Noetic system of concepts in reference to ethnological issues as exemplified in the study of traditions of upbringing among the Jews of the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The noetic system of concepts based on the thesis that ethics is originally immanent to the mythological consciousness is centered on studying the spiritual and existential manifestations of man. The term “noetic” used here implies “spiritual” in the existential aspect, in the anthropological sense not in the theological one. The mythological consciousness is defined as everything existentially significant in the depths of the unconscious, including intuition, and everything in the verbalized part of consciousness, which is conditioned by it. The system is intended for revealing and comprehending the implicit content of the activity of the mythological consciousness, highlighting the harmonizing (ethicizing) aspect of this activity, its inclination to meaningfulness/ethics, or, on the contrary, its de-harmonizing aspect or confrontation with ethics. A special system of key concepts and their definitions complies with the noetic system. The following issues have been used for their development: hermeneutical phenomenological examination of intuitions of the mythological consciousness; ideas belonging to prominent thinkers; ethno-cultural specifics. The noetic system applied to ethnology can be regarded as: a sort of development of C. Geertz’s ideas of noetic experience; an innovative way of sharing it; a tool for identifying the intrinsic meanings of ethnic experience and their verbalization. Examples of their identification in the upbringing of Moldovan Jews are provided.