (which, being the point of bifurcation, can lead to three options: suicide, return to previous lifestyle and start of a new life), spiritual rebirth, crucifixion and resurrection. The process described by the author of the article is based on the combination of ideas presented by Soren Kierkegaard (‘either/or’), Karl Jaspers (‘borderline situation’) and Lev Tolstoy (‘confession’ and ‘resurrection’).

Keywords: Tolstoy, human, penance, despair, awareness, resolution, ethics, choice, crucifixion, resurrection.

Abstract: The article analyzes Karl Marx’s teaching from the point of view of natural-science approach in characterological creatology. Characterological creatology is an approach to studying life and creative work (in the broadest sense of the word) based on natural personalities and national-psychological features. The purpose of this study is to analyze Marx’s scientific writings from the point of view of Marx’s personality. Such approach opposes to a traditional academic approach to studying Marx’s legacy. Moreover, when analyzing Marx’s ideas, the author relies on a number of modern researches of Marx by Russian and foreign researchers (economists, sociologists and philosophers) which allows to cover Marx’s teachings and highlight the most important points. The author of the article also compares concepts of human and society in Marxism (dialectical materialism) and natural-science materialism. It is concluded that each of the represented materialistic conceptions is needed in its own way and must be developed in the cultural environment.

Keywords: Marx, Marxism, dialectic materialism, historical materialism, natural-science materialism, characterological creatology, syntonic character, idealism, human nature, national peculiarities.

Abstract: The object of our research is a personal guilt as a cultural phenomenon. The subject of our research is the ambivalence of guilt. The purpose of the research is to determine what opposite values are covered by the concept of guilt and how these opposite values are determined by the cultural environment. Theoretical grounds of the research include symbolic interpretation of culture in Ernst Cassirer’s writings, Jung’s and Horney’s psychoanalysis and Alexander Dugin’s historical sintagma. For us guilt is the problem of self-understanding, existential self-identity and therefore resolution of guilt is associated with both personal responsibility and punishment. The authors of the article offer their own definitions of guilt and ambivalence where guilt is, in the first place, a life-meaning phenomenon or existential appealing to one’s true existence and ambivalence is the category inscribing the essence of human existence in culture, particularly, in Art Nouveau. From the existential point of view, the feeling of guilt means self-accusation, self-condemnation and tender conscience. The core of this concept is placing responsibility for one’s wrong doings on ourselves instead of self-justifying. Since this meaning of guilt is actualized only in the symbolic environment, we can talk here about a special role of religion, philosophy and psychoanalysis in modern culture: they allow us to retain connection with our transcendence, questioning about the meaning of life, starvation for high moral principles, on one hand, and constructive experience of our ‘shaded area’, on the other hand. Contrary to the existential guilt, there is also a neurotic guilt. The main feature of such guilt is its projective nature, i.e. placing responsibility for one’s wrong doings on others. Neurotic guilt is typical for a person who doesn’t have any symbolic experience of culture. Today’s cultural situation disposes to semiotic interpretation of culture and acculturation at the level of symbols, therefore neurotic guilt is becoming a dominating discourse. This is the main conclusion made by the author of the article.

Keywords: cultural science, guilt, ambivalence, punishment, freedom, culture, psychoanalysis, symbol, sign.

Abstract: Religious pluralism has been historically developed in the cultural environment of the Balkans and includes traditions of numerous ethnic groups, in particular, ethno-cultural groups of gypsies living in different parts of the region. Peculiarities of co-existence of diverse cultures and interactions between ethnic groups provide the content of religious traditions in this region. The author of the article describes forms of inter-cultural interactions that are typical for different gypsy communities and define the qualitative diversity of their religious traditions. This includes the main process of acculturation as well as assimilation and religious mimicry as its private models. The author also analyzes specific features of beliefs and practices developed in local religious traditions of gypsies such as: syncreticity and combinability and verbal or ‘folk’ nature of culture. It is noted that the current local traditions have an inter-cultural position in the religious system of the Balkan region and represent structures open for influence and transformation. Such special feature of gypsy religious culture defines the vector of its development based on socio-cultural environment and religious processes typical for South-Eastern Europe.

Keywords: religious pluralism, religious syncretism, combination, inter-cultural, acculturation, religious mimicry, assimilation, ethnic minority, gypsy, South-Eastern Europe.

Abstract: The author of the article views the term ‘symbol’ as a philosophical category included in semiotic space of culture. The author also analyzes how the term developed in that space and discovers the differences and similarities between a sign and a symbol. Based on the analysis of differences between these two terms according to the leading philosophers, it is noted that the term ‘symbol’ has many meanings. At the same time, the term ‘sign’ has only one meaning. Symbol is good for creating a full picture while sign is better for creating a more accurate and precise picture. Based on examples from different spheres of human activity including speech, advertising, fine arts, and examples from Russian history, it is noted that during the periods of cultural crisis, sign is ‘exalted’ to symbol while previous symbols gain new contents. The author also describes different forms of reinterpretation of old symbols in a new environment.

Keywords: symbol, sign, image, picture, symbolization, exaltation of a meaning, reinterpretation of a symbol, symbol in semiotics, cultural definitions, new culture.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the difference between the status of legal crime and disturbance of traditional ways of perceiving modern actual art. In order to distinguish between transgression and crime, the author of the article appeals to Nikolay Evreinov’s theory of theatricalization of life, Michel Foucault’s methodological approaches and the relationship between ‘desire’ and ‘law’ described by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The main thesis of the article is that art must not imitate crime by crossing certain illusory borders established by the law because the law forbids much more than such ‘crime’ may violate (Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari). The law imposes an idea that our desires aresomething forbidden and we can satisfy our desires only if we violate a law and commit a crime. At the same time, the law forbids us illegal actions. The article is devoted to the analysis of actions by modern Russian artists in the 90’s.

Keywords: philosophy, transgression, crime, desire, law, theatricalization of life, actual art, performance, actionism, illusion.

Abstract: This is the continuation of the article ‘Science and Modernization’ published by V. Fedotova and A. Yakovleva in 2012 (Issue No. 9, P. 63-72). The present article is devoted to transformations in science under the influence of changing Modern. One of the results of such transformations is the variety of definitions of science and the ‘battle’ over definition, goals and efficiency of science caused by the effort to influence the organization of science and education. The author gives an estimation of the current situation of reformation of Russian science from the point of view of historical experience of functioning of science and social sciences, in particular, in the first, second and third periods of Modern. Due to the process of reformation of the Russian Academy of Sciences started by the Russian government, the author of the article analyzes particular periods in history of organization of science and education and makes conclusions about what is supposed to substitute for the academic school aimed at obtaining fundamental knowledge.

Keywords: scientific community, humanitarian knowledge, science, social science, reforms in science, education, organization, personnel grading, forms of Modern, scientist.

Abstract: Cognitive approach to philosophy of education seeks for new strategies to form cogitation of a modern human. In this regard, coevolutionary strategy is gaining more importance, as it forms and establishes new objectives of human activity, puts forward new environmental regulators both in natural resource management and material production as well as standards of environmental balance and dynamic balanced relationship between human and nature, legal regulators of human invasion into natural ecosystems and sets values for biosphere environmental ethics aimed at support, protection and expansion of life and forms of life. At the same time the author describes the sources and solutions of the environmental crisis such as to subdue material and technological activities of human to the purposes of improving the biosphere and to understand the complex relationship between organization of biosphere and organization of noosphere.

Keywords: philosophy, philosophy of education, convergent technologies, coevolution, cognitive strategies, biological technologies, scientific picture of the world, philosophy of nature, bio- and noospheres, environmental studies.

Abstract: The Editorial Board of the Philosophy and Culture Journal congratulates Vladimir Natanovich Porus, a famous Russian philosopher and an expert in the theory of k knowledge, philosophy and methodology of science, on his 70th anniversary and wishes him a long and successful work in the sphere of philosophy.

Keywords: philosophy, theory of knowledge, methodology of science, anniversary, Vladimir Natanovish Porus.

Abstract: This summer the author of the article had a chance to read a very interesting book. The book he is talking about combines features of many genres. Here is an extract from the book: ‘Devoted to her love and her beloved man, a young woman keeps their secret as an experienced conspirator. Intense, thoroughly hidden and clearly prospectless love affair has become a serious life test for both of them, but especially for her. At the first look, it followed quite a usual or even banal scheme. Hidden from everyone, secret meetings of lovers at the mansard went on’. What is it? Is it a love novel? Yes it is, it is the novel about feelings which had a serious impact on lives of the two famous people. At the same time, this book is not only about love. This is the kind of book we want to call ‘biographics’. It is the story about two famous philosophers, their feelings and everyday life, their social and scientific activities. This is the book about personalities, social situations and everyday lives of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. This book is a theoretical research most of all. After recent researches of A. V. Gulyga and Yu. N. Davydov who analyzed not only philosophical concepts but also peculiarities of the epoch, Motroshilov’s book represents, according to the author, a completely new stage in understanding Western philosophy.

Keywords: philosophy, being, time, love, humanism, theology, technology, evil, totalitarianism, existentials.