DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.22957

Abstract: The object of this research is one of the most important and relevant questions of Hesychast controversy that took place on Byzantine Empire in the XIV century, namely the meaning and correlation of the two approaches towards cognition of the divine reality – vision of God and apophatic theology, reviewed from gnoseological and existential perspective. The subject of this research is the discussion of Gregory Palamas with Barlaam, in the course of which had established and crystalized his views upon the role and place of the apophatic theology in work of the experienced contemplation of God. Using the phenomenological and analytical method, the author examines the problem of interrelation of these distinct methods of the cognition of God, which results in conclusion on the existence of the two opposite approaches towards the practice of spiritual and thinking activity of a human. The article demonstrates the distinctness of the apophaticism of Hesychasm, which is different from the traditional Christian apophatic theology, as well as a specific role of the religious experience. The author analyzes the crucial for Palamas criterion between the essence and energy of mind and his doctrine about theosis. The author underlines the close connection between the gnoseological and anthropological problematic, because the possibility of cognition of God directly depends on the way of human existence, which includes not only his intellectual and emotional spheres, but also the corporeal practices. It is noted that there are elements of spiritual succession between the Byzantium Hesychasm and the Russian religious philosophy that gained momentum on the basis of the unified Eastern Christian traditions. The article also examines the question of expression of mystical experience, which is connected with the problem of religious and metaphysical authority. The conclusion is made that Palamas’ clarification of mind outgrows the initial ethical-psychological level, and reveals its essence in gnoseological and ontological dimension.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.22908

Abstract: This article examines the issue of the study on the atmosphere and its relationship to the material culture, subjectivity and influence. This article presents a hypothesis that the atmosphere, due to its phenomenal and interdisciplinary character, might be placed between the material and immaterial, the practical and ideal, or the subject, and object. It is known that the expression "atmosphere" is widely used in the common language to describe the inseparable part of the reality. It is the reason which lies behind the difficulties with its epistemological identification and definition. This article presents the performative, aesthetic, emotional, and phenomenological methods of studying the atmosphere. These methods originate from the works of German philosophers such as Hermann Schmitz and Gernot Böhme. The relevance of this approach and the scope of its applicability are determined. The author comes to the conclusion that the atmosphere cannot be limited or precisely defined spatially or physically, meanwhile it has an ontological reality that definitely adjusts the world and each individual perception, not being a given thing, but rather a way out of a thing beyond its limits.The theoretical propositions presented within the framework of the article can be used for the detailed study on the phenomenon of the atmosphere in its humanitarian incarnation, as well as a subtler reading of cultural and social phenomena in their widest sense context. Also, the provisions of the article can be used in the field of architecture and design, urban design, retailing and many other areas of human life due to the ubiquity of this phenomenon.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.23113

Abstract: The article considers the socio-philosophical prerequisites of modern media ecology. It is shown that, since media ecology as a scientific discipline was created and substantiated within the framework of social and philosophical representations of the largest representative of the Toronto School of Communications - Marshall McLuhan, - its instruments still bear the stamp of the philosopher's basic views. Even though many modern researchers working within this discipline do not share the McLuhan concept and polemic with him on a number of key issues in the theory of communications, the very research prospect of media ecology has a direct impact on their work. The article analyzes the materials of current publications on media ecology for the existence of theoretical problems related to the conceptual justification of the discipline toolkit.Among the most significant philosophical preconditions of media ecology stand out: the concept of historicism, as an assumption of the existence of an objective sense of history and the possibility of its comprehension; the concept of social realism, as an assumption of the existence of social groups as independent entities; the concept of technological determinism, as the assumption that technology has a direct mechanistic effect on society; and the concept of unifying the effect of the media, as the assumption that the medium of communication affects the entire social space in the same way.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.22905

Abstract: The article raises the task of discussing the methodological problems stated in the book of P. G. Nosachev, which represents a panorama of contemporary Western studies of esotericism, previously unknown to the Russian reader. P. G. Nosachev demonstrates different approaches to the analysis of esoteric experience; the author of the article chooses one, the most controversial approach called in the book "classical rationalism" and refers to its analysis and consideration of alternatives. For the author, it is especially important to distinguish between the irrational and the non-rational, where by the non-rational we mean those features of the inner world that do not accept logical-conceptual forms.The author of the article stands on the positions of ideological openness with the desire for a holistic vision of the studied subjects, leans toward the dialogical form of perception of other people's experience, applies the notions "idealism and materialism", "rational and non-rational" for the qualification of the cognitive situation. The main methodological pathos of the article is to oppose reductionism. The author believes that the struggle of materialism and idealism, buried in the XX century, has not gone anywhere, and remains relevant. "Classic rationalism" is essentially materialism, and quite aggressive, although it is not inherent in Marxists, but in academic scientists. The attempt to speak exclusively "on behalf of science," understood according to the model of natural science, prevents the researcher from understanding the unfamiliar subjectivity. The article raises the question how to approach the understanding of foreign mystical experience, if you do not have one. The article demonstrates the two perspectives: the first is related to the desire to "advance into someone else's subjectivity" using fantasy, relying on the narrative of the bearer of experience, but with the subsequent return to one's own positions; The second angle assumes at least a short-term assumption from the researcher of the "ontological reality" of the figurative series experienced by the mystic. The author makes a conclusion on the need for taking into account the specifics of the subjectivity itself, treating this experience with respect, and not only with "rationalistic criticism", as well as considering the constant transition in the subjective experience from the rational to the non-rational and back.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.19615

Abstract: This article examines the philosophical questions of cognition associated with the clarification of essential aspects of the origins of cultural traditions and their ontological foundation. This marks a turn in studying the traditions from separate descriptions and listings towards determination of their concept. The problems of interpretation of the traditions manifest in examination of the philosophical tradition. Problematization of understanding of the tradition and its essential origin is possible in the context of establishment of their conceptual unity. This approach can be achieved namely by the virtue of philosophical analysis. The historical and cultural traditions form the world of human existence, and their diverse interpretations define the level of humanity in the society. The topic of traditions is presented in three components: the origin, historical realization, and products of its disintegration. As an example, the author uses various traditions of interpretation of history. It is demonstrated that the authenticity of one or another classification is defined by a circle of the claimed initial conditions, such tasks and interests that are resolved or realized namely in the highlighted by the author context.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.23031

Abstract: This article examines the causes and processes of transformation that take place in the modern epistemology, changes in correlation between the fundamental and applied knowledge, as well as determines the dominant role of the applied research. Special attention is given to the study of the phenomenon of technoscience, which testify to the changes in epistemological scheme of modern science. The author reveals that technoscience represents the “face of modern science”, and is characterized by the applied and strictly pragmatic orientation, interdisciplinary, and externalism. The article identifies the externalist essence of technoscience that manifests in the creation of new social institutions, which conduce the development of civil society. The need for harmonious development of the fundamental and applied knowledge is substantiated, which will serve as the basis for sustainable innovation technological evolution. The author actualizes the question of correlation between the “science and technology” and STS (Science and Technology Studies).

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.19511

Abstract: The experience of legal practice of the precedent encourages the generalizing methodological approach towards an important aspect of examination of society as a whole, culture, education, and development of personality that allows coming to a level of their socio-philosophical comprehension. Absence of the sufficient legal grounds in the statutory law for resolution of any case is compensated by referring to the previous judicial practice and precedents. The search for them is a specific aspect of solutions that are being constantly formed by a man in the surrounding environment and sociocultural reality. It is extremely important that in all spheres of activity, including judicial practice, emerges a need for referring to the corresponding precedents. In legal practice, such pursuit is reduced to juridical formalization. The article makes an attempt of socio-philosophical comprehension of society, legal culture, culture as a whole, socialization of personality, and process of cognition using the sociocultural approach and precedent method. Conceptual foundation of the conducted analysis consists in examination of public relations, human activity, and culture as the universal aspects of society, the description of which allows characterizing the latter as a phenomenon, essence, and reality. In other words, socio-philosophical categories such as “human activity – social relations – culture” manifest as the key logical means of perceiving society as a unique phenomenon of reality, complicated in the level of organization of formation of the actual reality. The particular historical source used for the methodological generalizations consists in the history and legal culture of Russia and Great Britain, as well as their impact upon the establishment and development of social institutions. The author analyzes the main notions of English common law and equity, legal precedent and statutory law, and system of sources of the existing law of England.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.22646

Abstract: The subject of this study is the emotions of the higher level, (or altruistic emotions like loving kindness, compassion, joy, equal attitude to all and bliss) that are symbolically designated in Buddhist tantric texts. The object of this research is Buddhist tantric literature that contains information on the structure of the emotional sphere of a person. On the basis of the original Tibetan sources (the Vajrabhairava and Vajrasattva sadhanas), the basis of a Buddhist mandala has been shown where five innate structures of the consciousness are symbolized. These structures are characterized in three aspects: the male aspect, the female aspect and the structural aspect – that of belonging to a certain “great element” (mahabhūta). The research has shown that these texts contain symbolic information on the process of purifying the mind. The nature of the emotions of higher level, i.e. of altruistic emotions, is shown as identical to the deep nature of consciousness. Impulses of the altruistic emotions occur in everyday life of an ordinary person alongside impulses of the egoistic emotions (ignorance, desire, anger, pride/greed, envy that are inseparable with human physiology). The research shows that the impulses of the altruistic emotions become values that are cultivated in the process of the self-education, self-perfection of a personality and acquiring real inner freedom. The process of purifying the mind that is symbolized in the Buddhist mandala reflects the ontological basis of the Buddhist ethics.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.22593

Abstract: This article reveals and structures the key stages of the “oblivion of being” in the history of philosophy. The final refusal of it became the transcendental phenomenology of Husserl. It became the first earthly experience of emergence of post-human form of thinking as a speculative-philosophical provision of information revolution. Logos and macro-reality depart under the pressure of digitalism and virtualism. The world is real as an identical to itself Thought. There takes place the refusal of being as thingness and resistance in favor of being as the relations that can be cognized through its predestination and “reshuffle” to Nothingness. Preservation of human vital world must lean on the substantial (realistic) phenomenology – phenomenological substantialism. The author depicts the boundaries of such new methodology, and introduces the notion of phenomenon-substance (ontophany) that contradicts to the principle of scientific-reductionist modelling of the world. It is illustrated that being cannot be reduced to any form of knowledge. In such case, it would be a different reality. In light of the task for reconstructing philosophy, the author assesses the modern state of phenomenological movements, reveals the essence of anthropological conservatism as an ideology of preservation of “our realization” of the possible worlds, as well as introduces the concept of “eternal renewal of one and the same”.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0757.2017.4.18480

Abstract: The object of this research is the interconnection between theatricalization and game. The subject is the human creative factor that allows combining theatricalization and game in a single study. The goal of this work consists in possibility of application of the human creative approach towards the analysis of correlation between theatricalization and game. The author reviews the dual nature of such correlation: in its theatrical-artistic guise and as a gaming modelling of life by the virtue of theatre, as well as introduces and substantiates the concept of creative readiness that is interpreted as a human creative factor. The methodology is based on the works of most prominent foreign and Russian contemporary philosophers, who actively implemented the universal category of “readiness” as a way of understanding the human existence in the process of evolution and as a way of his creative being. In conclusion, the author identifies the for fundamental positions of theatricalization and game interconnection: readiness to create the illusion of reality, readiness to sacralization of the illusionary reality, readiness to group existence in theatricalized game, readiness to sacrificial realization of a role. Theatricalization is formed leaning on the creative readiness, as a new illusionary and gaming reality that strives to replace the actual reality.