Abstract: The article discusses the meaning and content of the concept of nothingness introduced by S.S. Neretina in the book "The Earth Hums with a metaphor". Philosophy and Literature" (short story "Lermontov: the semantics of repetitions"). The author identifies five main characteristics in this view: nothing as freedom (where freedom is understood by Neretina "as peace, silence, silence, love and – as "I"); nothing as balancing on the verge of being and non-being; as an opportunity to express this reality in poetry, while philosophy makes it impossible to think of anything"; nothing as a denial of everything, including life; finally, nothing is set as a reality opposed to culture. In this interpretation, nothing is a rather complex semantic formation, but generally understandable, if we keep in mind the task that Neretina solves: on the one hand, she finds out the relationship between literature and philosophy, on the other, she thinks through Lermontov's dramas.   Neretina claims that Lermontov, like Goethe, was a special poet – poet-philosopher, he, as a thinking person, following such Russian thinkers and poets as, for example, Chaadaev and Pushkin, tried to understand why an honest, educated person "woe from wit", why he often ends up badly. The article discusses Lermontov's dual position as a poet and a latent thinker (philosopher), as well as the work of a modern writer who thinks through the existential problems of time in an artistic form. The author comes to the conclusion that the nothingness introduced by Neretina and attributed to Lermontov differs from the nothingness of St. Augustine, is given by the five listed characteristics, and represents a problem as an independent reality and whole.

Keywords: personality, poetry, philosophy, understanding, word, God, reality, nothing, denial, mind

Abstract: The article investigates the peculiarities of Durer's aesthetic views in the context of Renaissance philosophy and the theory of cognition of Modern times. Its provisions are compared with fragments of texts by L.-B. Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael. The semantic interrelationships of Durer's positions with mysticism, pantheism, natural philosophy and empiricism of Modern Times are emphasized. The interrelation of the problem of knowledge with the theme of freedom and beauty is considered in detail. The authors analyze various opinions and ways of comprehending the beautiful, presented in the philosophical constructions of Durer, his concept of "rational knowledge", "scientific ignorance". Special attention is paid to the boundaries of freedom in Durer's representation. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the presented concept of the evolution of A. Durer's aesthetic views helps to comprehend those contradictory trends that existed in the Renaissance itself. Thus, Durer believed that freedom conditioned by knowledge ends where attempts to transcend nature begin. A necessary condition for freedom is the understanding that the beautiful is relative. From the understanding of the relativity of the beautiful, from the concrete utopian program of its achievement (gradual and never-ending approach to it), an imperative grows, meaning denial, the completion of the aesthetics of Rebirth. According to him, the artist should not limit himself to one type, but should be knowledgeable in various ways of depicting all kinds of types. In order to make such an image as is required of him. Thus, the professionalism of the artist, his experience, knowledge, recognition of the power of knowledge and, at the same time, understanding of its relativity – all this, as an achievement of the Renaissance theory of art, loses its meaning. All this is sacrificed to the tastes of employers.

Keywords: beautiful, scientific ignorance, rational knowledge, natural philosophy, rationalism, freedom, humanism, art, Revival, aesthetics

Abstract: The object of this research is the cultural policy of modern Russia. Cultural policy is being reduced to the policy of the ministry of culture or state policy in the field of visual, theatrical, or other art disciplines. Such approach is substantiated by the very narrow view of culture as the sphere of material and spiritual art. Due to such comprehension of the concept of culture and cultural policy, the key objectives of the cultural policy, which lies in formation of the multifaceted personality with active civil position, remains unaccomplished. The subject of this research is the essence of policy as a system of activity of the government institutions aimed at ensuring the integrity of society and its sustainable development, as well as the objective grounds of systematicity of the cultural policy. The scientific novelty consists in the position that the systematicity of social life and philosophical essence of politics substantiates the need for realization of the intended systemic cultural policy, as well as determines the connection of culture with the phenomena of identity and tolerance as the results and factors of preserving the stability of social life. The conclusion is made that the systematicity of cultural policy is achieved through creation in the structure of each ministry of culture of the continuous improvement of the overall culture of worldview orientation of the personnel, formation among them of the idea of democratic equality, humanistic values, culture of tolerance, and active civil position.

Keywords: civil society, national-ethnic culture, tolerance, identity, policy, systemic cultural policy, culture, globalization, multiculturalism, unified Russian culture.

Abstract:   The goal of this article is to demonstrate the relevance of Michel Foucault’s thinking in interpretation of the epistemological questions, which lately have become the subject of discussion, and namely the question on the processes of differentiation of knowledge and its grounds. Turning to the analysis of Foucault’s philosophy for the purpose of clarification of the aforementioned issue, the authors determine the specific dialectics that is based upon the notion of “other spaces”, within the framework of which the foundation can be established only by means of constitutive exception of its negative polis. At the same time, the authors raise the question posed in the beginning of Edmund Husserl’s Crisis: is it possible that the origin of such foundations is nothing except pure coincidence? The authors attempt to follow the stages of development of the main notions of Foucault’s philosophy in his early works. The conclusion is made that the dialectic definition of “other spaces” serves as a guide of epistemological analysis, with the help of which we can ascertain the question about the origins of humanitarian sciences. Based on interpretation of the problem of constitution of science, the link between Foucault and the late Husserl is being established.  

Keywords: Dialectical relation, Apriorism, Ontogenesis of knowledge, Foundations of sciences, Of Other Spaces, Philosophy of the limit, Historical a priori, Gesture of exception, Critical epistemology, Episteme

Abstract: This article examines the practical philosophy of the Russian Neo-Kantian scientists P. I. Novgorodtsev, B. P. Vysheslavtsev, B. A. Kistyakovsky, and A. L. Saketti, for the purpose of determination of their attitude towards the problem of violence. The author attempts to designate the content of the problem of violence, clarify the specificity of the Neo-Kantian relation to it through the analysis of the texts of Russian Neo-Kantians. As an additional task, the author also explores the question on correlation between the Neo-Kantian problematics of violence and the corresponding views of I. Kant. During the course of this research it has been determined that the Russian NeoKantian scholars in their works touch upon three types of violence: legal compulsion, in which Neo-Kantians discuss the question of guarantees of legitimacy of compulsion and its conditions; extralegal, towards which Neo-Kantians hold a critical position; and foreign policy violence (war) – in this regard, the orientation towards overcoming is being formulated. The Russian Neo-Kantians believe that the main path in elimination of negative consequences of the social antagonisms that are present in human society lies in realization of the legal ideal, embodied in a legal state, which can be compared to Kant’s position

Keywords: Russian Neo-Kantianism, problem of violence, practical philosophy, legal compulsion, revolution, war, Kantians.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the images of black people in the art of Antiquity, and the object is the compositions of antique art (vase painting, sculpture, small statuary). The author carefully examines the key components of interpretation of the images of black people: characteristic peculiarities of their appearance, plots and roles in which they are portrayed; types of art compositions in which they exist; their transformation within time. The article also thoroughly analyzes the versions of interpretation of their semiotics, determines the general trends in interpretations of the images of black people that are common to different historical eras and types of arts. Scientific novelty consists in the comprehensive analysis of the images of black people in the context of general cultural and general historical transformation, with attraction of English, German, and French scientific sources, as well as in detection of their common and universal characteristics. The author makes the following conclusions: An absolutely unique role of black people in the art of Antiquity: they were the only kind of Others, whose images existed not only in vase painting, but also in small statuary, jewelry art, and numismatics; they existed in the Greek art of all times: Antiquity, Classics, Hellenism, as well as they were portrayed as warriors, servants, or associated with theatre, rituals, and witchcraft; Complexity and ambiguity of the interpretation of semiotics of their images; An ultimate stability of the scheme of representation of black people which outlived the Antiquity.

Keywords: Otherness, vase painting, Ancient Greek art, art of Antiquity, black people, Other, images of the Other, figure vessels, Roman art, applied art

Abstract: The author distinguishes two philosophical traditions in understanding of modality – gnoseological (I. Kant) and ontological (Aristotle, Hegel). Following the ontological vector of interpretation of modality, humanism is being analyzed through the prism of this category. In the field of discussion are the following questions: necessity of the humanistic outlook; transhumanism as a possibility of humanism, which derives from its circumstances; turn of humanism towards the realities of humanity, human, and reality, which allows humanism to avoid subjectivity in understanding of a human, and as a result of misperception or lie. The conclusion is made that the subjectivity of a human is essential of human’s essence, as well as of the conceptual core of humanism; transhumanism as a potential possible of humanism manifests as a misstatement of the latter; regular possible in human essence, which should be considered and reflected by complete humanism, is two sided of a human – ideal- beautiful and unattractive hidden. curr

Keywords: Human, Being, Subject, Humanism, Transhumanism, Modality, Essential, Possible, Accidental, Current

Abstract: The subject of the present research is the category of culture as it is used in social studies and humanities. The author of the article pays attention to the fact that culture is the most frequent research subject in all kinds of sciences. Somehow this makes a researcher lose his intuition and the academic community to feel confused about what 'culture' is meant in a research in particular. This is what has formed the basis for the present research. Indeed, the question about whether the category of culture survives the methodic doubts is highly important. Every scientist has his own understanding of culture and therefore applies his own practices to such research and this is the circumstance that emphasizes the need for scientists to reach a certain agreement regarding the definition of culture. In his research Popov has used  mostly the comparative method that allows to answer the question about the survival of the category of culture taking into account the trends of modern philosophy, cultural studies and sociology. The main conclusions of the research are the following: 1) socio-humanitarian sciences need to universalize thecategory of culture; 2) philosophy, cultural studies and sociology are the disciplines where the problem of the category's survival is especially pressing and therefore representatives of these sciences need to agree on a common definition of culture in their researches. 

Keywords: values, people, cognition, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, society, culture, science, civilization

Abstract: The object of the research is civil philosophy that is usually understood as the philosophy of politics (or state). At the same time, today civil philosophy is often related to civil society and development of civic position. Moreover, civil philosophy is viewed not only as a branch of applied (i.e. practical) philosophy but also as a wide scope of studies of ontological, axiological, anthropological and social philosophical issues. The contradiction in interpretation of the epistemological status of civil philosophy is solved by pointing out the civic nature of sayings of ancient sages, discussing the mission and role of philosophical schools in civic education, the Renaissance civic humanism, the theme of civic world as the starting point in civil philosophy of Bacon, Hobbes and Locke as well as civic context of the Englightenment principle of common sense and reason. Based on the results of the analysis, the researcher concludes that philosophy is qualified as civil philosophy not only according to the main themes (patriotism, the human rights, etc.) but mostly according to the appropriate and accepted interpretation of the main anthologiums and topical issues. In his research of the phenomenon of civil philosophy Tyugashev has used the socio-cultural approach viewing the existence of philosophy in the society taking into account all the variety of its socio-cultural forms. Civil philosophy is included in the scope of spiritual and practical forms of philosophy which also involves public philosophy, popular philosophy, school (academic) philosophy, 'home' philosophy, etc. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the researcher has described civil philosophy as an element of civil society. He suggests that we should view civil philosophy as the constitutive element of civic awareness and civi spiritual culture co-existing with civic mythology and civil religion, civic art and civic science. According to the author, civil philosophy is the worldview reflection of civil society that is implicitly established in the Constituion. 

Keywords: official philosophy, civil philosophy, civic wisdom, civic religion, civic humanism, civic culture, civil society, metaphilosophy, public philosophy, philosophy of Constitution

Abstract: This article was prepared on the basis of the archives (St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences) on the academician Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky (1863-1919), in particular, it is devoted to the doctrine of the socio-cultural energetics that has not been fully studied by researchers yet. This doctrine is not mentioned in the published works of Lappo-Danilevsky but it has been preserved as part of the manuscript "On Social Studies" containing materials of the end of the 1890s. The manuscript is more of a draft and therefore can not be issued as a separate publication. In his article Malinov gives a reconstruction of this doctrine including the most preserved fragments and offers their interpretation. The doctrine of Lappo-Danilevsky is based on the 'law of the social energy conservation' which he formulated in analogy with the law of the mechanical energy conservation. According to Lappo-Danilevsky in terms of the social phenomena the transition of the potential energy into the kinetic energy means converting the potential energy of cosmos into the creative power of culture. At the same time Lappo-Danilevsky attempts to formalize the 'law of social energy conservation'. Partly theoretical principles of the doctrine of the socio-cultural energetics were reflected Lappo-Danilevsky's researches on the history of the Russian culture of the XVIIIthe century.

Keywords: kinetic energy, potential energy, formalisation, law of energy conservation, cultural force, social energy, Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky, cultural form, history of the Russian culture, social gravitation or social gravity

Abstract: The article offers a comparative analysis of largely Western post-anthropocentric antihumanism in its main versions – reactive, technocratically apologetic and critical, and the non-Western humanism as a reiteration of the importance of humanist premises that have never been fulfilled in relation to liminal subjects of modernity deprived of their right to be considered human. The author discusses in detail the intersections and divergences between the Western theories of affect and the decolonial geopolitics and body-politics of knowledge, being, perception, demonstrating that many “discoveries” of the affective turn have been long ago represented in the non-Western theorizing remaining unknown or non-legitimate in the eyes of the mainstream scholarship. This problem has become particularly acute in the context of the discussion of the human, natural and animal, the decentration of the human being as a species and the erasing and destabilizing of the seemingly stable modern boundaries and hierarchies between the human and the natural. The second part of the article focuses on the further problematization of the border between humans and animals in the frame of the so called “autistic regard” which may be expressed both in the form of a scientific experiment and in the form of a performance which is often more successful.

Keywords: Sylvia Wynter, body-politics of knowledge, being and perception, the affective turn, an other humanism, Braidotti, Post(anti)humanism, autistic regard, liminality, ethnohumanism, the other

Abstract: In his article Faritov carries out a comparative research of Hegel's concept of spirit and Jung's psychology of collective unconscious. Faritov compares the basic conceptual provisions of Hegel's dialectics with the main concepts of Jung's teaching such as collective unconscious, persona, individuation, self and projection. Despite the fact that Jung had a quite negative attitude to Hegel's philosophy, a lot of parallels can be drawn between Jung's psychology and Hegel's philosophy of spirit.  Faritov explains the contradiction between Jung's commitment to Kant's metaphysics and the presence of Hegel's motives in his psychological theory. Faritov uses conventional research methods including the method of comparative analysis. He also applies some methodological provisions of hermeneutical and post-structural approaches to analyzing texts. The result of the research is the conclusion that Jung's psychological theory, on the one hand, is oriented at the priority of facts and exclusion of philosophical speculation from the scope of research. That is why Jung seemed to be so critical about Hegel's theory. On the other hand, it tends to solve particular philosophical issues by the means of scientific discourse which leads to to the implicit presence of Hegel's philosophemes in Jung's teaching. 

Keywords: Hegel, Jung, dialectics, collective unconscious, individuation, self, archetype, discourse, spirit, transgression

Abstract: The article is devoted to the historical and philosophical analysis of the topical issue in the philosophy of culture — the study of the anthropological dimension of culture. Many cultural philosophers followed Max Scheler’s tradition who described an impressive number of the images of human discovered in the course of the philosophical and anthropological expertise. In 1984 a famous French sociologist Albert Jacquard published his book‘Inventer l’homme’ (To Invent a Human). Albert Jacquard believed that scientific developments allowed to refuse from the traditional model of human and to create a new human. A similar project was created earlier in 1972. However, it was not about the new technologies helping to create a new human. The author of the project, Marcel Bolle De Bal, was a professor of the Free University of Brussels and the author of many articles and books on the philosophy of culture. Marcel Bolle De Bal tried to answer the question about the image of a European as a result of the cultural evolution the following quarter of the century. The author of the present article uses the historical method allowing to study the main tendencies in the European cultural development. The author also uses the method of the cultural dynamics analysis. In a number of cases the author also uses the methods of philosophical anthropology. The novelty of the research is in the question about the anthropological dimension of the culture taking into account modern approaches to the problem. The article contains a critical analysis of Marcel Bolle De Bal’s conception and shows the illusions of his approach. According to the author, it was difficult for the French philosopher to predict what Europe would be like at the end of the 20th century. However, his works contained very interesting thoughts on the mechanisms of cultural development and possibilities of cultural classification.

Keywords: culture, human, the image of human, socio-cultural projects, European, society, permanent changes, manipulation, anxiety, prediction.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes types of school catechisms that were widely spread in Eastern- Slavic writings during the XVII–XVIII centuries. The analysis is carried out in terms of history and based on the methods of comparative analysis. «School catechism» or various religious morals contained in ABC-books and elementary study books are viewed as a collective term that combines texts of different genres. Being influenced by Western models of religious teachings such as Medieval catechetical prayers that appeared in Protestant writings of Spruchbücher genre in the XVI century and Martin Luther’s Small Catechism in 1529, Russian religious morals included in ABC-books and elementary study books published in Moscow and Kiev were an example of a creative combination of different cultural and religious traditions.

Keywords: ABC-book, school catechisms, Theophan Prokopovich, Russia, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, synthesis of traditions, Orthodox religious writings, influence of other confessions, Spruchbücher, XVII– XVIII centuries.

Abstract: The article is devoted to social and philosophical views of Nikolai Stankevich which he developed as a part of his ideas of esthetic humanism. The author of the article discusses Stankevich’ influence as a spiritual leader of his generation and the leader of the group of philosophers that left a significant mark in the history of Russian culture. Besides that, the author carries out the analysis of cultural and academic environment during the 30’s – 40’s of the XIX century as a new stage in Russian Enlightenment caused by the growth of national identity and interest towards European social philosophy and philosophical concepts trying to explain the place and role of Russia in European history. The author shows that back in those times philosophical community mostly existed as literary and philosophical groups and Stankevich’ group was the center of social and philosophical discussions. Many ideas discussed there, including those offered by Stankevich himself, were developed next decades. This shows the importance of philosophy in science and offers interpretation of progress as a never-ending spiritual and moral improvement of the mankind. This is what defined the main priorities of development of Russian philosophy and this is what, according to the author, makes Stankevich a symbolic figure of his times.

Keywords: esthetic humanism, philosophy, metaphysics, ‘wise goodness’, understanding, secularism, personality concept, art, philosophical poetry, ‘undivided knowledge’.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the 70th anniversary of Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky’s death and describes his basic views and beliefs. The emphasis is made on Merezhkovsky’s original conceptions, in particular, his idea of the nature and historical orientation of Christianity, the role of gender and embodiment and the concept of the so-called ‘Third Testament’ which played an important role in Merezhkovsky’s so-called ‘new Christianity’.

Keywords: philosophy, new Christianity, personality, all-unity, freedom, religion, apocalypse, the Third Testament, gender, ‘mean banality’.

Abstract: Nikolay Berdyaev (1874 – 1948) have been thinking about freedom in a very relevant aspect – freedom as a positive creative force and a principle of creative activity. This article by A.N. Lazareva contains analysis of N. Berdyaev’s works.