An Interview with a Famous Philosopher, Scientific Director of The Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the RAS Abdusalam Abdulkerimovich Guseinov (A.G.). Interviewed by Doctor of Philosophy, Professor M.V. Silantieva (M.S.) and Ph.D. Student Daria Liubinsky (D.L.). Exclusive interview to the Journal "Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture".

Nowadays the problem of strengthening the effectiveness of law as a mechanism of social regulation increasingly calls for a comprehensive evaluation of the conditions which provide trust in law as a social institution. And this, in turn, makes it necessary to turn to the analysis of its sources, which means to do the work that brought to being the idea of autonomy of morals in the new European context. Is it really possible to deprive the law of initial “moral basis”, and the latter, in turn, fully deprive of religious foundation? Moreover, the initial syncretism is increasingly accentuated in modern social and humanitarian knowledge. The disintegration of syncretism marked the era of the birth of the Logos, and its restoration in the epoch of the myth’s revival seems quite predictable. From the standpoint of traditional values what we witness today in a number of states can be called nothing but at an attempt to introduce vice into the legal field. Many people are brainwashed to believe that professions of prostitute and doctor or teacher are equal, that there is no difference between family and cohabitation. Next in line is the legalization of same-sex marriages in some denominations that position themselves as branches of a single tree of Christianity. But world religions would not consider the vice more permissible, if it were introduced in the legal framework. Real life in that case turns into a permanent search for the shortest way to satisfy person’s selfish needs beyond morals restrictions. And how can it be harmonized with the postulate that setting up of the lines is a point the culture starts from? Trying to adapt to the rapidly changing real life, the law is in danger of being reduced to an “empty” package of manipulative technologies, justifying the dominance of “desires.” In that case, it is doomed to the extinction of its key features: the focus on common justice and legitimizing force based on the initial trust in law as an institution. The attempt to turn the law into a self-sufficient “ideal reality”, disassociated from religious and philosophical concepts about the worthy and unworthy in human behavior, deprives it of its effectiveness, devaluing its consolidating role in society; and also anticipates repressions against the people who perceive a moral norm in a dissenting way.

The creation and changing of alphabets, as shown by their history, occurs due to the development needs of human communities, united by one language in certain public national entities. The alphabets as systems of different letters denote the system of phonemes as basic units or atoms of a particular language at a certain stage of its development. Objectively, regardless of the person, languages are developing in their natural matters which are the sounds of speech. Alphabets can be modified and improved by people, cognizing objective language derivative laws intuitively and efficiently. Even a few letters adding or deleting from the alphabet is mated with the change of spelling of a large number of words within a certain language which is perceived ambiguously and painfully by those who are reading and writing it. And there is no surprise that writing systems transformations within Russian and Chinese languages have been implemented during the revolution. In both countries the need for the reform of the writing system has been maturing for centuries in the direction of its democratization and accessibility for the vast majority of the illiterate population of Russia and China.

The article analyzes binary nature of the Russian culture of the first post-revolutionary years emerging as a part of world culture and at the same time preserving its uniqueness and originality. Paradoxicality of certain facts of the Russian history, especially the events of the 1917 revolution, was reflected in the peculiarities of the artistic consciousness of Russian writers, being reproduced in a tragic character of their works. Unlike Western artistic creativity, Russian literature of the first post-revolutionary years is characterized not by the trinity, but by the duality of artistic research. Binary constructions of the Russian culture are often aimed at complete destruction of previous experience in the philosophical-aesthetic system as flawed and unsustainable. Russian culture constructing in deposystem art space is determined by higher values. Russian thirst for absolute freedom in practice resulted in blood and violence, idealization of love - in enmity and hatred. This was manifested in writers’ desire to bring the European triad to the dyad, to present the way of compromise and truth as the way above the fray, the way to nowhere. Supporting literature theorists’ idea of the dual basis of the Russian culture, we deal with the emergence of new humanistic meanings occurring between the poles of the dual opposition. Not a middle plane is meant here, but the area outside these main areas. The best examples of the Russian literature of the first post-revolutionary years are striving to overcome the duality, to reach the balance of the poles, to breakthrough to a new artistic sphere.

State policy in the sphere of culture is developed under the influence of governors’ views. In the post-revolutionary period it depended on the views of L. Trotsky, A. Bogdanov, A. Lunacharsky. These people were not laymen in the sphere of culture. Long before the revolution they published their numerous articles and formed their opinion about the art development. When they held the highest leadership positions in the State, they influenced greatly the official policy in the sphere of art. Their views were not identical and sometimes even contradicted with each other. Before the revolution each of them had elaborated their conceptions of social life having taken into account the specifics of the Russian culture. The common idea in their diverse views was the socio-materialistic class approach to the analysis of complicated processes of social development and justification of the thesis about the necessity of revolutionary changes in the sphere of art on the basis of transition to the higher stage of social life. In the post-revolutionary years many of these philosophical conceptions were specified in accordance with the altered conditions and were united into one common conception which was supplemented with the practical political program of cultural development. The program also included the system of state measures for the formation and development of a new form of art, namely the proletarian culture.

In the article features of the ontological aspects of the events happened in 1917 are analyzed. Russian civilization was forcibly turned into a Soviet civilization. The factors changing the type of civilization accumulated throughout the XIX-XX centuries. It was not so much economic factors, as spiritual, social and political ones. There was a great spiritual catastrophe, revolution of all values of Russia, even psychology and mentality. With time social and ideological genocide of the population occurred. The Bolsheviks implemented the plans of Orthodox people violent secularization and the multilateral enslavement of the individual and society. Their victory was due to a post-Christian situation that evolved during the XIX century, as well as the idolatry of the Russian intelligentsia making idols of “the people”, “science” and “communism”. The development of secular education and scientific discoveries of the XIX-XX centuries (Darwinˋs theory, the theory of Marcs and Lenin, philosophy Nietzsche, Freud, etc.) also had an influence. This was shown in recognition of the atheist and immoral valuables (after 1917 year). The idolatry was fueled by the population liberation and differentiation after the reforms of 1861. The socio-psychological factor (social resentment, hatred, Russian maximalism) and the factor of ethno-psychological resentment had a profound effect. An important reason for the victory of the Bolsheviks - the weakness of Emperor’s personality and political power, as well as the failures during the First world war and the collapse of the Russian Army. Germany actions and other geopolitical forces’ operations also made a difference. Soviet civilization turned out to be a very inconsistent and sometimes extremely violent civilizational experiment. Roots of the loss of Christian values in Russia and series of substantial events in USSR are recognized in the paper as disaster. The article also indicates the necessity of radical (Christian) rethinking of the Russian accepted values.

The problem of contemporary science boundaries considered through the concepts of “culture” and “diplomacy” seems relevant due to its pragmatic angle. The redistribution of key international players together with an indirect globalization dynamics promotes innovative forms of organizational and communicative interaction in science and on the basis of science. The program “science without boundaries” is among these forms. Science is proposed to perform as an unconditional model of the “correct” communication format for all parties involved, embodying a model of harmonizing interests through the appeal to the authority of postrationality that is an evidentiary intersubjective knowledge, verifiable and falsifiable. This way, “science without boundaries” is a rational strategy of a step-by-step progress towards better cooperation and mutual support between all participants involved. They are offered a common cultural platform for reaching mutually beneficial agreements, quite realistic and at the same time focused on an idealized object - “the Universal” in the form of “scientific knowledge”. The latter acquires a regulatory function: the social life filled with coincidental fluctuations should be adjusted according to scientifically well-grounded “amendments”. Such a model of communication is aimed at the development of mutual understanding or, rather, strengthening the sense of “ontological security” (A. Giddens) maintaining the illusion of total controllability of social and political processes. No wonder that politically this project correlates with the idea of the “postsovereignization” inevitability - the gradual national states’ collapse and their replacement by heterogeneous network communities. At the same time, science keeps developing globally as well as nationally: it is “embedded” in national cultures’ borders connecting values with a certain language and “thinking style”. Thus internal contradictions common to scientific knowledge are manifested in essential subjectivity preserving aspiration to the truth not though the average language of globalization (e.g. “technical English” - Globish), but through the advanced and flexible language of the national culture. Attention to ontological, epistemological and axiological science boundaries when investigating communication strategies provides insight into its possibilities and boundaries in contemporary culture.

The article discusses philosophical conditions for understanding the cultural situation taking shape with the end of postmodernity. The methodological basis of the discussion is an ontological interpretation of transcendental phenomenology, where the problem of human subjectivity comes to a foreground. Depending on the conceptualized in different manners of reflection (poststructuralist, transcendentalist, etc.) image of subjectivity, different images of cultural and political reality are being built. By now, the border of subjectivity has not yet taken shape in a way to define cultural meanings of the present as open to the future. The existing cultural situation is an equal co-presence of logocentrism and deconstructionism that constitute the hybrid nature of culture. In a hybrid world the intention to insist on the priority of the postmodern or logocentric image of the world (associated with archaic, pre-modern or globalism) is equally unreasonable and destructive. This equal coexistence became paradoxical - transcendental philosophy (for example, through Husserl and Heidegger) and postmodern offers different ways of constructing the borders of subjectivity that find their set in culture, but none of the paradigms can produce the integrity of subjectivity. The reason is in the way “philosophical modernist thought” constructs the relation between the thought and the out-of-thought - in the claim of the thought’s complete authorship in relation to the other. Postmodern acted as the modernity self-criticism, however the offer for ecological solution to the problem of subjectivity and positive definitions of culture after postmodern is affair of transcendental philosophy. Namely the completion of postmodernism suggests that conditions for the resumption of transcendental philosophy emerge in its phenomenological and ontological sense, bearing in mind the lessons of poststructuralist criticism. The state of culture, in which the border of subjectivity can be synthesized within the framework of an ontological interpretation of transcendental phenomenology and after postmodernist criticism of culture, previously can be defined as “neo-modern”. Such a preliminary definition requires a concrete grounding, but even now one can find the necessity to debate the forms of the possible presence of the sacred horizon of transcendence in a radically non-transcendent world. If philosophy finds an ecological relation between the transcendent and non-transcendent in the structure of subjectivity border then other culture borders will be harmonized.

The article is a case study, which allowed us to explore opportunities and areas of work of the Russian episcopate in the field of education, charity, cultural development and communication between the various strata of Russian society - both in the dioceses and in the Holy Synod before and during 1917. The analysis is conducted on the example of Hieromartyr Archbishop Vasily (Bogoyavlenskii), 100 years from the day of his death will be fulfilled in 2018. All life stages of V.D. Bogoyavlenskii considered in a historical context in the light of relevant for that time and the prospective role of the ROC in sociocultural evolution of Russia. Childhood and adolescence, marked by the influence of his father and of Seminary professors. Eight years of service as a rural clergyman and catechist in his native Tambov diocese. The Kazan theological Academy, candidate’s and later master’s theses there, a decisive influence of the professors of the Academy. Years of being a priest in Kazan, teaching and diocesan activities there. Tonsured a monk at the Alexander Nevskii monastery in St. Petersburg. The appointment of the rector of the Seminary, auxiliary Bishop and finally Archbishop of Chernigov diocese. Work as a present member of the Holy Synod and the conflict with the “revolutionary” Chief Prosecutor’s office, the refutation of false charges. Management of Moscow Zaikonospasskii Stavropegial monastery and participation in the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Taking on a special mission, assigned by Patriarch Tikhon, and martyrdom at the age of 51 years.

The Cultural Revolution is usually associated with cardinal transformations of spiritual life of Russia such as wiping out illiteracy, introduction of compulsory primary and later secondary education, reorganization of secondary and higher schools. These innovations took place in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. But the Cultural Revolution isn’t reduced to them. It’s multilateral. Three propositions on its role in the Soviet Society formation are chosen. First: interdependency between transformations in material and spiritual cultures during the Cultural Revolution. Second: an attempt to create the common multinational culture in Russia by means of the Cultural Revolution. Third: an attempt to eliminate the gap between two strata of Russian culture - the upper strata and the lower strata. Special attention is given to the place and the role of the intelligentsia in the Cultural Revolution. All these propositions haven’t lost their significance after the Soviet Union disintegration. They are as urgent as before.

The present work is devoted to the analysis of the influence of American foreign policy rhetoric on international processes on the example of US policy towards Abkhazia and Georgia. The material for the study was taken from published resources in the on-line media or official statements by politicians reflecting the US position on Abkhazia and Georgia. The purpose of the study is to characterize the peculiarities of using certain set of linguistic ideological paradigms with pronounced appraisal connotations. To achieve this goal, the following task is set: to conduct a linguistic and cultural study on the concept of «democracy» and to trace the stereotyping of the semiotic-ideological opposition «ours» / «others», used by US politicians for discriminatory manipulative purposes aimed at separating under the principle of belonging / non-belonging to the circle of the elected («democratic») states. The relevance of the topic is that discursively conditioned stereotypes regarding Abkhazia and Georgia necessary for understanding the mechanisms of linguopragmatic actualization of certain concepts, reflecting the trends of US foreign policy in the South Caucasus, are underexplored. The research topic, due to its interdisciplinary nature, allows us to take different approaches to the analysis, in particular we used the methods of interpretative, contextual, comparative analysis, etc. The research itself is based on a fundamental premise about the dialectical interconnection between the language, consciousness and culture and their mutual conditioning. The study is based on works on the theory of linguoculturology, cognitive linguistics, political discourse, and intercultural communication. The concept of «democracy», its current connotations and interpretations, remain the main subject of controversy in contemporary political discourse, largely due to the US influence on world processes through the prism of democracy in the American style. We are interested in the linguistic and ideological background of the use of this concept by American politicians regarding the situation in Georgia and Abkhazia. The opposition «ours» / «others» is characteristic of American political discourse since the semiotic space of American life is sustained in the spirit of dualism «own» / «alien» to denote the concepts of «good» and «evil», while the images of the villain and the hero and the pathos of their struggle are typical for American national-cultural worldview.

The article analyzes the events being the result of the 1990 civil revolution which influenced the paradigm shift of the country’s political culture. The author examines the period of Pinochet’s military government in power and makes value judgements about it, focusing on the influence exerted by the general on society. The interpretation of the term “historical politics” (or “politics of memory”) is analyzed in the context of the new political culture formation, which resulted from returning to democratic principles. The actions taken by the new governments to eradicate the legacies of the past are investigated. Right-wing and center-left governments’ actions, undertaken to modernize the country are compared. This work depicts the relationship between the civil revolution and the political and cultural components of Chile’s life at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was cultural values and historical experience that had a direct impact on the governmental decision-making. The study shows that today Chilean society has become open, free and rapidly developing in the modern globalizing world, being significantly different from the one before the civil revolution of 1990.

The article is devoted to the propaganda potential of political posters, created during the Spanish Civil War by republicans and nationalists. The Spanish Civil War is typically presented as a military narrative of the ideological battle between socialism and fascism, foreshadowing World War II. The art of posters was a massive manifestation of the art and public expression of ideologies. Republican posters appeared on the walls a few days after the war began. Political posters became important weapons in the battle for a free Spain. Visual propaganda creation and distribution processes of republicans and nationalists are compared. Propaganda uses messages to produce a more emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. Employing cultural studies methods to read propaganda posters as texts, symbols depicting how their meanings interacted with changing identities are analyzed. Principal concepts of ideology are represented in political posters; concept of sense of justice and geopolitical conspiracy. Republican posters were brighter, more varied and had a great mobilization effect. But republicans lacked a unified ideological line. Republican modernist experiments were not always clear to the viewer. Most part of republican and nationalist posters is characterized.

In the article the problems of formation and development of intercultural communication, taking into account the factor of the Russian revolutionary and post-revolutionary turmoil of 1917 are analyzed. The relevance of the research topic is due to the special importance of the system of intercultural and political communication in the condition of bifurcation of the society. The October revolution of 1917 radically changed the world. Exactly at critical stages of development of any country, including Russia, understanding communication participants of different national cultures is the key to stability and creates conditions for the preservation of the public consciousness of the people, its mentality, national character, lifestyle, traditions, system of values. Revolutionary and post-revolutionary society is characterized by the emergence of various socio-cultural conflicts, the resolution of which requires serious efforts from all participants of communication, and its effectiveness becomes a question of survival of the state itself. The degree of elaboration of these issues in Russian and foreign scientific literature is quite high, but the problem in the narrative and theoretical interpretation of semantic characteristics still exists. The objective of the article is the replacement of the lack of scientific justification the evolving role of intercultural communication in specific circumstances complex of the Russian revolutionary and post-revolutionary transformations. The conceptual basis for the research is a comprehensive cognitive-historical explanation of the dynamics of intercultural interaction in Russia caused by the October revolution of 1917 and the subsequent events that define the essence of the transformation of the circumstances, cultural and communicative properties. Thus to define the characteristics of the development of intercultural communication caused by the revolutionary and post-revolutionary actions, is particularly important for modern political science.

This article discusses the forms of greeting in the modern literary language of Germany and Austria and justifies the necessity of their study to prevent misunderstandings in the process of interaction between two cultures. The introduction emphasizes the importance of intercultural communication and indicates the causes of communicative barriers. The article substantiates the relevance of the research topic, which is due to the need for confrontative research of the multivariate languages’ national variants. The main task of the study is to analyze the characteristics of the formation, pronunciation and use forms of greetings in speech. The greeting is of great importance for successful communication and is not an empty formality. It performs various functions: communicating, norms of civility, the impact on the interlocutor. There are many forms of greetings and treatment, such as verbal and non-verbal, which often complement each other. The German language is very diverse and there are many ways to say hello and goodbye. A common language not only binds, but also divides the Austrians and Germans. There are some unique forms of greeting in the Austrian and in the German national variant. They have their own interesting history and there are certain application rules. In order to escape an awkward situation, you must be aware of etiquette adopted in the country. The results of this study may be of interest for using in courses of regional geography in German-speaking countries and in teaching practice.

The concept of tolerance as one of the basic values of humanism and the creative category of a truly correct cultural dialogue in the Russian language has been used in the humanities just since the end of the twentieth century. The concept is not identical with the Russian term tolerance, which in the main sense means one of religious virtues. Therefore, in the context of the implementation of the Public Policy Strategy, it is inadmissible to confuse these categories and the term. This article outlines the evolution of the principle of humanity, the related category of tolerance and their formation in the universe of modern Western culture. The necessity of applying tolerance as a methodological principle promoting the harmonization of ethnoconfessional relations in the post-Soviet society is substantiated. The article contains comments on the explication of categories in the well-known UNESCO document “Declaration of Principles of Tolerance”. Unfortunately, the category of tolerance was not included in the context of the program document “Implementation of the State National Policy” in force since the beginning of 2017. The author analyzes the factors that complicate the use of tolerance, the outlines of boundaries and the requirements of its creative and effective application in the ongoing practical implementation of the State National Policy Strategy.

The present study is devoted to the analysis of the protest culture of Spain in the 21st century on the example of the activity of the political party «Podemos». We will try to understand how the left-wing radical party, founded in 2014, has gained popularity and serious political influence in a country with pronounced multicultural diversity in such a short time. The aim of the study is to analyze the protest culture in Spain, using the example of the activity of the «Podemos» party, which has a serious impact on the political situation both in the country and in the region. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are set: to analyze the historical and national cultural background of the emergence of the protest movement in Spain; to determine its goals and features; to reveal the reasons for the manifestation of radical sentiments in European political discourse in connection with the advancement of electronic communication channels. The relevance of the research is to study contemporary radical trends in on-line space for developing further strategies to counter mass radical and separatist movements capable of destabilizing the situation and leading to a possible cultural and political collapse in the world. A thorough analysis of modern electronic communication channels is required, since it has made the protest movement culture even more dynamic, giving new opportunities for propagation. Of particular concern is the fact that the activists of radical movements, including the «Podmos» party members, are the intellectual elites of countries that are able to manipulate and influence the mood of the masses. In general, there is discontent, apathy, anti-eliteism in European society, as evidenced by the nationalism that is flaring up in Europe, together with ethnocentrism, anti-Semitism, fascism, and francism, whose instruments of influence have changed due to the appearance of the Internet. Increasingly, representatives of the establishment voice the need for a complete transformation of political, socio-economic, institutional systems that, in the opinion of many, have lost their effectiveness and sustainability. Populists play on this wave of discontent, not taking into account modern realities, but skillfully manipulating the mood of the masses especially in the Internet space, - so a new digital protest culture is emerging and gaining momentum. Based on the analysis in the study, we came to the conclusion that the protest culture in Spain has its own history based on the national image of the Spaniard (hidalgo) world, formed at the junction of European and Mauritanian cultures, brought up on the values and traditions of Catholicism and Islam. Protest is part of the Spaniard’s worldview. It manifests itself in its aesthetics, creativity, rejection of the established social canons. In general, protest moods are growing in the world, including prosperous European countries experiencing a boom in social media, as evidenced by support of a solid part of the population in Spain left-wing radical party «Podemos».

The aim of the article is to analyze the correlation between different meaningful layers of the Russian icon-painting phenomenon in philosophical and culturological aspects. Based on the analysis of art historians’ and painters’ works of the 19th - 20th centuries, the author draws a conclusion that a systematical studying of the Russian icon-painting artistic dimension was the result of icons restoration, as well as new aesthetical views and a new understanding of the problems of contemporary painting. A change in aesthetical preferences was promoted by contemporary French art predominantly based upon creation and valued more for painting composition and color painting basics, not for its content. According to Alexis Gritchenko, French artists discovered for Europe not only the Russian icons, but also the artists’ works of Italian Quattrocento, El Greco, Francisco Goya. There are several consequences deriving from the discovery of the Old Russian religious art dimension. Firstly, the opportunity to speak about the icon parallels in the history of art appeared. Secondly, the painters studied the Russian icon and they strived to move its stylistic principles to their creativity. Such purposes led to formal stylization, decorative effect, associated with superficial meanings of the Old Russian icon. More detailed understanding of its principles contributed to formation of the creative language of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nikolai Chernyshov, Dmitry Zhilinsky. Contemporary church art also refuses from the domination of stylization and emphasizes the necessity to identify the artistic language of the old religious art.

The article considers works of imaginative literature and cinematography as a methodology for studying international economic relations. Traditional tools used for analyzing the international movement of capital, international monetary and financial systems, international trade in goods and services, labor migration and international economic integration are supplemented by storylines, central character’s perception of the economic processes taking place in certain countries and around the world. The study provides specific examples from such classic works of literature as “The Financier” by T. Dreiser, “Money” by E. Zola, “Three Comrades” and “The Black Obelisk” by E.-M. Remarque, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” and “The Million Pound Bank Note” by M. Twain, etc. These books give an idea of the stock exchange mechanism, the stock prices, the destinies of the investors and entrepreneurs, the exchange rate and inflation. The adventure novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” by J. Verne allows comparing the transport opportunities of the 19th century with the modern ones. The easing of visa requirements and the abolition of border controls between the European countries within today’s Schengen Area are examined using the example of the passport of the famous seascape painter I. Aivazovsky. Workers involvement in the international labor market at outsourcing enterprises in India is shown in the movie “Outsourced”. In the imaginative literature and movies the brightest and the most complicated moments of people’s lives under certain events are shown, which makes it possible to understand the economic background and consequences of the main characters’ actions. The research unites scientific and figurative thinking with reference to the basic concepts of international economic relations.

On the Work of the II International Interuniversity Forum «Student, the Knower of the World».