Issue 2 2022

The article proposes an analytical reconstruction of the interpretive strategy of the German philosopher H.G. Gadamer associated in his early works with the phenomenological interpretation of Plato’s dialogue Philebus. This reconstruction is necessary to understand the views of the creator of the «hermeneutic Bible of the XX century» in their development. The study of the phenomenological interpretation of the dialogue in the early H.G. Gadamer makes it possible to determine the conceptual difference of the question of the genealogy of pleasures posed in the philosophical thought in the 20th century. The conceptual definition of the attitude to the ethical tradition dating back to Aristotle and the dynamic understanding of the problem of the relationship between pleasure and reason in human life becomes a meaningful moment of the reconstruction of H.G. Gadamer’s interpretive strategy. On the example of the hermeneutic structure of the concept of «good», the paper identifies the dialectical difference between ethos and praxis, which is considered in the context of the textual heritage of Plato and Aristotle. The significance of the genetic concept of V. Yeager for the formulation of the hermeneutic problem in H.G. Gadamer’s works is highlighted. The study analyzes existential aspects in the phenomenological interpretation of H.G. Gadamer that date back to the concept of the «life world» in the late E. Husserl. It traces the development of the concepts «hermeneutic experience» and «hermeneutic circle» at the early phenomenological stage in the development of H.G. Gadamer’s ideas. The reconstruction of the dialectical analysis of the correlation of the one and the many in the dialogue Philebus proposed by H.G. Gadamer, is traced in the context of M. Heidegger’s ontological positions. The article substantiates the position that the dialectical difference between the kinds of pleasure arising from the Platonic difference between the soul and the body should be considered as a conceptual difference between the phenomenological interpretation of H.G. Gadamer and the genealogy of corporeality, going in European philosophy from F. Nietzsche to M. Foucault.

Keywords: analytical reconstruction, genealogy, hermeneutics, hedonism, good, dialogue, dialectic, interpretation, interpretive strategy, ontology, pleasure, phenomenology, ethics.

If philosophy is an epoch expressed in thoughts, then the worldview of a civilization in crisis cannot but be in a state of crisis. What the features of philosophy in crisis are was discussed in the first article. Civilization is communities, their elites, certain types of social individuals, formed under the influence of the consumer society and dehumanized curricula of educational institutions. What is the connection between fashionable modern philosophical schools of thought that represent the crisis tendencies of world philosophy and the interests of global and national elites that determine economic and educational policy in the world and in our country? To bring civilization out of the crisis and to find adequate answers to modern global challenges, society is in dire need of a philosophy with a solid heuristic and humanistic potential. Therefore, today the question of whether to teach philosophy at university or not cannot be discussed. The problem is that a civilization in crisis cannot be saved by philosophy that has been generated by this crisis and, moreover, penetrated into all spheres of public life, including education. In addition to postmodernism, which has become almost a craze for young Russian teachers and researchers in the last thirty years, in our country there are many supporters of the teachings of Husserl, Heidegger, and other Western thinkers representing non-classical trends in philosophy. In this regard, of great relevance today is the question of what kind of philosophy to teach at university and how to do it within the time limits allotted by the education reformers in order to form a personality that would possess social qualities making it possible to withstand modern challenges and threats.

Keywords: philosophy, postmodernism, globalization, education, commercialization, dehumanization, UNESCO Paris Declaration, teaching philosophy, educational process, social qualities of an individual.

The scientific interest of this work lies in the field of philosophical anthropology — the study of a human being as a complex open self-organizing system, where one of the constituent elements is, presumably, Theatricality. The author believes that theatrical techniques used by a human being in everyday life help him to adapt to the life in society, to others, and to himself. Theatricality appears as a kind of survival mechanism and a way of adapting to external and internal challenges. Being in plain sight, this amazing mechanism of social communication still remains somewhat hidden, studied abundantly but fragmentarily. It is difficult to trace the genesis of the formation of the Homo Theatrical’s phenomenon as well as to understand the mechanism and purpose of his everyday theatrical behavior. The Play and Theatricality as phenomena are closely intertwined, but not equal to each other. The Play does not involve breaking the rules, while the Homo Theatrical breaks the rules when he needs it. Among the elements of the theatrical nature of a human being, one can distinguish pretense, representation, manipulation, artistry, cunning, pragmatism, as well as suggestion. Suggestion appears as a phenomenon that is very common in the social environment. It has a viral potential and represents a kind of «psycho infection» for the brain. A Homo Theatrical strives to use suggestion to achieve pragmatic goals and, therefore, the theatrical nature itself acquires a viral potential. Reflection upon the viral potential of suggestion («psycho infection») contributes to a deeper analysis of the viral potential of the theatrical nature of a human being, which cannot but rely on an irresistible craving for suggestion, understanding the power of the influence of suggestion in achieving the desired.

Keywords: Homo Theatrical, the Play, manipulation, artistry, pragmatism, virus, «psycho infection», mimesis, meme, suggestion.

In modern society, socio-political movements are increasingly attracting attention as more and more people are becoming involved in political activity. These processes become the object of analysis in numerous social and political studies. Unfortunately, socio-political movements receive little attention in modern socio-philosophical literature. It must be acknowledged that today there is even no established socio-philosophical definition of this phenomenon. The paper suggests developing such a definition through the concept of alienation since politics and its institutions, including socio-political movements, appear as a result of a human’s alienation from his generic essence, from himself. The article also demonstrates that alienation is not only the key reason for the emergence of these movements but also, ultimately, their main (but not always realized) goal: every movement seeks to remove alienation, at least partially. In this sense, all socio-political movements objectively struggle to destroy the conditions for the emergence and existence of socio-political movements. However, the implementation of this aspiration may lead to both a social progress, understood as an increase in the diversity of human essential forces, the complication of a human, and to regression.

Keywords: socio-political movements, alienation, human essence, capitalism, progress, regression.

Armed students’ attacks at educational institutions for the purpose of mass murder (school shooting) are explored in the paper through the conception of transgression. Transgression is defined as overcoming the external and internal limits of human personality. School shooting is a destructive version of transgression. The authors suggest that an important social factor which leads to this destructive transgression is the loss of autonomy by the educational sphere and its subordination to the interests of economy and politics. The educational environment loses its own institutional boundaries. The evaluation of students’ achievements is formed indirectly: it depends on the commercialization ratings of educational institutions; the key role is played by the money of sponsors or parents, but not students’ knowledge and competences. In fact, young people are forced to take part in a competition with professional participants in the social division of labor, though not having an economic autonomy, in contrast to the latter. Thus, students lose the advantages of their age group and find themselves in a situation of artificially imposed helplessness. They feel rejection from the educational system, and aggression as its consequence. It can lead to terrible crimes. The authors believe that control of the proliferation of firearms alone, without other measures taken, is not an effective tool for blocking the destructive culture of school shooting. It is necessary to change the value system of the educational sphere. This is especially important due to the geopolitical challenges faced by our country in the recent months. The organization of the educational system should be based on the assumption that students’ digital opportunities, material well-being, inherited status and prestige, appearance, health level should not play a key role in realizing the mission of education. Otherwise, the imbalance of human and economic values will contribute into transgression of the inner limits of personality and its destruction.

Keywords: school shooting, transgression, Limit, Other, social and psychological factors.

The paper deals with the role of theory of mind in the development of socio-emotional competence in children of primary school age. The purpose was to study the role of theory of mind in the socio-emotional competence of children aged 7–9 as assessed by parents and teachers. To assess the level of children’s social and emotional competence, teachers and parents have developed a questionnaire aimed at assessing: the recognition and understanding of emotions; the understanding of the mental states of other people and the possibility of using them to predict behavior; the understanding of deception, false beliefs, and misunderstandings in social situations; empathy, pro-social behavior, the understanding of moral and ethical norms and rules; the development of social and communication skills. The development of theory of mind was assessed using the «Reading the Mind in the Eyes» test and the «Faux Pas Recognition Test». The study involved 49 children aged 7–9 (21 girls). When assessing the socio-emotional competence of primary school children, adults mainly rely on social understanding skills such as recognizing emotions and expressing empathy. The results of the study demonstrate differences in the assessments of socio-emotional competence depending on the children’s performance in tests for theory of mind. Significant relationships were found between the children’s recognition of mental states by eye expressions and adults’ assessments. Interestingly, no significant correlations were found between understanding of false beliefs and teachers’ assessments of socio-emotional competence, in contrast to the parents’ assessments. Interpretation of the results suggests a possible difference in the observation of children’s behavior among peers (by teachers) and among adults and siblings (by parents).

Keywords: theory of mind, socio-emotional competence, social cognition, understanding of false beliefs.

Effective assessment of the social and emotional competence of children and adolescents is important for studying individual and age differences, as well as for preventing behavioral and emotional difficulties and developing assistance measures. Different types of assessment (self-report and external assessment by teachers, parents, peers) provide important information about social and emotional development, but they do not always show concordance since each informant has his own experience of observing certain characteristics of children. In this study, we examine the socio-emotional competence of older adolescents through emotional intelligence, measured by the self-report method, and external assessment of various forms of social behavior by school teachers. Particular attention is given to the question of correspondence between the assessments of students and teachers. The study involved 42 teenagers aged 14-16 and their class teachers. The adolescents filled out the EmIn questionnaire aimed at assessing the respondents’ perceptions of their emotional intelligence. The teachers filled out a questionnaire that included an assessment of five different aspects of social and emotional development: understanding of emotions and the ability to predict behavior based on that, understanding of social situations, empathy, prosocial behavior, communication skills, etc. The analysis of the data showed low concordance between the assessments given by adolescents and teachers. Correlation was found only in the assessment of the aspect of understanding emotions. At the same time, the analysis of assessments given in two different classes (and, accordingly, by different teachers) revealed significant differences. This highlights the importance of quality of external evaluation and selection of experts to conduct research. The results raise new research questions and indicate the need for further search for external criteria of socio-emotional competence in adolescence and for selection of adequate assessment methods.

Keywords: socio-emotional competence, emotional intelligence, concordance of assessments, emotional competence of teachers, senior adolescence.

The article studies the correlation between the level of satisfaction with studies and the semantic sphere of personality of students in middle/late adolescence. The changes occurring in the period of adolescence affect all spheres of human psyche and lead to a significant restructuring of the personality. The semantic sphere of personality is an important element of this process. The main purpose of this period is acquisition by a person of a new social role, associated with more independence and autonomy. Mastering a new profession, provided by a university, is of great importance during this process. According to the research hypothesis of this study, there is a correlation between students’ satisfaction with studies and the semantic sphere of personality. Our empirical research aims to identify and study the correlations between the indicators of the semantic sphere and the components of satisfaction with studies of students middle/late adolescence. The sample included 76 students of the first and second years of study aged 17 to 18 years. Correlation analysis showed statistically significant relationships between all indicators, which confirms the hypothesis of the research. An in-depth study of these correlations allows us to conclude that indicators of the semantic sphere of personality that reflect the level of the subjects’ purposefulness, their focus on the future are related to the level of satisfaction with the chosen profession to the greatest extent of all. The indicators reflecting the meaningfulness of the past and present most closely correlate with the components that reflect satisfaction with the upbringing, relationships with fellow students, and living conditions. The level of satisfaction with studies significantly correlates with the indicators of the meaningfulness of the past, present and future in the lives of the respondents, which makes it of central importance. The indicators of semantic sphere showing a person’s control of their own live have the highest correlation with the level of satisfaction with living conditions. The results may be used for optimization of education process in the first years of study at university.

Keywords: middle adolescence, late adolescence, semantic sphere of personality, university education, satisfaction with studies, locus of control, students.

The paper deals with the results of an analysis conducted to reveal the influence of social networks on modern adolescents. A questionnaire survey of Moscow schoolchildren aged 15–18 years (N = 312) was used as the leading research method. It has been found that 59.2 % of adolescents prefer to spend their leisure time on social networks. Almost half of the respondents (42.7 %) can be classified as «extreme Internet users». Most schoolchildren are fully aware of the «abnormality» of this situation: more than half of them note that they spend more time on the Internet than they plan. At the same time, 57.2 % of adolescents sometimes prefer social networks to communication with their loved ones; 12.2 % do it frequently. For more than 65% of the respondents, the considerable amount of time they spent on social networks provokes serious conflicts in the family. For 57.2 % of the respondents, the virtual world seems to be a source of «good mood». Every second teenager notes «pressure» and «negativity» from parents with regard to their frequent use of social networks; every fifth has become more secretive in this matter, trying to prevent their family from noticing them visiting social networks. The research leads to the following conclusions: the amount of time spent by the majority of adolescents on social networks exceeds critical values. The destructive consequences of this situation are chronic lack of sleep, conflicts in the family, replacement of real communication with virtual. The situation is aggravated by the negative influence of social networks on the psyche and life in general, with adolescents being unconscious of that. Recognizing the presence of conflicts in the family, adolescents are not ready to abandon social networks in favor of real communication. Moreover, for many respondents, virtual communication becomes an integral trigger of good psychological well-being.

Keywords: social networks, Internet users, adolescents, virtual communication, conflicts, destructive consequences, educational institutions, survey.

This paper discusses an issue of the prospects for increasing the information transparency of the system of social welfare and social services in the context of digital transformation through the prism of its perception by the population. We touch upon the issues of low informativeness and insufficient interactivity of official Internet resources on such topics, their unpopularity and, as a consequence — the low awareness of state social assistance and social services among the population. We conducted a survey of the population in the Perm region. The data of our survey show the expectations of citizens who are already receiving or applying to receive social benefits and social services in relation to the introduction of new digital technologies in this area in the near future. Citizens want to be able to independently select possible benefits and social services, choose an appropriate social agency, while doing that with the help of interactive services on the official websites of social welfare bodies and social agencies. They want to consult online, have an option to receive all social services in remote format, make appointments with the social welfare authorities and social agencies via the Internet, complain and evaluate the work of specialists serving them online. Citizens also hope to have terminals in public places with reference information on benefits and social services, to receive leaflets and brochures with such information, to take part in free training on thematic sites and mobile applications, to rent android robots for home-based services for the elderly and persons with disabilities, to enter information about themselves into the databases of social welfare bodies and social agencies on their own. The results obtained can be used for the development of information policy aimed at increasing the efficiency of digital transformation in the social sphere.

Keywords: digitalization, social services, social protection, digital services, digital technologies, social sphere.

The article presents research into the peculiarities of life of older people in rural areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, there were conducted 20 interviews and collected 15 observation diaries of older people living in rural areas in peripheral settlements of the Republic of Karelia. The study examines the isolation of older people and the peculiarities of isolation of older people who live in rural areas; the effects that social exclusion of older people living in rural areas creates; the possible ways of adaptation that could minimize this social exclusion. The article contributes to the emerging research into the peculiarities of understanding aging in the context of forced social exclusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A thematic method was used in the analysis of interviews and observation diaries of older people. The paper identifies various fears and peculiarities of the perception of the lonely state associated with changes in habitual everyday life due to isolation, as well as sensations related to the informants’ perception of their body as excluded from previous life and as an invisible body confined in the space where self-isolation occurs. The research also analyzes the role of bodies and the features of restrictions that the COVID-19 pandemic creates for the elderly in the context of bodily restrictions and studies how self-isolation and various fears are associated with the bodily restrictions of older people.

Keywords: СOVID-19, older people, rural areas, self-isolation of older people in rural areas, fears of experiencing self-isolation.

The article provides a sociological interpretation of the concept of the «athlete’s habitus» performed through the prism of P. Bourdieu’s theory based on sociological research data. To describe the athletes’ habitus, data of the following sociological studies were used: interviews with athletes studying at the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports of Lobachevsky University (n = 74 persons representing individual and team sports in a 50/50 ratio); secondary analysis of interviews with mothers of high-performance athletes (n = 3 persons); participant observation carried out during the training and sports process with representatives of the following sports: volleyball, basketball, hockey, athletics, martial arts. The grounded theory approach, proposed by A. Strausset and D. Corbin, was used to analyze the data obtained during the interviews with student athletes, part of which were applied the method of «life histories» (analysis of the life of athletes from their mothers’ words) and conversational analysis (analysis of the interviewer-athlete dialogues). During the data analysis (coding procedure) the following concepts were identified and described: trajectories and stages of the sports habitus formation, social practices of the athlete’s habitus; a strong connection was noted between these concepts. Reliability of the obtained results is within the acceptable level as the subjective views of the informants are expressed in the indicators typical of their activity, acquired in the process of integration into the sports field over 10 years or more. This resulted in a high sports status (candidate master of sports, master of sports), which was the rationale for their selection for the interview. The paper reveals the peculiarities of the formation of the athletes’ habitus, its trajectory, and formation stages. Depending on the stage of the habitus formation in the sports field, the agent is endowed with transitional sports habitus, which, accumulating, allow the individual to acquire the habitus of the established athlete. The athlete’s habitus synthesizes the diversity of social experiences of agents of various social fields, thereby endowing itself with the identity of the realization of practices characteristic only of the social space of sport. In general, we can define the athlete’s habitus as a system of acquired predispositions that are imposed by the structure of the social field of sport.

Keywords: social field of sport, athlete, habitus, trajectories of formation of the athlete’s habitus, stages of formation of the athlete’s habitus.