Abstract: The subject of this research is the historical-philosophical reconstruction of representations of M. A. Bulgakov concerning the paramount questions of the philosophy of history. The author particularly analyzes the writer’s views upon the following historicophilosophical problems: 1) meaning of history and the causes of historical catastrophes; 2) coincidences and regularities in the historical process; 3) physical and social death in history; 4) relationship between people and government, politics and ethics; 5) possibility of creating a new human during the turning periods in history; 6) role of personality in history. Mikhail Bulgakov expressed the original philosophy of history in his works. Not being systemically formulated, the historical representations of Bulgakov capture the paramount ontological questions of the historical process, among which are: the specificity of historical process and correlation between evolution and revolution within it; meaning and purpose of history; problem of freedom and must in history; possibility of creating a new human in the turning historical epochs; role of personality in history. Bulgakov interlinks the historiosophical reasoning and philosophical-anthropological, ethical and axiological thoughts, creating the syncretic concept that is based on a distinct socio-philosophical anthropology. The key element in this concept is life, sufferings and death of a human, who desires to live, develops in accordance with the laws of evolution, rather than revolution – the social cataclysm that destroys the religious-ethical and value foundations in a human.

Keywords: ethics, socio-philosophical anthropology, philosophical outlook, philosophy of history, Michail Bulgakov, axiology, revolution, evolution, ontological aspects of history, syncretism

Abstract: The subject of this article is a small chapter from the preparatory materials to Dostoevsky’s novel “Demons”, which in the authors’ opinion is a completed philosophical essay. This chapter, which lead character becomes a regular bedbug, represents value not only as a visual illustration that cracks a door into the creative laboratory of a prominent Russian writer and demonstrates the specific features of this artistic-philosophical method, but also as an imagery-symbolic insight or anticipation of the questions that engrosses the modern philosophy of mind. Particularly, reasoning on the limits and boundaries of the contemporary to Dostoevsky science, through his characters he questions: “what it is like to be a bedbug?” Those who at least merely familiar with the current situation within the philosophy of mind is bound to feel the close relation of similar wording with the famous article by T. Nagel “what it is like to be a bat?”, where this question and obvious failure of sensible answer from the third-person perspective, is used as a demonstration of non-reduction and fundamentality of the first-person perspective, and this the fundamental limitation of science.

Keywords: aesthetics, ethics, Demons, Dostoevsky, philosophy, religion, fiction, rationality, Nagel, misterianism

Abstract: The subject of the article is the concept of personal immortality, developed by the British philosopher of the late XIX – early XX century John McTaggart. The analysis focuses on the main metaphysical works of the philosopher: "Some dogmas of religion," "Studies in Hegelian cosmology", "The nature of existence." The study reveals the links of the concept with the principles of idealistic metaphysics, based on a rethinking of Hegel's philosophy. In this context the article deals with the idea of the Absolute reality, the ideas of individuals as a fundamental differentiation of reality, the integrity and perfection of the world. The relationship of the concept of immortality with McTaggart’s understanding of time and eternity is examined. The study allows one to conclude about a certain heuristic potential of McTaggart’s concept. The article highlights the four key arguments of McTaggart  that prove the personal immortality. These are the arguments indicating independence of consciousness from the matter, from the substantiality of personalities, from the illusory nature of time, from the values of asymmetry of the universe. All arguments combine the content that was rejected by modern science and philosophy, as well as promising from the scientific and philosophical perspective.

Keywords: whole and parts, absolute reality, personal immortality, metaphysics, philosophy of John McTaggart, personality, body, pre-existence, time, eternity

Abstract: This article examines the rational project of Plato pertaining to upbringing of children in the ideal state. The discovered by Ancient Greeks rational style of reasoning, creates a tough and reduced to the essential grounds picture of the upbringing process. Rationalism explains its thorough explication and scrupulous analysis of smallest details of the upbringing activity. These two qualities are also a response of the philosophical reason for its realization in culture. In its history, philosophical reason confessedly oriented at rational principles, often led to utopian social projects. Plato is the first to build social utopia, when his ideas state becomes a rational idea, hardly adjusted (or not adjusted whatsoever) to be realized in real life. Thus, Plato alongside the Italian thinker T. Campanella, viewed childbirth as a task that requires solution at the state level. He found it reasonable to join best men with best women for the purpose of improvement of the gene pool and reproduction of the “exceptional offsprings”. At the same time, only its best part was subject to upbringing; infanticide and abortions were not being condemned.  

Keywords: Ancient Greek philosophy, antiquity, utopianism, upbringing, childbirth, childhood, child, Campanella, Plato, history of childhood

Abstract: This article turns to a number of events from the life of Alan Turing, the founding father of the computer era and the author of the famous test that allows verifying the presence of consciousness in the machine in order to answer the question “What is referred to as artificial intelligence?” Because namely the discussion about the artificial intelligence, instantaneously disseminated in the special scientific research and products of mass culture, is one of the main consequences of Turing’s revolution. In this sense, the task of this article consists in reference to the source of emergence of the computer and narrative about the artificial intelligence, for the purpose of uncapping those meanings which were compressed in the very beginning, as well as never presented together in the specialized literature. The article answers the question “What is referred to as artificial intelligence”, demonstrating that it simultaneously incorporates three different names: 1) natural human intelligence, 2) human excluded, 3) new form of life.

Keywords: cognitive science, computer, machine, human, artificial intelligence, Turing test, Turing, naturalism, critical theory, technological singularity

Abstract: The object of this article is the peculiarities of consumer society, while the subject of the social narcissism as one of its features. The author examines the essence and signs of social narcissism, its demand by the worldview ideological orientations and psychology of consumerism. Social and moral-ethnical consequences of social narcissism along with its influence upon social being, individual and group consciousness, are being reviewed. The author follows the phenomenon of social success as an attribute of social narcissism, as well as demonstrates the role of social illusions in formation of the social narcissism. The methodological base of this article consists in ontological principles of dialectics, which allowed presenting social narcissism as an integral and controversial phenomenon. The scientific novelty lies in substantiation of the thesis on consumer society as the society of social narcissism. The following conclusions are made: 1) social narcissism is presented as one of the characteristics of consumer society; 2) the manifestation of social narcissism consists in the social success in its various forms.

Keywords: hedonism, social success, consumerism, personification, individualized being, individualism, consumer society, apathy, illusion, simulacrum

Abstract: The subject of this research is the ontological and epistemological foundations of Daseinanalysis. The author compares the contribution made by Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, and Jaspers into establishment of the theoretical foundation of Daseinanalysis. The main methods of application of Daseinanalysis within the philosophical practice and existential psychotherapy are being described. The article presents the meditation techniques, put together by the author on the methodologies of Binswanger and Yalom, which can be applied in philosophical practice. The article examines the human ability to design world and the main types of relationships between the human and the world. The main conclusion of the research conducted by the author is that Daseinanalysis as a philosophical practice does not recognize any preliminary systems as "privileged" in characteristic of a human, other than those existential structures which phenomenologically are being detected or reported by a human himself. Transcendental structure of the "existential a priori" is the key towards understanding of the world of any man, because it represents a semantic matrix in which all phenomena are in the proper place.

Keywords: K. Jaspers, L. Binswanger, M. Heidegger, I. Kant, existentialism, phenomenology, being, Dasein, philosiphical practice, I. Yalom

Abstract: The present article presents another stage of introducing the author's theory of interculture. In this part his study the author analyzes Auguste Comte's positivistic project. The author studies the challenge that triggered the creation of Comte's philosophy and his 'spirit of the positivism philosophy'. This challenge is viewed as one of the challenges to new European philosophy in general. In this regard, Comte's philosophy is shown as an attempt to perform 'just and fair diminition of human spirit' and to conduct intercultural revolution. Comte's positivism is described as some kind of a limit of materialistic targets of interculture.  A famous Comte's theory of three-phase development of the humankind is viewed as a strategy of overcoming a huge social crisis of the mankind. This is what became the main challenge for Comte. The author of the present article suggests to interpret new European projects of the conquest of nature as a projection of the project of conquest of human.  The article will be interesting for all who are into philosophical anthropology.   

Keywords: culture, interculture, positivism, conquest of nature, conquest of human, cultural remissions, systems of value, universal human values, materialism