Koinon: the Coexistence of Geniuses or Flight of Ideas in the Air?

Abstract

The article by A. V. Pertsev, professor of the Ural Federal University, on the example of Weimar’s life as a “German cultural capital” at the time of I. V. Goethe (1749–1832) discusses the specifics of the organization of informal intellectual communities that defined the existing forms of culture in Europe and Russia. The paper analyzes such a humanitarian koinon as a form of coexistence and cooperation of creative people, which emerged in a particular historical situation and is supported by “enlightened authorities”. The figure of the bearer of power as a “cultural manager” and his formation of “cultural centres” following his ideas of a worthy human life are as well under consideration. As the author of the article demonstrates, the state cultural policy is concealed in such a way that its central figure is the “enlightener on the throne” himself and the “leading personnel” he has chosen. This aristocratic cultural policy is opposed to a market-democratic one with a focus on ‘mass demand’.