Existential Problems Research Articles

The Aesthetic Value of the World

In The Aesthetic Value of the World, Tom Cochrane sets out to defend Aestheticism—the view that aesthetic value, and only aesthetic value, makes the world worthwhile. This is not, however, a book about the redemptive power of art. Another central claim of Aestheticism is that aesthetic value can be encountered literally anywhere—in the natural world, yes, but also in the most brutal and horrific aspects of the social world. The Aesthetic Value of the World is thus an ambitious book, one that does not simply urge us to reconsider the secondary status of aesthetics within value theory, but seeks to advance Aestheticism as a ‘philosophy of life’, one on par with ‘Stoicism, Epicureanism and Existentialism’ (p. xi). The rationale behind the first thesis of Aestheticism—that it is only aesthetic value that can answer the question ‘what, if anything, makes the universe a good one?’—appears in the book’s introduction. Here, aesthetic value is arrived at by a process of elimination. Unsurprisingly, pleasure is a non-starter. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, is the fact that moral value does no better. Why? Well, consider what it would look like to dedicate one’s life to moral value. Such a life, Cochrane supposes, would be dedicated to making the world a better place—it would be life animated by ‘the grand moral mission’ (p. 5). And yet, for all that would be good about such a life, it would still be plagued by deep existential problems. Neither the possibility nor existence of moral progress can explain why we are here or why there is something rather than nothing. Nor can it reconcile us to our ultimate insignificance in the grand scheme of things.

Роль философии в формировании навыков критического мышления

The article examines the ways and options for the possible development of critical thinking among students of various universities when studying social and humanitarian disciplines. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the ability to think critically and make the right choice in any difficult life situation. In this case, the emphasis is on medical students. The article discusses the points of view of various researchers dealing with this problem. Of particular interest are the studies in this area by I.V. Mushtavinskaya, S.I. Zair-Bek, I.O. Zagashev, who present in detail and thoroughly the technology for the development and formation of critical thinking, pointing out the importance and necessity of such thinking in students. The main attention is paid to the possibilities of developing critical thinking in the study of philosophy. The various methods used by the authors are shown –discussions on ethical and socially significant topics, writing of essays on existential problems, educational conferences, for example, on the philosophy of New Kazakhstan, with students as speakers, round tables on the problems of finding the meaning of life or euthanasia, and much more. Attention is drawn to the development of cognitive tasks that allow students to carry out their own search and come to independent conclusions and decisions. Such tasks can be an original text that requires comprehension, an ethical dilemma, or a situational task. Based on practical experience, the authors come to the conclusion that it is necessary to include a critical component in the teaching of social and humanitarian disciplines in all higher educational institutions, regardless of the profile.

The national idea and ideology of personalism as a humanitarian aura of Ukrainianity

The study analyzed the role and significance of the Ukrainian national idea (UNI) and national ideology for the establishment of independence, in particular, for the spiritual victory of Ukrainians in the Russian-Ukrainian war. UNI is considered not only as a response to socio-political and economic problems of the Ukrainian nation’s development, but also as a multi-aspect – existential, metaphysical, global – challenge. In order to resolve this complex of problems, a fundamental rethinking of views on human and society and the mechanisms of their interaction was carried out. The essence of the author’s theory of stages of the person’s spiritual development has been formulated as a metaphysical theory of personality, that has a historic-philosophical tradition originating from ancient Chinese and ancient philosophy. A person in the process of his socio-political and spiritual development is able to go through the following stages of spiritual formation: dependent, mediocre person, personality and genius, although he can stop at lower stages of development. On this basis, it is proved that there can be only two paradigms of human existence: either impersonal or personal, and their fundamental features are formulated. The concepts of equality and spiritual hierarchy have been carried out. Skovoroda’s idea of unequal equality is interpreted as a combination of equality and hierarchy: civil-political, legal equality and spiritual hierarchy. It was offered to prioritize the spiritual and metaphysical theory of personality as the basis of UNI, in which the last one is the substance, that is, the primary carrier of social existence. UNI appears as a response to the dominance of the mediocre person and the depersonalized paradigm of his existence, as a unity of primary principles and primary sources (personalities), who are their creators and actors. Such understanding of the Ukrainian idea provides grounds for a holistic solution to the socio-political, existential, pedagogical, historical, and metaphysical problems of the nation and has the prospect of spiritual improvement of the covital society. On the basis of metaphysical theory of personality and UNI, the main provisions of the national ideology were formulated, the purpose of which is to form a critical mass of ethnically conscious personalities. It is argued that a military victory requires the establishment in the public consciousness of the fundamental provisions of the UNI and the ideology of personalism. It is offered to put the guiding principles of the UNI and the ideology of personalism as a framework condition of the social contract, that will contribute to overcoming impersonal tendencies in Ukrainian society.

Quintessential Solutions to Existential Problems: How Human Factors and Ergonomics Can and Should Address the Imminent Challenges of Our Times.

To examine and evaluate ways in which an understanding of the quintessential element of Human Factors/Ergonomics can address the spectrum of existential threats that confront contemporary civilization. HF/E is dedicated to improving quality of life. Paradoxically, many processes which sustain contemporary civilization act to reduce that overall quality. Some technological developments themselves now even present existential threats to the fragile skein of civilization itself. Many disciplines address these diverse threats, and each may be advised and facilitated by HF/E knowledge and methods. It is a moral imperative of our science to contribute what we can to proposed resolutions. A primary conduit, by the established strengths of HF/E can contribute to potential solutions is identified. The present work advocates for specific, practical interventions using a direct-perception mediated, panopticon principle, that derives from the corpus of our science. Limitations upon a general, social understanding of imminent global concerns, which are largely ignorable when not actually present, are brought to immediate consciousness via an HF/E principle emphasizing the direct-perception of threat. It is argued that this, and allied HF/E insights can generate practical steps toward problem resolution at both macroscopic and localized levels of implementation. The primary, practical application of the proposed panopticon principle is to use our science to save global civilization. It is postulated that this represents useful employment of the knowledge we have adduced and accumulated across our discipline's existence.

Signifying Nothing: Nihilism, Information, and Signs

AbstractThis article explores the theme of nihilism from the perspective of post-continental philosophy by focusing on semiotics and information theory and the question of “meaning” at stake between them. Nihilism is characterised here as an avatar of the counter-Enlightenment tradition. Post-continental philosophy is defined by a positive revaluation of reason, science, and technology, which were critiqued for their nihilistic effects by key continental philosophers. Rather than critiquing nihilism, then, post-continental philosophers have tended to affirm it. This article argues that, despite appearances, such developments in fact allow a deepened response to nihilism, considered as an existential problem. It does so by using Lyotard’s critique of semiotics to show how the kind of linguistic and cultural meaning associated with continental philosophy is itself a kind of nihilism. It then examines Meillassoux’s theory of the meaningless sign and Laruelle’s idea of the secret truth of Hermes to argue that this new paradigm of post-continental philosophy allows a response to nihilism by offering an alternative to semiotic meaning. Thus freed, this new paradigm allows the embrace of information theory as a plural articulation of meanings grounded in meaningless data, which enables a superior response to nihilism in the information age.

Deferred Ostension Of Extinct And Fictive Kinds

This article applies Quine's account of deferred ostension and the Kripke-Putnam account of reference to natural kinds in order to solve two problems that arise concerning the deferred ostension of two sorts of absent referents, extinct and fictive kinds. First, the sample problem concerns how a rigid designation to a kind can be established even though the fossil or depiction is an imitative representation rather than an instance of the kind itself. The author argues that the retained characteristic shape, understood via analogy with living creatures, supports the deferred ostension of the extinct kind. Second, the contrast problem concerns how the deferred ostensions of imitative representations for extinct species differ from the imitative representations for fictional species, that is, how sampled fossils differ from sampled depictions. The author argues that the difference is a causal one. We know that fossils happen thanks to a natural causal process that embeds the fossil imitation in the primary world of perceived things; depictions of fictional kinds lack intrinsic causal properties and therefore embed their references in a secondary world of fiction. The article concludes by suggesting we approach the problem of negative existentials as a question of embedding in the primary world of causality or the secondary world of noncausal relations.

"The Peasant Lady": an Existential Choice, Super-Difficult in Life, but Possible in Art

The article offers a new, in fact, cultural and psychological version of Pushkin's famous story "The Peasant Lady". Various assessments of this work are given, including the author's, teenage. The author argues that the modern understanding of works of art involves an analysis of the culture in which it was created, as well as the author of this work. Realizing this installation, he discusses why Pushkin shifted to the reader the consideration of the consequences that followed from the last scene of the "Peasant Girl", when the deception-Lisa's game was revealed. According to the author, this would destroy the plot, since it would show that the behavior of Lisa and Alexey contradicted the ideas of marriage and the actions of young people accepted in Russian society at that time. It is hypothesized that Pushkin, composing "The Peasant Lady", solved his own existential problem, which P. Chaadaev pointed out to him, namely, his real life contradicted Pushkin's declared values and poems. Unable to rebuild his life in 1830, Alexander Sergeevich compromises, reconciling the real and desirable life in the field of art, this largely explains the peculiarities of the "Peasant Lady". In Marina Tsvetaeva's work, there was also the use of art (and other discourses) to bridge the gap between real and desired life, which to a certain extent allowed the artist to realize himself and preserve his mental health.

Review: Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, by Marc G. Blainey

Review: <i>Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing</i>, by Marc G. Blainey

Charismatic theology of the blood in Ghanaian Christianity

There are several independent Charismatic churches in contemporary West Africa, where worshippers carry communion wine and olive oil to be prayed upon, and sanctified as sacramental substances and tokens either for spiritual protection or for dealing with various existential problems. However, the belief in tokens is an African phenomenon and not something attributed only to a group of Christians labeled African Charismatics. It is an irony, that while the leaders of the historic mission denominations and classical Pentecostal traditions often dismissed these resources of supernatural succor as demonic and discouraging their use in their sermons and publications, most of their own members secretly visit these prophets who give them tokens and symbols like holy water, soaps, handkerchiefs, olive oil, apotropaic baths, candles, concoctions, magical rings, magical creams and many more. Sacred statements, words and songs can also be considered as tokens. Some scholarly works have been done on African Christian songs. These include Hayfron and Quayesi-Amakye.155 However, their focus is not on the place of the blood of Jesus in African Christian songs.

Chalcones: Potential Chemotherapeutic Compounds and Educational Tools for Closing the Loop in STEM.

ConspectusThe study discussed herein describes the synthesis of halogenated chalcones as potential chemotherapeutics. The synthesis work was conducted by undergraduate students participating in an Organic Chemistry II laboratory course at Tuskegee University, while the biological assays were conducted by students enrolled in a Molecular Biology I laboratory course. Chalcones were synthesized via aldol condensation and purified from hot ethanol. The impetus for the work was the fact that Tuskegee University sits positioned within the Black Belt of Alabama which, in addition to being an area of fertile soil and excellent farmland, is also an area rife with health disparities that particularly affect African-Americans. Breast cancer, specifically triple-negative breast cancer, affects African-American women at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. The work described herein addresses a practical problem [teaching undergraduate students about the interface of synthetic techniques, synthesis of specific classes of compounds, functional groups, and their relation to biological activity], as well an existential problem [the prevalence of breast cancer among African-American women, and the need to develop targeted treatments]. One of the chief aims of this approach of integrating these ideas into our laboratory courses was to facilitate the understanding of translational science, i.e. taking chalcones from benchtop to potential therapies for breast cancer. Another aim of the current approach was to, in essence, create a research problem based course and concomitantly use the results of the experiments performed in the course as a way to address the dearth of research funding that HBCUs typically receive. The pharmacological activities of chalcones and their derivatives are well documented. They are an important class of natural products that occur in edible plant derivatives such as spices, teas, fruits and various vegetables. In vitro studies have shown that chalcones inhibit proliferation of breast cancer cells by inducing apoptosis and blocking cell progression. The synthesis of chalcones with aromatic substituents has been investigated, and electron rich chalcones, i.e., chalcones with donors attached to the aromatic rings, have been studied extensively. The effect that adding electron withdrawing groups to the chalcone structural motif has on the antiproliferation ability of chalcones had been only minimally investigated at the time that our studies were being conducted. We examined the introduction of chlorine to the aromatic system of the chalcone and how these electron withdrawing substituents affect the chalcone's antiproliferative ability. It was discovered that (E)-3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one inhibited MDA-MB-231 cell progression in a dose dependent manner and outperformed the unsubstituted (E)-1,3-diphenyl-2-propen-1-one (1) at concentrations ranging from 0 μg/mL to 20 μg/mL. Cell death was determined by MTT assay.

IRANIAN NATIONALISM AND THE ISSUE OF AZERBAIJAN AND THE TURKISH LANGUAGE (EMPHASIZING ON PERIODICALS OF TRANSITION ERA FROM QAJAR TO PAHLAVI)

Modern İran Tarihinde bu ülkede yaşayan azınlık durumundaki çeşitli unsurların ulus devlet inşası sürecindeki durumları yaygın bir tartışma ve araştırma konusu olagelmiştir. Başta Türkler ve Araplar olmak üzere Kürt, Beluç ve Lor gibi çeşitli toplulukların yaşadığı İran coğrafyasında 20. yüzyılın başlarına kadar ‘’Memaliki Mahruse’’ şeklinde ifade edilen ve bir tür eyalet sistemi biçimine sahip olan bir idare sistemi hakimdi. Bu sistem içerisinde her topluluk kendi kültürel varlığını korumakta ve idame ettirmekteydi. Rıza Şah dönemiyle birlikte fikri temeli özellikle meşrutiyet sonrası dönemle birlikte atılmaya başlamış olan ulus inşası, tasarım sürecinden uygulama sürecine konulmuştur. Fikri arka planı önceki dönemlerde atılmaya başlanmış olsa da keskin bir geçiş dönemi olarak nitelendirilebilecek bu dönemde tasarlanan örnek kimlik karşısında ‘’öteki’’nin tanımlanması birçok tartışma ve sorunu da beraberinde getirmiştir. Çevirisini yaptığımız bu makalede, söz konusu ulus inşa sürecinde öne çıkan İran milliyetçiliğinin önemli fikri önderlerinden bazılarının kaleme aldığı yazılar çerçevesinde İran milliyetçilik düşüncesinde ‘’öteki’’ konumuna itilen Türklerin durumu mercek altına alınmaktadır. Bu dönemde ‘’Aryan Milliyetçiliği’’ ve ‘’Fars Dili’’ ekseninde inşa edilmek istenen İran ulusal kimliği, içerik olarak özellikle İslam öncesi İran tarihini sahiplenirken İslami dönem ise çeşitli açılardan sorgulamaya tabi tutulmuştur. Bu bağlamda özellikle İran’ın son bin yıllık tarihi döneminde idari ve askeri açıdan baskın konumda bulunan Türkler, ülkenin geri kalmışlığının da müsebbipleri olarak öne çıkarıldılar. İran milliyetçileri tarafından ideolojik kaygılarla ve indirgemeci bir anlayışla ele alınan bu mesele özellikle I. Dünya Savaşı ve sonrasında bölgede yaşanan çeşitli gelişmeler neticesinde varoluşsal bir sorun olarak telakki edildi. Bu açıdan Osmanlı’nın son dönemlerinde İttihat ve Terakki’nin bölgedeki faaliyetleri ve yine Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti’nin Rusya’dan bağımsızlığını kazanması gibi hadiseler İran milliyetçilerini endişelendirmekte ve onları bu iki siyasi yapı karşısında İran’ın bütünlüğünü koruma kaygısıyla yeni argümanlar üretmeye sevk etmekteydi. Bu çerçevede İran milliyetçilerinin konuya yaklaşımları görmezden gelme ve asimile etme yönünde bir anlayışa dayanmaktaydı. Onlara göre İran’daki Türklerin Türkiye ve Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti Türkleriyle bağları bulunmuyordu. Türk dili ise İran’a sonradan yağmacılar tarafından dayatılmıştı. Artık her şey aslına rücu etmeli ve Fars dili ve Aryan medeniyeti yeniden bu topraklarda yaygınlaştırılmalıydı. Bu ve buna benzer fikirler İran milliyetçileri tarafından ‘’Ayendeh’’, ‘’İranşehr’’, ‘’Kaveh’’ ve ‘’Name-i Ferengistan’’ gibi dergilerde sürekli bir biçimde işlenen konular arasındaydı. Nasır Sıdkî’nin sorumlu yazarlığında Tebriz Üniversitesi öğretim üyeleri tarafından kaleme alınan bu çalışma İran milliyetçisi aydınların Türk, Türklük ve Azerbaycan’da Türk dili gibi meselelere olan yaklaşımlarını ele almakta ve yine sahip oldukları yaklaşımın gerekçelerine dair tespitler ortaya konulmaktadır. Buna göre Osmanlı’nın bölgedeki faaliyetleri ve Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti’nin kurulması İran milliyetçilerinin İran Azerbaycan’ına karşı hassas bir yaklaşıma sahip olmalarına yol açmıştır.

Writing IR after COVID-19: Reassessing Political Possibilities, Good Faith, and Policy-Relevant Scholarship on Climate Change Mitigation and Nuclear Disarmament

AbstractTo address the COVID-19 pandemic, states around the world adopted a range of unprecedented and far-reaching policy measures, which had for a long time been presented as impossible. In this article, we argue that such actions suggest not only present but also past political possibilities and that these possibilities have been overlooked or denied by policymakers and scholars alike. We focus on two existential challenges about which pledges for transformative actions have been continuously made throughout the previous decades: climate change and the danger from nuclear weapons. We document the gap between pledges and accomplishments in these two realms and show how claims of impossibility to act do not hold up. Adopting a minimal standard of good faith as seeking to keep one's promises, we argue that the lack of adequate action renders the assumption that policymakers are acting in good faith problematic. We then diagnose a Panglossian double failure of the policy-relevant international relations scholarship: a failure to provide policymakers with the necessary tools to address the root causes of these existential problems and enable them to learn from past experiences and a failure to hold policymakers accountable. We propose three modifications to the scholarship to avoid repeating such failures and conclude with a dual call for political courage and scholarly responsibility.

Existential Problems of the Philosophy of Nursing J. Travelby and K. Martinsen in the Perspective of Palliative Care

This article examines the philosophical theories of nursing by J. Travelby and K. Martinsen. The central object of research is some ways in which both theories explain the existential problems in the medical practice, using the example of the search for existential values, experience of illness, the proximity of death and care. This article also discusses the philosophical foundation of both theories, their advantages and disadvantages, and limitations of application. Travelby&amp;apos;s theory of interpersonal relationships is one of the first attempts to integrate philosophical language into nursing. This synthesis can be called successful, but not profound. The main goal of nursing is the search for meaning. K. Martinsen, on the contrary, achieved success in the depth of this philosophical synthesis, but it made this theory more difficult. Inspired by the philosophy of Heidegger, Martinsen chose care as the central concept of her theory. Particular attention in the text is given to the possibility of extrapolating these models to the theory and practice of palliative care for adults and children. The analysis allows us to conclude that the application of the philosophical theories of Travelby and Martinsen can be of value for palliative care, both in a descriptive and exploratory way, and as a model for teaching in specialist-patient interaction.

The existential paradigm of F. Tyutchev's creativity in the context of philosophical and aesthetic research of the first half of the XIX century

The article examines the work of F. Tyutchev in the light of aesthetic phenomena of Russian literature of the XIX century. A comparison of the works of Tyutchev and lyubomudrov is made. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the generation of creators to which Tyutchev and Lyubomudry belonged has developed a kind of type of Russian philosophy, whose specificity consists in the fact that it is expressed through art, and primarily through literature. Tyutchev's poetry reveals a number of unique existential-philosophical concepts: the prerequisites of the borderline situation described in the existential theories of K. Jaspers in the twentieth century, as well as analogies with reflections on the death of the founder of the religious trend of existentialism – S. Kierkegaard. The author of the article concludes that Russian philosophical thought tends to be expressed through the language of art, in particular, the language of poetry. Tyutchev and the Moscow idealists create a new type of hero – thinker. He is faced with such existential problems as the place of man in the universe, the meaning of human life, understanding of the psyche and human feelings. He asks questions about the higher powers that rule the world. He faces "damned problems" that will worry Russian writers of the second half of the XIX century. It was poetic thought that contributed to the development of such a great psychologism in the second half of the XIX century.

THE STUDY OF FOREIGN LABOR MIGRATION CAUSES OF THE RA WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF PUBLIC OPINION ANALYSIS

The presented article deals with a study of the causes of external migration movements of RA conducted in accordance with the methodology of sociological research. This research is selective preserving the standards used in Sociology. 1 urban and 14 rural settlements in Shirak Marz of Armenia were included in the sample of the sociological research. The sample survey is compiled with regional, professional, migration as well as gender and age characteristics so that valuable and relevant information could be extracted for further study and usage in the development of migration policy. In this regard, there was a problem of assessing the role and importance of migrants in the development of households in Shirak Marz․ At the same time, it was necessary to understand what existential problems were created by the outflow of the workable population from Armenia in recent years, in particular, due to the demographic decline and depopulation. The scope of this topic also covers the question of where the Armenian youth currently wants to go and what are the reasons for the migration trend. The data, obtained in the framework of the article, will be valuable for scientific and public circles, for institutions dealing with migration issues.

Współczesny moralitet, czyli komedia Четыре человека, два ангела Wiktora Szenderowicza

The subject of the article is the analysis of Four People and Two Angels, a play by Russian satirist Victor Shenderovich (2001). The main conclusion of this analysis is that this play refers to psychomachia as one of the oldest literary motifs. However, the difference between classical realisation of the psychomachic motif and its realisation in Shenderovich’s play is noticeable: while the classical psychomachia reveals through seriousness and sublimity, Four People and Two Angels is an example of the realisation of this motif in a comedic convention. It becomes possible mainly due to how the author creates the mysterious figures of angel Stroncylov and the sinner Ivan Pashkin. References to the literary works of Lev Tolstoy, Nikolai Erdman or Mikhail Bulgakov provide additional justification for the claim that the play written by the Russian satirist raises existential problems, but the way it does so is definitely far from the classical literary depictions of the motif of struggle for the human soul.

Особистісне "Я" у контексті молитви

Background. The analysis is based on the thesis that prayer is not only dialogue in the context of man-God relationship but also a kind of mental state characterized by empathy and synergy of both exclusively human and divine. The main prayer's nuance of meaning-appeal, response, insight, on the one hand, form the dialogue as an opportunity to accept the existence of God in the subjective dimension of I-You, and on the other-contribute to transcendence and self-construction of personality. In this prayer process, the perception of self as Other and Other as self is carried out. our study The purpose of the research is to find out Self-Other relationship in the context of prayer, its psychological and religious capabilities, which reveal its functional aspects Methods. Analysis, comparison, synthesis, generalization and systematization Results. Prayer, opening the prospects of overcoming existential problems, firstly, satisfies the spiritual needs of man through dialogue with the Deity. Secondly, it forms sensitivity to the Other. Thirdly, it performs the function of centering of consciousness, thanks to which centering individuality is transformed into an integral personality. Attention is paid to the functional relationship of faith and prayer, their role in constructing the prayer experience as a kind of empathic life strategy and as a religious and spiritual space of coexistence of I and Other. Prayer experience promotes forming the basis, life affirmation of a person and contains significant psychotherapeutic potential, as its carrier is aimed at effective and practical overcoming of the finiteness of human existence in the pursuit of eternal, absolute existence. Conclusion. Prayer as a dialogue motivates the activation of a people's essential forces, enriching their experience, personal growth and optimizing spiritual self-transcendence. Prayer intentionally contains the Other in itself, ensures co-involvement with Him. Its intensity depends on the emotional palette, which enhances the dialogue and constructs self. Prayer not only "focuses" consciousness, but also acts as a powerful means of centring it. This ability of prayer, enabling the process of unity of the human and the Divine, contributes to the formation of a harmonious, integral personality. The essence of prayer is most clearly revealed in prayer¬empathy when the boundaries of self are overcome and problems, the feelings of the Other find a response in self, a kind of personal overflow takes place. Prayer contains a significant psychotherapeutic potential, helps to overcome difficult life situations and contributes to the improvement of mental health, and during periods of life crises, ensure moral survival and affirmation of a personality.

Ontology of Natural Landscapes and Human Global Environmental Consciousness

The problem raised in the article is actualized not by the artificial attachment of the topic of ecology to the existential problems of humankind, but by the urgent need to conceptualize the dangers of a growing gap between the further development of civilization and ignoring the primary nature of its existence, the analysis of modern specific dangers of wildlife, flora and fauna, catastrophic climatic phenomena, desertification, and chemical pollution of the land. The posed problem of the conceptualization of wild nature logically continues the intention of the authors to turn to the human-dimensional characteristics of the entire natural environment. At the level of socio-philosophical analysis, the meaning of a new model of relations between society and nature is revealed, and alternative concepts of nature protection to modern practices are comprehended. The importance of wildlife in its narrowed (terrestrial) space for social development on the established ideological principles of the most careful attitudes to wildlife, taking into account the reverse dangerous impact of the destructible habitat on humanity, has been proved.

Choral Writing in Iannis Xenakis’ Late Compositions

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of choral writing in the compositions of the outstanding representative of the postwar avant-garde Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) created during his final creative decade. Examination is made of the questions of the correlation between the music and the words, the use of techniques of “phonemic composition” (Konstantin Floros) in the composer’s works Nekuia, Serment-Orkos, Knephas, Pour la paix, and Sea Nymphs. Special attention is given to a unique case of encoding of Arthur Rimbaud’s literary text in Xenakis’ composition Pu wijnuej we fyp. The vocal-orchestral work Nekuia, a central composition in the evolution of the composer’s choral writing, signified, along with the theme of Greek Antiquity, the existential problem range connected with the images of death, war and violence against personality. The present subject matter becomes determinative in Xenakis’ late choral compositions. As part of textural analysis of the work the following parameters are disclosed as the main textural varieties: the newest techniques of “artificial reverberation” (Iannis Xenakis), elements of “diagonal texture” (Valentina Kholopova), types of exposition which are characteristic for the romanticist composers, the classical techniques of juxtaposition of soli — tutti. The main resources of the parameter of timbre include changes of the vocalization of the tone by means of a continuous transition from one vowel to another, sounded out successions of inhalations and exhalations, juxtapositions of ordinary and laryngeal singing, glissando, both in alternation with tremolo and carried out by means of overlapping. At the same time, starting with the composition Pour la paix, certain elements of Xenakis’ early writing return — “sound clouds” (Iannis Xenakis), the image of which is created by non-standardized cries, complementary contrapuntal texture characterized by thematic and rhythmic resemblance of independent voices. In total, all of this stipulates the bright individuality of Xenakis’ artistic method.

Философия науки

The article is dedicated to the identification and analysis of existential dimensions of science, i.e., the dependence of consciousness, activity and communication of scientists on special forms of scientific culture – life-meaning universals (existentials). The article outlines the contours of the problem field of existential challenges rooted in the real life of modern science, in the crisis of the Enlightenment idea of scientific progress, in the mismatch of the norms and ideals of scientists with everyday ideas and needs. The origins of the theoretical formulation of the existential problems of science are found in the dilemma of profession and vocation (M. Weber). This is a controversy that problematizes the relationship between the scientist’s desire for objective knowledge, on the one hand, and the human dimension of scientific activity and communication, on the other. The article singles out the particular types of existing, or boundary situations in science, in which the experiences of scientists are ordered and problematized in relation to archetypal values – freedom, objectivity, creativity, rationality, truth, success, as well as in relation to such ontological categories as space and time, which reveal their value-ladeness. The subjective dimension of science, in which a personality manifests herself as overcoming internal conflicts, a free and thinking being, qualifies as the subject of an emerging research trend – the existential philosophy of science.