Abstract: The object of this research is the problem of impact of the Athos-Byzantine hesychasm upon the personality and works of the Russian publicist of the XVI century Artemy Troitsky. The subject of analysis is his compositions viewed in the context of cultural-historical and religious-social situation of the era. Examination of his life and works is conducted with consideration of scientific results on this problematic in the pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and contemporary literature. The author also reviews the sociopolitical aspects of the activity of Russian hesychasts that found reflection primarily in the non-possessors movement. The following conclusions were made: the works of Artemy Troitsky mark unambiguous hesychast influence; his hesychasm in multiple aspects differs from the theological-philosophical doctrine of the late Byzantine hesychasm, Palamism, and established as a result of hesychast disputes Byzantium in the XIV century; Artemy fully remains within the framework of Sinaitism – the mystical-ascetic teaching of Gregory of Sinai; his views indicate a particular moral-ethical and sociopolitical orientation that received its expression in the non-possessors movement.

Keywords: Christianity, Orthodoxy, Russian philosophy, asceticism, knowledge of God, poverty, hesychasm, Christian anthropology, Christian philosophy, Artemy Troitsky

Abstract: This article analyzes the specificity of use of the term of “spacetime” in physics of the XX century. The author determines the peculiarities of the “spacetime” concept associated with the need for theoretical comprehension of the properties of interconnection of the spatial-temporal relations. In epistemological sense, the “spacetime” concept is a cognitive construct that helps expressing the link between the spatial and temporal characteristics as a single continuum in the relativistic physics. The work critically analyzes the understanding of the role of “Minkowski spacetime” in relativistic gravitation theory. The author examines the status of the “spacetime” concept within the program of binary geometrophysics of Y. S. Vladimirov. The main research method is the onto-gnoseological analysis of the informative sense of the “spacetime” concept used in physics of the XX century. The main conclusion consists in the following statement: “spacetime” concept is a fundamental scientific abstraction, which development is an necessary link in cognizing the essential properties of space and time, as well as their interconnection. Physical-theoretical notion of “spacetime” cannot substitute the philosophical categories of space and time that reflect the common properties along with the specificities of the universal forms of being.

Keywords: Poincare, Minkowski, Einstein, relativistic gravitation theory, General relativity, special theory of relativity, spacetime, Logunov, Vladimirov, binary geometrophysics

Abstract: The author turns attention to the fact that in modern world the global political, economic, and cultural changes not only made the society homogeneous, but also intensified the inverse processes: discrepancy of cultures and nations; growth of national self-consciousness; cultural differentiation; desire of the nations to self-affirmation and preservation of cultural values to the point of aggravation of the nationalistic motives that lead to conflicts. The system approach towards examination of the topic allows determining the assimilation and multiculturalism as the based variants of integration strategy. The processes of assimilation and integration are traced in their modern interpretations. The article criticizes the existing policy of multiculturalism; it is assumed that it leads to escalation of social fragmentation based on the ethnic principle; takes place the gradual transformation of multiculturalism into the political program of cultural differentiation, and the world – into the system of interpenetrating translocal cultures; emerges the trend of human strive for multiple identity. It is noted that the policy of ethnic-race relations in the modern world shifts towards the “positive discrimination” with regards to minorities; its negative moments are indicated. The author underlines the necessity of the principle of “tolerance dualism” in coexistence of societies in the globalizing world. An attempt is made to signify the existence of a new polyethnic society, society of cultural pluralism, while considering the policy of multiculturalism alongside the assimilation (integration) as the stages of its establishment.

Keywords: translocal cultures, multiple identity, cultural pluralism, positive discrimination, tolerance dualism, assimilation, multiculturalism, intercultural communication, cultural differentiation, polyethnicity

Abstract: This article turns particular attention to the symbolic interpretation of the phenomenon of ethnos and ethnic culture that fits into the constructivist paradigm of ethnology. As the basis is taken the presence of a unique secondary symbolic spectrum of consciousness, development at the stage of ethnogenesis and accomplishing a function of edification of the ethical in a person. In this angle, ethnic culture appears as social code and psychomental structure bound to the traditional life-sustaining system, rooted by ritual, and its fundamental core is the mythologically concepted unique spectrum of ethnic symbols of consciousness. Such metaphysical-symbolic articulation of the phenomenon of ethnos and its culture raises a question on the possible termination of their existence, as a results of destruction of the symbolic spectrum of secondary mythological symbols. The scientific novelty is defined by conclusion on the symbolic nature of ethnos and its culture, which is explicated through the unique interpretation of the universal for human of any culture initial symbols of consciousness, which establish the cultural code of a person. This secondary after the verbal interpretation spectrum of ethnic symbols represents a cultural code of ethnos. The contemporary nations that did not lose the indicated ontological symbolic constructs can possibly experience their renaissance and modernization. The latter appears as the synthesis of the symbols of diverse cultures that is demonstrated on the examples of modern Yakut cultural practices – theatre, cinematography, dance, and fine arts.

Keywords: Yakuts, ethnic culture, ethnogenesis, ethnos, ethnology, consciousness, symbolic spectrum, symbols, ethnocultural modernization, Yakut art

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

Abstract:   The subject of this research is the historical evolution of the three world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. The author analyzed the development of these religions based on the model of religious cycle, which in his opinion, is common to the majority of historical religions, in other words, religious systems created after the invention of writing. In accordance with the author’s concept, each of the aforementioned religion has gone through six stages of development: initial, orthodox, classical, reformist, critical, and post-critical; as well as two types of crises – structural and system. The three methods are used in the course of this study: historical, comparative, and method of ascension from abstract to concrete. The main conclusion of the conducted research consists in the statement on the functional identity of historical development of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam regardless of their doctrine of ritual practice. Author’s special contribution is defined by formulation of the abstract model of religious cycle that he applies to the evolution of the aforementioned religions.  

Keywords: Christianity, Buddhism, system crisis, structural crisis, sacred tradition, Holy Scriptures, religious cycle, evolution of religion, Islam, comparativist studies

Abstract: The subject of this research is the establishment of substrate-attributive model of the information substrate of information culture. The object is the information culture as a sociocultural phenomenon. The work substantiates the idea that information culture has an information substrate, represented in three elements: civil, social, and anthropological; information, sociality, values, norms, traditions, subjectivity, objectivity, and virtuality are considered its attributes; the generic diversity  of information culture determines its modes. This work is continuation of research of the phenomenon of information culture in the articles of the scientific journals "Philosophical Thought" and "Conflict Studies" of the Nota Bene publisher. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the author substantiated the necessity and possibility for establishing a substrate-attributive model of the nature of information culture, which allows defining its basic structural elements, properties, specificity, as well as reveals the factors and mechanisms of origination and development of such sociocultural phenomenon. The conducted research will be valuable in further examination of the impact of information culture upon the transformation of generic qualities of a person: consciousness, activity, communication, and language in the conditions of evolvement of the information society.

Keywords: information field, substrate-attributive model, information activities, information substrate, modus, attribute, substrate, information culture, social information, information society

Abstract:   This article develops a thesis that with the emergence of photography and cinematography, the philosophy became possible through not only words, but also visual image and movie image. Cinematographic works can contain one or another, as a rule, implicitly expressed philosophy. As an example, the author examines the works that arouse interest because of the contained implicit philosophy of pain (algosophy) – five film adaptations of the novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch “Venus in Furs” and selection from the best artistically important films of the famous film directors, such as Michael Haneke, Roman Polanski, and others. The author substantiates the possibility of transmodal interpretation of implicit philosophy, expressed in the language of visual images, nonverbal language of the traditional philosophical discourse. It is demonstrated that the analyzed compositions visually develop and substantiate a number of specific philosophical theses, essential in diagnosing the relevant issued and profound philosophical analysis of modern culture, as well as existential problematic of modern civilization. The aforementioned works concern and formulate in a new sense most of the key problems and sections of the traditional philosophy of pain: ontological, gnoseological, social, psychological, and ethical.  

Keywords: suffering, cinema art, movie, hedonism, pain, visual image, BDSM, algosophy, phenomenon of pain, philosophy of pain