Abstract: The subject of this research is the equivocal – simultaneously value and cognitive – status of humanitarian disciplines. Despite the obvious presence of the value component in composition of these disciplines (notably, presence not only as the object of cognition, but also as the scholar’s own value position), the are usually qualified in the philosophical-methodological literature as the branches of knowledge, specific sciences (compared with other sciences). The article gives a different interpretation of the structure and functions of humanitarian disciplines. It is demonstrated that in this field have practically established the two interrelated and formally inseparable, but in essence, discordant types of intellectual activity: alongside the humanitarian sciences, which describe and explain the realities of human existence, it is also the value-normative doctrines, which suggest and rationally substantiate certain life orientations of the people. The methodological foundation lies in the non-cognitivist approach that stands for the beyond cognition specificity of the value-normative phenomena of consciousness, as well as their profound irreducibility to knowledge. This approach formed in the last several decades as the alternative to the traditional cognitivist paradigm that interprets human mentality in general as the area exclusively of the knowledge and cognition. The important practical result of discrediting of the cognitivist paradigm consists in the radical retargeting of the methodology of ethical upbringing: rejection of the traditional “educational” orientation (according to which, the values are retransmitting through the transfer of “knowledge” of good, duty, etc.; in other words, by means of moral edifications) in favor of the more efficient methods of psychological and socio-deterministic impact upon the souls of the educates.

Keywords: Metaethics, Reductionism, Non-cognitivism, Cognitivism, Values, Knowledge, humaniora, humanities, Humanitarian sciences, Humanitarian disciplines

Abstract: The subject of this research Is the main approaches to the problem of truth and their correlation with the works of the Russian religious philosophers. The following approaches are being determined: ontological, gnoseological, existential, and relativistic (nihilistic). The ontological approach is based on the principle of oneness of reasoning and being, where the truth is authentic being. Such approach emerges on the basis of mythological reasoning.  Gnoseological approach lies in contraposition of the subject and object of cognition. Existential approach is established on the so-called reference to the circumstances preceding the subject-object demarcation. The truth is being understood as the existence or value.  Relativistic approach in its development balances the definition of truth, eventually seeing it as fiction. In the works of the Russian religious philosophers we can observe an ontological trend, in which the truth is understood as “omnibeing”. According to V. S. Solovyev, the truth is perceived in “mystical” unity of rational and irrational aspects of a subject, in unity of the subject and object of cognition. In order to reveal the inner logic of such unity, A. F. Losev refers to the neo-Platonic dialectics. At the same time, Russian religious philosophers criticize the gnoseological approach, subjective-idealistic trends of existential approach, as well as relativistic (nihilistic) approach. The conclusion is made that the Russian religious philosophy is a peculiar continuation of the ancient and medieval ontological tradition. We can also observe mythological foundations of the specificity of Russian religious philosophy.

Keywords: Myth, Cathedral consciousness, Omnibeing, Living knowledge, Truth as fiction, Existential understanding of the truth, Gnoseological understanding of the truth, Ontological understanding of the truth, Russian religious philosophy, Truth

Abstract: The subject of this research is the analysis of the value modalities within the information-communicative paradigm of science. It is underlined that genesis (ontology) of science in the area of culture is not only an example and model of the information-communicative innovative processes in all spheres of human activity, but also possesses the essential  ethical characteristics.  The author claims that the newest discoveries in physics, cosmology, and especially biology, not only significantly affect the information resources and worldview attitudes, but also touch upon the in-depth, existential characteristics of the scholars, as well as the entire population of the Earth. The scientific novelty consists in the following statement: the relevance of the value problematics of science is tightly connected with the solution of the question about the methodology of research of the values from the perspective of their information-communicative importance. The author determines the main value modalities of science on the three principal levels of the system of scientific activity within the conceptual contexts of sociocultural historical process. It is stated that the universal human values of solidarity, information awareness, communication skills, integrity, tolerance, and humanism are more carefully expressed through the ethical norms and ideals of scientific community.

Keywords: Culture, Sociology, Ethics, Principles, Binarity, Scholars, Science, Communicativeness, Information, Value

Abstract: The subject of this research is the opera libretto, its importance, role and place in the process of staging a spectacle. The author emphasizes that opera libretto cannot contend for priority in interpretation of the initial literary material, or life story, because it is created only under the influence of a composer who writes the music for the opera. The opera libretto in the literary text is oriented on the idea of a composer, rather than a librettist, the idea that is placed in the score. Thus libretto can never become an independent carries of the opera plot, and the director of a play cannot base on the storyline captured in the libretto. For preparation of this research the author studied a large volume of literature dedicated to the issue of libretto writing, as well as the problem of realization of composer’s idea in opera theatre. The growing trend towards modernization of libretto via rewriting of the historical classical text, created in union with the composer, can result in the perishing of the very form of the art of “opera spectacle”. In an attempt to make the opera “more acceptable” for the modern audience, the librettists strive to endow the plot with “modern” “entertainment”, and in doing so, destroy the very goal and purpose of the opera work.  

Keywords: Libretto, Opera directing, Opera, Acting analysis, Storyline, Action, Theory of directing, Directing, Theatre, Music

Abstract: The article is devoted to the relationship between the concept of truth and the concept of the sacral including the relationship between these concepts through history. In his research Turkin touches upon the origin of the concept of truth in Parmenides' philosophy and further development of this concept in Plato's works. In this regard, the researcher analyzes etymology of the Greek word ἀλήθεια (truth) and how definitions of truth are related to properties of the sacral. Special attention is paid to similar properties of the sacral and truth, mutual influence of these two concepts in relation to the modern processes of the world's 'unspelling' and development of quasi-religions and para-religions. In his research Turkin has used the phenomenological approach. In addition, he has aplied traditional philosophical and linguistic methods including abstraction, comparison, generalization, analogy, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, modelling, language analysis, comparative and historical methods. It is shown that there has been a close relationship between the concept of truth and the concept of the sacral since the moment when the concept of truth was first created. The author of the article defines the most essential properties that these two concepts have in common. He concludes that each truth is either sacral or quasi-sacral. He also establishes that changes in the definition of one concept have had a direct influence on the definition of the other concept. In this regard, the researcher also analyzes the relationship between narcissism as the utmost subjectivization of the sacral and solipsism as the utmost subjectivization of truth. 

Keywords: Durkheim, Plato, Parmenides, narcissism, quasi-religion, ambivalency, secular, sacral, false, truth

Abstract: The paper follows E. Cassirer’s exemplary study (Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1932) of classical aesthetics making in the 18th century as a kind of a pattern, a model of forming of a branch in the humanities. Philosophical experience of that time is valuable and interesting because it had been formed before the emergence of positivism and the specific “matrix” that became later a notorious concept of science and “the unified scientific method”. During the Enlightenment the priority of rational knowledge is being established and the humanities, aesthetics in particular, do not loose their value as an independent, special type of scholarship. This considerably enriches the category of “subject” in the theory of cognition where it is for ages considered as an utmost abstraction — the transcendental subject — the main condition of true knowledge. Classical aesthetics aim to turn the very sensory into an object deserving cognition along with rational knowledge. This lays the foundations of knowledge in the humanities as an independent type of learning which has its own ontology and, as a consequence, its own principles, methods, methodology, philosophical premises and history. First of all, it is an interpretation of a special role and the nature of subject and object as abstractions of another level, a philosophic-empirical one, where they are presented in cultural, historical and social contexts, in the system of values and social norms. Cassirer’s views are under scrutiny to see how he treats ideas of N. Boileau-Despréaux, J. Goethe, Voltaire, D. Diderot, G. Lessing, I. Kant, A. Shaftesbury, and also an explanation of systematic aesthetics by A. Baumgarten who turns to G. Leibniz’s and Ch. Wolff’s ideas.

Keywords: cultural and historical epistemology, the humanities, systematic aesthetics, classical aesthetics, philosophy of the Enlightenment, philosophy, scientific method, subject, transcendental subject, empirical subject

Abstract: The drivers of human evolution are still one of the darkest points in the anthropogenesis theory. From the point of view of the representatives of positive science, human is a part of nature and therefore unconditionally obeys the laws of nature. The obvious axiom of philosophy is that human has a single essence. In his article Spektor raises the following question: what are the reasons why human has such an essence? Therefore, the research subject of the present article is a theoretical justification of the reasons of the unity of humankind. Noteworthy that such reasons can be found in actual conditions of the descent of man. The research methodology involves monism as the most general principle as well as methods of dialectical logic combined with the analysis or critics of references. The author shows that a sucessive scientific interpretation of the question about the unity of the mankind brings us to the following conclusion: human has to adjust to a very singular environment. This is the kind of environment that has a high level of the internal coherence so all the living creatures have to mutually adjust to one another. So human evolution is a type of specific universalization and constant competition inside their environmental niche. These are the external drivers of 'hominization'. The internal drivers include the initiation of the defensive insinct that have been going on for thousands of years. 

Keywords: anthropogenesis, evolution, mankind unity, adaptation, homo sapiens sapiens, evolutionism, initiation, cult, sacrifice, culture

Abstract: The author of the article makes an attempt to carry out the philosophical analysis of the heraldic symbols in the Rus during the ruling of Ioann III and Ioann IV. The object of the philosophical interpretation is the symbols of the double-headed eagle, the rider (Saint George) and the unicorn. The authors of the article specify that it is semiotics that allow to discover and analyze signs and symbols of the social life of those times which included, on the one hand, various practical collaborative activities performed by individuals and, on the other hand, their symbolic expressions. The research is based on the semiotic approach as a heuristic method of philosophical interpretation of heraldic tributes of the aforesaid period in history. The standard semiotic analysis describing the meaning, the meant and the reviewer (according to Umberto Eco’s methodological scheme) is completed with the Jung’s theory of archetypes. The authors conclude that philosophical interpretation of heraldic symbols allow to prove their importance as a symbolic mean of expressing the autocratic status of reign of the tsar, the ‘Great’ tsar at first and then the ‘Terrible’ tsar. Back in those times the state institution consisting of a great number of territories needed a powerful and authoritative government. Therefore, heraldic symbols served as a symbolic mean for upholding and reinforcing the imperious status of tsars. In fact, being a symbolic aspect of the social life, heraldic images upheld and supported the status of the government trough creating the radiance of glory, wisdom and heroism around the governors.

Keywords: heraldry, semiotics, double-headed eagle, rider, unicorn, statehood, Ioann IV (the Terrible), symbol, the Rus, tsar.

Abstract: The purpose of philosophical research is to view philosophy of religion as a special form of philosophical knowledge that differs from history of religion, psychology of religion and religious studies. Analyzing the development of philosophy of religion from Immanuel Kant to adepts of social anthropology, we can define the main problems and definitions associated with philosophy of religion. Philosophy of religion has its own way of viewing and solving the classical philosophical problem of truth. It is the philosophy of religion which views truth as part of the absolute. In philosophy of religion revelation in a particular branch of religion is viewed as the representation of the absolute. Description of peculiarities of definition of truth in philosophy of religion is completed with the insight into Buddhist philosophy. Mahayana philosophy of Nagarjuna and Yogacara school provide examples of modeling the absolute unique for religious culture of the Asian Pacific countries. It is expected that apophatic modeals of truth in Orthodox theology can encourage efficient communication between Russian intellectual community and intellectual communities of the Asian Pacific just like Buddhist Mahayana schools.

Keywords: philosophy, truth, value, religion, revelation, philosophy of religion, Buddhism, Mahayana, apophatic theology, Nagarjuna.

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: Based on the analysis of Plato’s dialogues, the author describes Plato’s idea of truth that is directly related to such philosophical category as ‘being’. Plato was the first philosopher to distinguish the three definitions of truth: 1) truth as the feature of being; 2) truth as the feature of human knowledge; 3) truth as the feature of human existence. In Plato’s dialogues love for truth determines all the aspects of true existence of human. Dialectics of search for truth cause the tripartite interpretation of the term: 1) truth is the content like the ‘pure’ (self-identical and everlasting) being; 2) truth is the feature of knowledge aimed at either this ‘pure’ being (when the truth is knowledge) or appearing and disappearing (formation) of items (opinion); 3) truth is the feature of human existence in the world as shown in Plato’s philosophy of state. Plato’s philosophical concept of truth serves as an example for further search for truth at all stages in history of Western philosophy.

Keywords: philosophy, truth Plato, dialogues, ontology, gnoseology, being, value, absolute truth, dialectics.

Abstract: The article is devoted to analyzing Descartes’ cogito conception by comparing it with Husserl’s phenomenology. The author compares these two philosophical conceptions because he believes it to be possible to build the ontological theory based on transcendental subjectivity. Detailed analysis of the teaching about innate ideas allows to define Descartes’ basic conception equating cogitation and existence.

Keywords: philosophy, Descartes, Husserl, cogitation, existence, ego, idea, subjectivity, transcendency, phenomenology.

Abstract: The author of the article studies the leading concepts in S. Frankl’s teaching about a soul: spiritual life, soul, consciousness and subconsciousness. The author makes an attempt to describe certain features of the aforesaid terms and describe the relation between them. The author compares Frankl’s definitions with some modern psychological terms.

Keywords: philosophy, soul, psychology, Frankl, consciousness, subconsciousness, spiritual lie, desire, will, psyche.

Abstract: The article studies the theoretical and methodological grounds for ontological approach to faith. It is shown how history of philosophy formed the attitude to faith as the characteristics of human existence. It is proved that faith should not be viewed only as the phenomenon of religion or knowledge theory because it is closely connected to the process of personal growth. The present article will be of interest not only to philosophers but also to all those who are interested in topical issues of human life and existence.

Keywords: philosophy, faith, truth, value, system, personality, ontology, existence, methodology.

Abstract: The article is devoted to axiological grounds of justice. In order to understand axiological aspects and paradigms better, the author of the article describes formation of justice as a value and defines why it is included in the hierarchy of values. The author also analyzes and classifies the concept of justice and its conventional value in different epochs and types of culture, interprets the value of justice for a modern human and defines the main problems of interpretation of axiological grounds of justice.

Keywords: philosophy, justice, axiological, grounds, ideal, spiritual, value, idea, modern, human.

Abstract: Aron’s work ‘History and the Dialectic of Violence. Analysis of Sartre’s ‘Critics of Dialectical Reason’ is a serous research of Sartre’s late philosophy which was viewed by Aron from the sociological point of view. Aron’s analysis of Sartre’s philosophy also casts light on Aron’s own views on freedom and violence.

Keywords: philosophy, existentialism, human, consciousness, freedom, violence, practice, action, totality.

Abstract: The article discusses whether it is possible to have thoughts which are not liberal while referring oneself to the liberal camp. The author disputes with Vadim Belyaev and shares his views on modern social skills and social actions. The article also shows how he puts all his principles to life.

Keywords: philosophy, doctrine, liberal, salvation, practice, activity, personality, effectiveness, nature, scheme.

Abstract: As the basic methodological guides for viewing the mechanisms of interaction between science and religion it is important to consider the binary oppositions ‘naturalism- creationism’ and ‘critical rationalism – sacral nature of orthodoxy’. Christianity outlines the block of gnoseological, ontological and moral metaphysical concepts. Science as a novation in the sphere of realization of human creative potentials is possible only on the basis of a certain level of thinking activity which is achieved, particularly, in the course of development of a religious consciousness – an ability to make references, form abstract and general notions, carry out experiments and etc. Based on the idea of ecocentrism, it is quite topical today to substantially fill in the spiritual concepts with philosophical, scientific and religious components as a part of starvation for the ideal universal knowledge introduced by V. S. Solovyev.

Keywords: philosophy, spirituality, Christianity, science, metaphysics, values, communication, innovation, knowledge, ecocentrism.

Abstract: Trying to understand the meanings of culture, cultural studies address to literature for general readers as an art form of a society’s system of value. The goal of this article is to find out how the value of socially useful labor was reflected in literature for general readers during the time of the ‘Thaw’. What role did the socially useful labor play in everyday life? How important motivation for such labor was? What meanings of the Soviet culture hid behind it?

Keywords: cultural studies, value, labor, literature for general readers, meaning, Soviet, tradition, culture, ‘thaw’.

Abstract: The author of the article studies the problem of faith and views it not as a religious or a gnoseological phenomenon but as an everyday life value. The author describes the mechanism of faith as an ontological phenomenon and its functions. It is proved that faith is not only a revelation of personality and its genuineness. According to the author, an efficient instrument to solve the problem of human existence would be to develop the ontological approach to faith which would combine precious ideas of both Martin Heidegger’s fundamental ontology and P. A. Florensky’s Russian religious philosophy. The article will be of interest not only to philosophers, but also to everyone interested in the challenges of human.

Keywords: philosophy, faith, ontology, phenomenology, symbol, symbolism, adherence to pluralism, repetition, relationship, unity.

Abstract: The article considers some aspects of the process of infl uence of ideology, social cultural values, standards of ethics and esthetics and etc. on the process of history reconstruction. It is noted that ideology infl uence is one of the most strongly marked and the most distorting the entire process and outcomes of the history reconstruction. The author insists on the thesis that the implicit form of basic cultural values and social norms is refl ected in reconstructive ‘historical knowledge’. Moreover, when the former changes, it makes the historical knowledge to change, too. As a result, any society would inevitably have its own history based on the values and norms generally accepted in this society. The author of the article also raises a question about moral and ethical responsibility of a historian for results of such reconstruction.

Keywords: philosophy, history reconstruction, historical knowledge, culture, axiological approach, objectivity, values, morals, ethics, esthetics

Abstract: The article covers the studies of the scientific community from R. Merton up to the present as well as contains conclusions regarding further development of ethics of the scientific community. Special attention is drawn to existing mechanisms of ethical regulation not only within the community but also in related spheres such as education and entrepreneurship. In the end the author concluded that it was possible to borrow certain mechanisms of ethical regulation from corporate governance and business ethics.

Keywords: philosophy, scientific community, applied ethics, ethics of science, university, institution of higher education, ethical regulation, ethical codex, corporation, science

Abstract: Abstract: the author is viewing the on-going process of globalization, its social, political, religious and cultural aspects. The author underlines that fragile cultural borders between nations stop the world development and result in historical “failures” and crisis.

Keywords: philosophy, culture, religion, civilization, globalization.

Abstract: Abstract: Editorial Board is greeting Valentin Ivanovich Tolstyh, PhD in philosophy, professor, chief researcher at Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, editor and author of numerous works in philosophy, on his 80th birthday.

Keywords: philosophy, culture, intelligentsia, Valentin Ivanovich Tolstyh.

Abstract: Scientists who adopted Kuhn’s methodology as a powerful tool for understanding scientific developmental processes have been quite interested in applying the same methods to philosophy of technology. Below you shall find the brief summaries of the Western discussions on using Kuhn’s model for interpretation of changes in technics and technology.