The book Philosophy as Metanoetics by the Japanese philosopher Tanabe Hajime written in the last year of WW2 marks an important turning point in his career which is interesting in terms of the influence of historical events on philosophical thought, the philosopher’s responsibility to society and rethinking of self-image, own existence and methods of philosophy, seemingly topical nowadays.

The key topic of this study on late Tanabe is the focus on philosophy as on a self-critical process, taking place in parallel with the inner rebirth of philosopher.

The result of the rethinking of the Western philosophy foundations of Tanabe in his inquiry on the subject, philosophy of history, absolute mediation, idea of freedom, problem of the Evil, dialectics was primarily critical. This rethinking manifested itself in Tanabe’s appeal to national spiritual tradition, a religious philosophy combining separate Buddhist doctrines, in particular the teachings of Shinran and the Jodo school.

The example of Tanabe’s project of philosophy as a path of repentance shows how the modernized Buddhist worldview helps to find a philosophical resolution of the crisis. The study of the latest research on the political role of the Kyoto School during the WW2 and the analysis of primary sources contributed to a more balanced assessment on the historical signifiance of Tanabe philosophy.

The analysis concerns the conceptual crisis within the leftist discourse, which manifests itself in conceptual tensions within the Marxist ideology and philosophy on such cornerstone issues as identity, praxis and practice. The importance of identity for the left idea is connected with both neo-Marxist origins (Frankfurt School) and modern Western left liberalism which fuels the identity debate. The postmodern rejection of activity (Marxist praxis) conditions the identity-practice crisis. Manipulating the category of identity devaluates the concept of class, and, more importantly, the concept of oppression, leading therefore to confusion of the concepts of rights and privileges. The probable reason for that is the general crisis of the subject and, thus, its identity. Inside the left it can be described as saturated generic identity of the working class (Badiou). Instead of praxis, which allows a person to embody the integrity of being, personal identity is built on practices reconceptualized here in terms of identity theory as an economic theory. Practices mean episodic activities, void of continuity and integrity, aimed at increasing one’s market value. Therefore, the left accommodates to neoliberalism, reduces the political activity to activism. The discussion on class issues and the rise of precariat shows that trend. Judith Butler can serve as an example, as her approach defines precariat vulnerable and only able to confront neoliberalism with bodily activation of protest, which only emphasizes precariat’s weakness, incorporates it in neoliberalism, prevents it from realizing its historical subjectivity.

As the issues of cultural identity (a hidden code that shapes cultural identity of states or supranational organisations) in the context of international actors’ attitudes and world politics as such are topical, it is necessary to analyze specific indicators of such codes and behavior patterns. The tensions between the real attitudes manifested in foreign policy and the values declared in official documents prevent the formation of a single cultural identity, but shed light on real policy drivers. The article deals with the features of cultural identity as a phenomenon in international relations in the particular case of the European Union’s value orientations, indicated in official documents, and the EU foreign policy when mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As now the EU single cultural space faces internal crisis, it is legitimate to raise the issue of whether single European culture or common European values exist. A particular axiological analysis of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy in the Middle East, of both actions and declarations in the abovementioned peace talks shall contribute to the research. In this context, a passive role of the European Union in such a complex conflict as the Palestinian-Israeli one demonstrates the peculiarities of internal processes in the EU. This allows us to conclude whether the cultural identity of the European Union is real, or whether the EU is a legal fiction, an artificial union of different national identities.

The paper is dedicated to the philosophical debate on the notion of sobornost in the Russian religious philosophy of Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov and Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky. As a universal concept it grasps the state-of-being-joined, the unity in both religious and civil, societal aspects. Both these forms of sociality are also rooted in personal attitudes and are manifested in the sphere of reflection and in the spiritual. The extent to which both views on sobornost differ lies on the level of individual and group aspirations, in various schemes of the sobornost formation, in the religious—secular dichotomy. In this way the concept of dialectics arises. All the aforenamed controversies and the historical development of collective forms (e.g. a conflict of sobornost in the social field of a secular society) (see Bulgakov) can be seen as the dialectical self-development of sobornost as the very being, being mediated by the essence (Lossky). It is found that the dialectics inevitably lead to personal, social and divine integrity, thus illustrating the inherent unity of sobornost as essence and as being. Conflicts and misunderstandings are only due to personal misinterpretations and sacred quest. Only in a threefold form can sobornost thrive, which is more profoundly reflected in the works of Bulgakov.

The article is devoted to new directions of personality formation in the postnonclassical value- semantic paradigm of education and science. The existing multidimensional understanding models are in close relationship with the reorientation of a goal-oriented education from a knowledge-centered to a competency-centered one. This shift requires new strategies and techniques for personality formation, with new mentality and objectives. A key role should be devoted to creating a special phenomenological educational environment with intentionality as the driving force of complex structures of consciousness which ensures the identifiability of an object and construction of its meaning. This process becomes possible only within the framework of an intentional act, when the perceptions of the object and its essential content are exposed. As mental intentions and the intentional of the Other are unknown, but new meanings are closely interconnected in the consciousness. In this way knowledge is created: transcendental experience integrates new meanings with those acquired earlier. Sense formation is regulated unconsciously in the mind of a subject. But within the framework of a modern education system, this process can ascend a superior level by regulated meaning formation based on conscious and unconscious intentional acts. Therefore, the development of mechanisms for managing intentional acts of a subject that are relative to sense formation through one’s transcendental experience should be the main focus of innovative education.

The topic of this paper is the continuity of major religious, moral and ethical concepts of Roman culture in following periods. These are the virtues of the citizen, namely virtus, fides and pietas — which distinguish the Roman citizen as a brave warrior, honest magistrate and pious pater familias. The central one was the duty to the City. Some traces of this tradition can be observed in the most influental sources of the Christian Patristic period, although the very intention of morals has changed: res publica, a common/communal duty, was replaced by the adoration of God. With the view to a representative research, De Civitate Dei by Saint Augustine, the most famous Christian treatise dealing with the state, civic rights, state religion, authority etc. was analyzed. On the one hand, this great book provides multiple suitable illustrations for almost every feature of the continuity between the Ancient pagan culture and Christian intellectual one. On the other hand, it isn’t just a plain comparison of loci classici in pagan and Christian context, one can find the origins of a completely new approach to the world history, which had had an influence on minds of further generations of Christian theologians in Middle Ages and later periods.

The article focuses on the theoretical and methodological status of the concept of religion in the essentialist interpretation of ethnic community by analyzing the material of foreign researches. The key effort is to reveal whether the essentialist views on ethnic communities are compatible with the constructivist paradigm of religion. The essentialist approach to the notion of an ethnic community now develops in the frame of primordialism, which can be divided into two main directions: cultural and socio-biological. Proponents of the former concentrate on a detailed description of cultural differences between ethnic communities, with cultural diversity being accepted only to describe the essence of a particular ethnic community. Sociobiological primordialists deny cultural features’ status at the face of biological evolution. The common theoretical assumption of primordialisms turns out to be the essentialist vision: an ethnic community is endowed with the essence defined by a number of attributes, including religion. The constructivist approach, however, suggests that religion has no referent in reality and its notion is defined conventionally and empirically. Accepting this approach would deprive religion of its essence. Rendering the essence of religion relative, therefore, means blurring the boundaries defining the essence of an ethnic community. This consequence clearly contradicts the essentialist approach to an ethnic community. Thus, embracing an essentialist approach to ethnic community leads to the need to adopt the essentialist interpretation of religion.

The article considers the evolution of the sociological vision of religiosity. The relevance of the topic raised is due to the demarcation between the religious and the secular the late Modern and personal identification. The purpose of the article is to outline the retrospective and perspective of sociological studies of religion in historical and socio-reflexive contexts, on pre-theoretical foundations. The main modern trend in religious studies and quantitative methodology is the virtualization of reference religious communities. The first stage of this process corresponds with a real-reference approach to the definition of religiosity, viewing religiosity mostly in the field of the normative behavioral and mental manifestations and mainly in majoritarian confessions. The second stage is associated with transition, which manifests itself in the unification of religiosity criteria, as in formalized multidimensional scales measuring religiosity. The third stage should probably be associated with the emerging virtual reference approach, when a social subject is engaged in the reflexive construction of one’s religious identity, and a sociologist, on the contrary, shifts the research optics to identify the boundless diversity of its manifestations. This implies a retreat of the methodological category of the religiosity degree and any measured religiosity, a deconstruction of a priori models of the latter, reshaping an analysis into one based on unbiased description of religious manifestations in situational contexts.

The paper addresses the issue of attitudes to religion and, in particular, to Russian Orthodoxy, of the Russian youth with the focus on the effects of secular and religious mass media. Both religion and media are integral parts of social interaction, with mediatization taking shape challenging Orthodox media. The research used qualitative survey methodology to grasp students’ attitudes. It showed that the informative activities of Russian Orthodox media have an insignificant effect. The main sources from which the youth gets specific information about the church are federal and regional media. But it would be too preliminary to conclude that student youth is a lost generation for the Russian Orthodox Church, as only a tiny fraction of young people call themselves Orthodox. This implies that not only the mediatization, but rather atheism or not-observance plays a major role in student indifference. A content analysis of top local media outlets of Saint Petersburg on the issue of the church activities coverage shows that providing news and information is one-sided and weak in secular media. The distorted image of the Russian Orthodox Church in secular media pushes the youth away from confessional media. Thus, the youth remains doubtful when the latter is concerned, and are trapped in secular media bias.

This study of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in Russia focuses on the transformation of its former followers’ worldviews. Major attention is paid to the ways and trends of these changes and, in particular, to the extent of their resilience in Russian cultural landscape today. The Russian Society for Krishna Consciousness (RSKCON) gradually strengthening its position in Russian religious field, its effects are growing in importance and need to be analyzed with the view to previous scientific works. This article outlines the patterns of identity manifestation and realization by Russian Krishnas. The study conducted in 2018 endorsed literature analysis and qualitative methods — an online questionnaire with both close-end and grid-in questions was used for these ends with a non-probability sampling (n=62). The believers and the former believers narratives were analysed so as to illustrate typical patterns and attitudes. The conclusions are as follows. Eclectic identity is what results from engaging with Krishna practices: converting into Hindu, Bengali culture while abandoning traditional Russian culture. However, despite long-lasting practicing of Gaudiya Vaishnava in both cult and mundane aspects, only a minority of former believers still have faith in Krishna after leaving the community. It is therefore revealed that basic customs and patterns — and identity — acquired in the childhood tend to burgeon after quitting Vaishnavism.

The article addresses the Japanese periodization system, 元号 — gengo:, also called 年号 — nengo:, which shows the number of years from the accession of the ruling emperor. This issue has grown in importance with the view to the recent imperial succession of 2019. Aimed at providing an outline of origins and reasons for the change of era names, the article explicates official narratives in the diachronic field. Being a topical issue due to high importance for the national character, national values, symbolism and the popular veneration of the monarchy, the change of the 248th gengo: as the result of the enthronement of emperor Naruhito on May 1, 2019, is particularly analysed. The paper uses historical, cultural, legal, structural and system analysis of national calendar shifts. The background of choosing Reiwa as a new era name in modern Japan is revealed in the review of the current political discourse, the legal procedure with special attention to state acts for selecting and approving national gengo:. It is concluded that gengo: is a universal category coined for labeling current historical periods, but it also has a multi-level meaning, a specific code of cultural memory, which reflects the history and continuity of spiritual values. So do the messages rendered by every (and current) gengo:, as they formulate national strategies in a special symbolic form.

The paper outlines the functioning of cultural practices concerning numbers in Chinese and Japanese mundanity. The formation and use of such symbolic non-mathematical meaning of numbers is a distinctive aspect of linguistic, cultural and axiological systems in the countries of the Far East. The topic seems to be of particular interest due to high attention drawn by number-containing words and idioms in Chinese and Japanese linguistic studies in combination with cultural studies. Such an analysis seeks to develop the approaches to clarifying nation-specific mental representations and cultural aspects of using numeral vocabulary. Non-mathematical meaning of numeral vocabulary should be considered in a differentiated manner depending on factors that shape particular meanings. Religious and cosmogonic mythology as well as oriental philosophy serves as major origins of number-related meanings. Graphic interpretations also produce new associated meanings. The paper mostly delves into the effects of how the phonetics of number-containing words influences their meaning. Homonymy and homophony that are typical of the Chinese language considerably facilitate the process of mounting additional meanings. The axiological and cultural perspective embraces numbers as classifying factors that can be used to stratify the objects. The study of non-traditional meanings in number vocabulary not only allows to reveal the link between culture and language but highlights how cognitive processes operate in linguistics.

The paper analyses the messages modern architecture communicates to audience and to individual. Architects and theologians regard a church as a community place, and raise questions of aesthetic features of church buildings. At the same time, church space is essential to the visitors’ abilities to remember, to compassionate and to concentrate.

The article focuses on the concepts of three modern theologians: Thomas Erne, Bert Daelemans and Sigurd Bergmann. According to Erne, churches are becoming a space of self-transcendence; they are open to various social and aesthetic values within the sphere of the infinite. Daelemans formulates three dimensions of a church building — synaesthetic, kerygmatic and eucharistic — and doing so, establishes the notion of theotopy, the nonverbal theology of architecture. Bergmann considers the sacred place as a critical place. In addition, architects seek not only the theological reflection on such spaces, but also on solutions that reveal their transcendental dimension.

Church architecture gives an opportunity to express the inexpressible by figurative means, keeping in mind the thoughts of the visitors. A complex religious space, a church is presented to a person and, therefore, can be grasped in a range of ways. So the church space is constructed. Overall, as a space for dialogue and communication, which is not only a religious, but also an aesthetic and moral construct, a temple remains significant despite secularization trends.

The article treats the role art magazine Zolotoe runo played in history of symbolist’s theoretical ideas. By 1906, symbolism as a philosophical and aesthetic movement enters a crisis stage (and, then, a renaissance) — the pioneering movement has become utterly formal, tendentious, and has even acquired public recognition, which contradicts the modernist spirit. Zolotoe runo turns into a platform for the adversaries of outdated, decadent or individual symbolism, changing the symbolist nature and landscape. V. F. Khodasevich suggests that not only hasn’t symbolism been yet studied, but it also doesn`t seem to have been even read. This phenomenon and its notion deserve proper research. The scientific community’s interest in this movement is growing, as the importance of symbolism comes to light, and it becomes more evident that it was not only a milestone in history, but it also predetermined many trends in the development of culture and art up to the present day. Apart from that, the extreme heterogeneity within the symbolist movement and its paradoxical and unexpected metamorphoses are rarely understood. Nonetheless, through the analysis of such magazines as Zolotoe runo, and by drawing upon the research of cultural scientists, art historians and literary critics, we can clarify the features of symbolism, contradictory and holistic at the same time.

This paper analyzes the founding bases of comparisons between the Aleksandr Deineka’s artistic works and the art deco, the connection between Deineka’s works and European and American art of the 1930s Deineka’s early works refer to the avant-garde and the late ones are usually related to socialist realism. The novel artistic language is the most important link between the Soviet art and the art deco style, making the artist its most prominent USSR proponent. In this respect, the key event is the artist’s trip to the USA, France and Italy in 1935. What made Deineka engage in the intercultural discussion on artistic styles were industrial, urban, mundane and sport themes the Soviet art and art deco (mostly American) shared. A dialogue with the US Skyscraper style influenced a series of paintings and sketches, including New York. Central Park, The Road to Mount Vernon, Baseball, The Boredom. The Soviet experience contributed to Deineka’s few American works. In the most clear and general manner the art deco ideas and practical solutions were incorporated in the 1938 project of Deineka – in the decoration of the Mayakovskaya metro station, Moscow. The idea was to create a series of allegoric and technically new mosaic plafonds. Both spirit and techniques of late Deineka were partly inspired by the American art deco.

The review on the book of a former Emergency Ministry official and a philosophy professor Nikolai Mikhailovich Tverdynin published in 2020 in ANO Dialog Kul’tur publishing house analyses views on technology and technics that are manifested by acknowledged people across the globe. Two major beliefs are as follows: technophobic and technocratic. Dr. Tverdynin provides an unbiased description of their application to practice, as it becomes clear that technological threat awareness is a key feature of both attitudes. The book suggests that modern technical boom and its increasing involvement in education and personal development shall remain a vital, but not central method of acquiring new skills, as direct experience teaches not only to operate, but also to be a qualified worker and an individual even in sciences. Despite this and other opinion messages (remember the author’s past service), the book is not a journalist, but a scientific work, as it is void of ideology that accompanies technology. Overall, the book serves as an example of a rare accurate review of such an urgent issue and on such a thorough source collection.

This is an extended version of the interview of Prof. Andrey D. Maidansky given to Em. Prof. Vesa Oittinen for Monthly Review journal (New York, USA) in January 2020. The interview was dedicated to the works of the Soviet philosopher Evald Vassilyevich Ilyenkov (1924-1979) which have recently received increasing international attention. The interview sheds light on the reasons for such an interest and outlines the key focus topics of both Ilyenkov’s philosophy and his Cultural-Historical Psychology works.

The article is dedicated to the issue of modernizing Serbian university education. Modernization as a transnational process has had a tangible influence on education. The debate on modern university education highlights the education models associated with pan-European traditions, with the German one serving as a key and needing to be localized. In historical and cultural context Serbia has always been open to accommodate efficient Western practices to local realities. The central challenge to such a modernization is to meet existing needs of scientific development, expert qualification and preserve the cultural continuity throughout the history. The University of Belgrade, the first one in the country and a leading one, followed the German academy model. However, its development was conditioned by cultural and political shifts, with changes in educational policy after each of the World Wars and the student movement of 1968 serving as examples. The Faculty of Philosophy has always had a special place among the oldest university schools, intertwining the classics (which later manifested themselves in philological research) and the positivist knowledge (history, psychology, sociology, etc.). Modern teaching demonstrates the continuity of traditions combined with innovations, which is essential to development of any educational system. This trend meets the national interests of Serbia as a European country, with its great history and openness to peaceful intercultural communication.

From June, 30 to July, 2 2020 the 6th International Scientific Conference Creativity as a National Element: the Role of Individuality in the Framework of Creative Activities in the 21st Century took place in a novel on-line format. The event was organized by the Faculty of Humanities of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics in cooperation with the Department of Philosophy of MGIMO University, the Russian Philosophical Society and the Society of Russian Philosophy at the Ukrainian Philosophy Foundation. Researchers from Voronezh, Orel, Samara, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as from Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine took part in the sessions. Those were: Psychological and Pedagogical Aspects of Creative Activity in Modern Educational Space, The Semantic Element of Artistic and Aesthetic Creativity, Metaphysical Foundations of the Creative Process. A range of papers and presentations were dedicated to various aspects of creativity in connection to modern issues of authority and society, information and transculturalism, legal consciousness and language, among which one should highlight those presented by MGIMO University scholars. Both the prognostic character of the topics in discussion and its format proved urgent and suitable amid the unfavorable epidemiological situation with its unpredicted effects.