Moral Self-improvement Research Articles

О ДУXОВНО-НРАВСТВЕННОМ САМОСОВЕРШЕНСТВОВАНИИ ЛИЧНОСТИ

Education and upbringing are a single process that contributes to the development of personality and the formation of a human being. Even the ancient sages said that one cannot become a human being without learning to act as a human being. Knowledge, virtues, piety are acquired through teaching, activity, education and upbringing. The article reveals the ways and means of spiritual and moral self-improvement of a person on the example of the teachings of the great thinker - humanist Jalaleddin Rumi, who was one of the coryphees of science and culture of the medieval East. His works of philosophical, methodological and pedagogical nature occupy a solid place in his creative heritage.

ЦІННІСНІ ОРІЄНТИРИ ВІЙСЬКОВО-ПАТРІОТИЧНОГО ВИХОВАННЯ СТУДЕНТСЬКОЇ МОЛОДІ В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОГО РЕФОРМУВАННЯ ВИЩОЇ ШКОЛИ

The article focuses attention on the importance of prioritizing militarypatriotic education of student youth in higher schools of Ukraine in the conditions of today's realities (war with the Russian Federation). It is emphasized that military- patriotic education is an integral part of patriotic education. It is noted that the organization of military-patriotic education should be aimed at making student youth aware of the significance and importance in their lives of striving to protect their country; formation of psycho-physical and moral-spiritual readiness for service in the army; understanding the values of this important aspect of their life for themselves, their families and the country on the whole. Modern youth should feel the need to protect their country on all fronts, starting directly from the front line and ending with professional, competent, qualified and competent help in the reconstruction of Ukraine. The desire of student youth to join these undoubtedly historic and significant moments of the life of Ukraine will testify to their awareness of civic duty, courage, understanding of the life values, freedom and development; wishes for constructive and positive changes; overcoming those obstacles that prevent the country from flourishing. It is noted that the values of democracy, as shown by professional pedagogical experience, cannot be considered and realized without students' understanding of their own mandatory contribution to the protection and preservation of their state. Emphasis is placed on priority forms and methods of military-patriotic education of student youth. It is emphasized that the military-patriotic aspect of educational activities focuses on: the need of young people to protect those values that are dearest to them; overcoming any manifestations of self-doubt; positive changes in your environment; motivation to make responsible decisions; understanding and feeling like a person who wants and can protect himself, his family and country. Summarizes the importance and priority in the modern higher education of Ukraine: the military-patriotic direction of education of student youth; young people's understanding of the country's values, its protection and independence; students' understanding and solving of social and moral problems in the context of society's challenges; formation of moral thinking, moral maturity and moral self-improvement; recognition of moral provocateurs and false values. It is noted that the democratic values chosen and defended by Ukrainians are confirmed by their desire for a civilizational choice for society, the state and the development of their children, which is an absolute priority in modelling the system of the educational process of modern higher schools of Ukraine.

КОНФУЦИЙШІЛДІК ЖӘНЕ ЛЕГИЗМ БИЛІК ФЕНОМЕНІ ТУРАЛЫ

This article examines the conceptual differences and similarities in the teachings of Confucius and Lao Tzu regarding the phenomenon of power. The research is based on the analysis of the primary sources: Confucius and Lao Tzu, in order to identify their philosophical views on the nature, function and principles of power in government. The key texts of Confucius and Lao Tzu are analyzed in detail, which allows a deeper understanding of their vision of power and governance. The purpose of the article is a comparative analysis of the doctrine of power in Confucianism and the philosophical justification of despotic power in the ancient Chinese epic-political doctrine «fa jia» (in the Western tradition it is called legalism). The study of the phenomenon of power in the philosophy of ancient China inevitably leads to the consideration of two key figures - Confucius and Lao Tzu. These thinkers offered different but complementary views on the nature of power and the governance of society. Power, according to Confucius, should be based on the moral qualities of the ruler. A wise leader serves as an example for his subjects, establishing stability and harmony. Confucius argued that the moral self-improvement of a leader is the basis for the legitimacy of his authority. The Legists argued that optimal control is achieved through minimal intervention. The ruler should allow natural processes to occur smoothly, avoiding excessive control and coercion. Softness and fluidity are more important than strength and rigidity. Both Confucians and legists alike considered the relationship of man, society and the state. They considered hierarchy to be the principle of this ratio. At its top is the state headed by the ruler, the middle is occupied by society, and at the bottom is a person. A person belongs to society, and both of them belong to the state. The state belongs to the ruler (monarch). Thus, both Confucians and Legists recognized the same form of government as the only correct ones. Both also saw the ideal of a state structure in an exemplary manner. However, the understanding of the methods by which this order is achieved is fundamentally different between Confucians and Legists.

Philosophical and Methodological Challenges of Creativity

At all stages of its development, higher education considered the training of an educated specialist capable of improving their professional qualities, reproducing and expanding social experience, transforming the material conditions of society and its culture as well as accumulating and creating new values and knowledge as its main goal.
 At a certain stage, however, this social function of higher education – the formation and development of a creative personality of a specialist, became distorted, devalued, and lost its fundamental meaning. Higher education gradually began to lose its creative functions.
 The process of restructuring the political, spiritual, social, and economic life of society has posed new questions about the individual and the objective need for increasing the role of the creative personality.
 Studying the patterns of students’ thinking development, the peculiarities of their socialization under new conditions, and the realization of the creative abilities of the individual, while changing priorities and values, allows for predicting promising trends in the development of science, technology, and culture in the nearest future.
 An important methodological principle that should be embedded in the center of educational policy during the predicted period is the recognition that the progress of any society is measured by the ability to realize the essential capacities of individuals, their degrees of freedom, moral self-improvement, personal development, and the movement of society towards a new historical form of humanism.
 An individual in society should be free and retain the freedom of conscience, thought, skills, profession choice, cultural interests, aspirations, and priorities.

Allegorical protests of the national elite in Ukraine against the destruction of Cossack state-hood as a manifestation of the Ukrainian state-legal tradition

Issues of allegorical protests of the Ukrainian national elite in the last quarter of the 18th century are highlighted. against the destruction of the Cossack Hetmanship. There is an opinion that such protests were a manifestation of the Ukrainian national state-legal tradition, Ukrainian intellectuals defended the rights of Ukrainians to their own statehood and historical system in accordance with their inner world and values.
 Allegorical protests in iconic works of the then Ukrainian national elite ‑ I. Kotlyarevskyi, V. Kapnist, Ya. Kozelskyi, M. Kozachynskyi, G. Skovoroda - were analyzed. It was concluded that the protests of Ukrainian intellectuals were consonant with the main moods of the time - "competition for the truth" and "knowledge of the truth", imbued with a liberating meaning, and especially the declaration of "freedom" as the highest value.
 It is emphasized that the most prominent philosophers of the era of the destruction of the Cossack Hetmanship, M. Kozachynskyi and H. Skovoroda, focused their attention on the justification of the need to preserve national identity. The first is through the idea of the dominant culture ("Spiritual Home") in national life, and the second is the ideal of freedom, equality and fraternity, which was expressed in the formula of the so-called "Mountain Republic". It is substantiated that the specified thinkers in their works shifted attention from social factors to individual factors - they saw the nation not in the "crowd", but in the self-preservation of its chosen, conscious representatives. It is emphasized that the effectiveness of establishing healthy public views on the socio-political system, work, and happiness of people objectively depends on the number of nationally conscious members of society. It was emphasized that education, self-knowledge and moral self-improvement of each person should be the basis for the growth of the number of such chosen people.
 As a result, it was recognized that the allegorical protests of the national intelligentsia against the incorporation policy of imperial Russia still focused on a too narrow, however, precisely the need to preserve national identity through the idea of a dominant national culture and the ideal of freedom, equality and fraternity.

THE IMAGE OF HRYHORII SKOVORODA IN POETIC INTERPRETATIONS BY PAVLO TYCHYNA AND VASYL STUS

The comparison of works by P. Tychyna and V. Stus allows us not only to see the common and different in the interpretation of Hryhorii Skovoroda (comparative aspect) but also to notice the reasons for one or another interpretation (historical aspect). In P. Tychyna's works H. Skovoroda is inscribed in the character's historical time (Koliivshchyna) in the same way as the author of the poem is inscribed in his historical reality (Sovietism), while in V. Stus’s poems both the character and the author are outside their time (Koliivshchyna and Sovietism respectively). For both poets — H. Skovoroda and V. Stus — the external appeared as transient, and ‘the inner man’ had the status of eternal one. Tychyna and V. Stus use the image of Н. Skovoroda as their alter-ego. The former author describes Н. Skovoroda as a revolutionary who stands on the principles of class ideology. Tychyna had been writing his poem-symphony “Skovoroda” in the period from the formation of Soviet power to the time of Stalinism as its most brutal version. This poem-symphony is a tribute to the time, which helped him phisically survive. In V. Stus’s version, Н. Skovoroda is thinking about moral self-improvement. He is a philosopher who cares for the fate and future of the Ukrainian people. V. Stus, living under the Soviet system, did not accept it and put up a strong resistance to it as a representative of the sixtiers. Stus’s poetry considered in this article may be regarded as a polemic with the poem-symphony “Skovoroda” by P. Tychyna. Moreover, the poem “Introduction to the poem “Skovoroda” by V. Stus shows that this polemic was planned in the format of the same genre — the poem, although it never unfolded, remaining only in fragments. Tychyna’s work also has a fragmentary nature due to both the long time of writing and the two-layered image of H. Skovoroda. The poet tried to show Skovoroda as a philosopher and a revolutionary (with the dominance of the latter).

G. L. Crusius’s Visual-Critical Reading of Lichtwer’s Das Recht der Vernunft (1758)

This article focuses on the headpiece engravings produced by the Leipzig-based artist Gottlieb Leberecht Crusius for Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer’s philosophical-didactic poem Das Recht der Vernunft (1758). An analysis of the designs demonstrates how the visual paratexts generate textual meaning and function as an iconic lens, bringing into focus in new ways the abstract contents of the poem. Developing a complex intermedial interpretation in his vignette series, Crusius invites reader-viewers to take part in a symbolic journey of critical reflection and moral self-improvement. The article establishes that Crusius’s illustrations represent a significant metacritical intervention and expanded the text-interpretative potential of the eighteenth-century German illustrative vignette.

The Spiritual and Religious Concept of Optimism in Philosophy and Pedagogy of Ivan Ilyin

Introduction. The spiritual and religious concept of I. Ilyin’s optimism brings a new vision of the problem of human and his qualities into philosophy and pedagogy and is of scientific interest as a kind of program of spiritual stamina. The purpose of the study is to trace the genesis of the phenomenon of optimism in the spiritual and religious concept of I. Ilyin against the background of the evolution of his philosophical views; determine the spiritual and moral foundations of optimism within the framework of this concept; to determine the methods of formation of spiritually faithful optimism as a personality trait. Results. The spiritual and religious concept of I. Ilyin’s optimism manifests itself in the moral stamina of the individual, in conscious humility with what cannot be changed and in overcoming those difficulties that are within our power; it is the ability to recognize one’s life purpose and faithfully follow it throughout life, overcoming difficulties. It is the difficulties that act as steps to overcome them and on the way to the moral self-improvement of the individual. In the spiritual and religious concept of I. Ilyin, optimism acts in two ways: both as a gift (something innate) and as an art (something acquired) of self-empowerment, which is actualized during the period of overcoming difficulties. The article traces the evolution of I. Ilyin’s philosophical views: from understanding optimism as a moral will (in the traditions of German classical philosophy) to understand optimism as an effective overcoming of suffering and courage in the best traditions of Russian Orthodoxy. The harder and bleaker life is, the more in demand is optimism as the art of spiritual victory over the suffering and hardships of life, which carry a powerful emotional charge of spiritual purification, hardening, strengthening and strengthening. Discussion and Conclusion. For our research, it is especially valuable that optimism as a quality of a person, having both innate and acquired strength, can be brought up: by prayer, by inner (cordial contemplation), by emotional comprehension, by consolation, by distraction with joy. No less valuable is the fact that the methods of his upbringing reveal the spiritual principles of optimism.

Мистические видения и их оценка в русском масонстве конца XVIII – начала XIX века

In the richest manuscript heritage of Russian freemasons, who lived two centuries ago, there are numerous descriptions of various mystical experiences. These are visions and mystical dreams in which beings from the other world appeared, as well as deliberately evoked mystical states by which an adept attempts to penetrate into the other world. For censorship reasons, this aspect of the activities of Russian brothers practically did not go beyond the narrow circle of initiates. The article will attempt to present the main types of mystical experience reflected in the manuscripts of Russian freemasons – mostly diaries and correspondence. The most valuable information of this kind is contained in so-called “Masonic dreams”. These stories constitute a special genre of Masonic literature and preserved in a significant number of manuscripts. They were based on the idea of a special inner, spiritual vision, which has an adept and which allows him to achieve clairvoyance. Masonic dreams contain a significant amount of details related both to the Masonic ritual and symbolic decoration of the premises of Masonic lodges, and to those practices of moral self-improvement that are important for the Masonic path. Russian freemasons paid considerable attention to the problem of evaluating such experience – is it a gift from the divine essences or a temptation sent by demonic forces? The question of the significance of such an experience was also important: is it an accidental consequence of Masonic work, a hindrance on the way, or, on the contrary, a kind of confirmation of progress in following the Masonic path? The Orthodox Church, to which the Russian freemasons belonged, is extremely negative about such forms of mysticism. Therefore, they were forced to seek explanations for such phenomena in Catholic and Protestant mysticism, as well as in the European esoteric tradition. The article attempts to answer these questions, based on the analysis of a wide range of Masonic manuscripts of the 18th - early 19th centuries, preserved in the families of Russian Masons and today located in the Moscow archives.

CONFESSIONAL GROUNDS IN CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART

The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the repentance, penitence, and confession concepts’ grounds in art and philosophy, to characterise examples of the reflection of these concepts in art. Research relevance. A necessary component of philosophical reasoning, cultural studies and everyday life practices is the rethinking of many concepts of moral consciousness. Reasoning on ethical values is essential in all cultures and at all times. The topics of moral guest, self-deepening and purification are relevant today. Turning to the analysis of the reflection of such concepts as confession, repentance, penitence in culture and art requires research attention. The research methodology is based on general scientific and special methods of knowledge, in particular analysis, synthesis, the logical method and the method of generalisation. The scientific novelty is in revealing the concept of repentance in the confessional grounds of philosophy and literature — as a primordial and constant concern of the human spirit for itself. Conclusions. It is revealed that remorse arises when, having committed a fundamentally wrong act, a person recognises it as a violation of the moral law and condemns it, but does not have the strength to condemn themself so much as to renounce entirely the passion that led to the crime, so they do not seek real transformations of their soul. The article has demonstrated that spiritual quest, a person’s ascent through moral self-improvement, occur in a person at any period of their life. It is proved that the emphasis on conscience, a person’s moral self-purification, repentance has been inherent in the national cultural tradition since Kyivan Rus. And in the following centuries, this moral attitude was decisive in the spiritual life of our ancestors many times, returning hope in difficult historical moments. It is generalised that a sincere search for the ways of the good and genuine repentance and confession is possible to others and oneself.

Диалоговая основа дневника Л. Н. Толстого

The article verifies the hypothesis that Leo Tolstoy’s diary has the form of a hidden dialogue of the writer with various subjects: with himself, with third parties, with God. Dialogue is understood as a form of individual development. The article determines that Leo Tolstoy’s diary represents a program of self-improvement, which is achieved through goal-setting and self-assessment. In the traditional perception of the diary genre, entries are interpreted as a form of autocommunication, carried out for the purpose of self-identification of the individual. The paper reveals that the form of the dialogue with oneself in some cases reaches the phase of the nominative multiple personality disorder. The writer defines himself as a third person: Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich, etc. The dialogue with oneself consists in evaluating one’s own actions, dispraising, moralizing, and goal-setting, and is one of the forms of self-development. The article establishes that Tolstoy looks upon the diary as a form of communication with third parties – readers of his notes. Diary entries of this type are aimed at modeling the diary readers’ behavior. One more type of communication is a dialogue with God. Tolstoy writes down many prayers, appeals to God, thinks about God, reflects with Him. He moves away from the idiomatic text of the prayer. Communication with God becomes intimate, containing a request for help in moral self-improvement. The semantic dominant of prayer is the good, benefit for others. Tolstoy excludes from prayers specific requests for material goods, i.e. common requests which people turn to God with. Leo Tolstoy’s diary is a heterogeneous genre formation, that is determined by the goals of the entries. The writer extends the functions of the diary. This feature determines the choice of communication tactics, the style of the diary. Tolstoy’s diary is a multi-genre formation that includes such sub-genres as a chronicle, explanation, a prayer, reasoning, reproach, accusation, etc.

ПРОГРАММА «ЛУЧШИЙ АКТИВ» КАК МЕХАНИЗМ УЛУЧШЕНИЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ВОСПИТАТЕЛЬНО-ПРОФИЛАКТИЧЕКОЙ СРЕДЫ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ОРЕНБУРГСКОГО ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО АГРАРНОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА)

In the context of rapidly changing trends in the development of Russian society, the information war for the “minds” of young people, the problem of education plays an important role at the state level. Modern socio-cultural, economic development of the country, informatization of society deepen the importance of educating young people. In modern reality the state plays an initiating role in attracting social forces and social institutions to solve many problems of education. Recently regulatory documents have been prepared and adopted, laying the legal and cultural foundations for building the educational policy of the institutions of society and the state in relation to education. Federal Law No. 273 “On Education in the Russian Federation”, the National Project “Education” and all related subprojects of the federal and regional levels emphasize the importance of education in ensuring readiness and ability for spiritual development, moral self-improvement, self-esteem, to realize creative potential, understanding the meaning of their lives, individually responsible behavior of students, building personality - a patriot of his country. I have developed the “Best Asset” program that can influence the development of the educational and preventive environment of the university. When implementing the “Best Asset” program, it influences the development of the educational and preventive environment, improves the quality of its organization, as it reflects the real picture of the interaction of students with the administration of the university, so that in the future it will be a single mechanism for the implementation of a particular activity.

Влияние этических идей Л.Н. Толстого и П.А. Кропоткина на творческие принципы Г. Газданова

The relevance of the study is due to the need to study the ethical foundations of the writer’s artistic world. The correlation of G. Gazdanov’s works and his journalism with the concept of art by L.N. Tolstoy and the original ethics of P.A. Kropotkin is revealed. G. Gazdanov’s work is illuminated in an axiological manner, in connection with which art is positioned as a sphere of social life, which is the evolution of the spiritual development of mankind as a part of nature, conceivable in the projection of the divine principle. The task of the artist determines the motivation of reader to moral self-improvement. For this, the most important is the life experience of the author, which is opposed to “literary artificiality” and technicalism. The artist’s action is in-tegrated into society as a specific type of activity that combines the uniqueness of personal self-expression, cultural patterns and the evolutionary element of a new word in the form of a high message to the world. The typological connection between the writer’s metapoetics and pretexts is revealed implicitly in the texts of his works (“An Evening with Claire”, “Flight”, “The Prisoner”, etc.) and explicitly in his journalism. As a result of the analysis, it was possible to trace that in the eidological field of G. Gazdanov, the Apolonic and Dionysian principles, the “infectious” soulful-ness of L.N. Tolstoy and the spiritual searches of F.M. Dostoevsky are combined. Following the symbolist concept of “total unity”, G. Gazdanov “collects stones” and, focusing on his predeces-sors, removes the opposition between “elite” art and “literature for the masses”. The tendency from lyricism to plot in meta narration appears to be a reasonable choice aimed at the “echo” of the reader and a responsible civic position.

Features of Spiritual and Moral Teaching of Nizami Gyanjevi

The article reveals the ethical aspect inherent in the teachings of Nizami Ganjavi. The role and place of the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker in the history of world spirituality are considered. The authors analyze the originality, uniqueness of the poetic creativity of Nizami, who called each person to spiritual and moral self-improvement. He argued that the most important component of a person's being is his soul, which is the bearer of the highest moral qualities - friendship, love, humanity, etc. The main hero of his works is the people, artisans. All the poet's sympathies are on their side. On the example of his poem "Khamsa", such moral categories as good, cruelty, evil, happiness, the meaning of life, etc. are explored. Important importance is given to revealing the personality of the poet-thinker Nizami as a humanist, a subtle psychologist, a great connoisseur of the human soul. It is shown that morality plays the main line in the formation of a person, his spirituality. This is evidenced by the numerous works of Nizami Ganjavi, in which the man of labor, the true bearer of the spirituality and culture of the people, is glorified. It also touches upon other ethical problems set forth in the works of the great thinker. In general, the teachings of Nizami Ganjavi affirm truly humanistic moral principles in society.

The Metaphors of Conscientia in Seneca’s Epistles

Abstract Seneca’s masterful application of metaphors often illuminates some Stoic technical terminology in contexts, which render them meaningful and familiar to his Roman readers. In this paper I argue that in certain instances, these metaphors are also used to organize whole systems of concepts that refer to an essential theoretical component of Seneca’s philosophy. By studying the literary and philosophical context of these metaphors, I reconstruct Seneca’s requirement for moral self-improvement in his Epistles and propose that his conception of conscientia or ‘moral conscience’—a notion scattered throughout his writings but which, as the examination of his systematic metaphors will prove, has a consistent, identical function everywhere it appears—points to some novel rational characteristics of the philosopher’s conception of the self.

Philosophical Value of the Confucian Treatise "Kong-Zi Jia Yu"

This article reveals the philosophical value of the Confucian treatise "Kong-zi jia yu," it examines issues of the theoretical importance for the history of world sinology. In the historicо-philosophical tradition, this text has long been attributed to the Confucian scientist Van Su (3rd century), however, not so long ago the situation changed significantly. In the modern scientific community, disputes around the authorship and time of writing this treatise continue. The content of "Kong-zi jia yu" is composed of stories from the life of Confucius, his conversations with his closest students, as well as prominent political figures of that time. These conversations are philosophical dialogues, they concern the most important ontological, ethical, aesthetic and epistemological issues, such as: harmonization of the Tianxia on the basis of virtuous management, the philosophical need for ritual practice, cosmological device of the Tianxia, issues traditional for early Confucianism of a pedagogical and educational nature, moral self-improvement. The diverse theme of "Kong-zi jia yu" is a valuable source that reveals the essence of the philosophy of early Confucianism. Individual fragments of "Kong-zi jia yu" coincide with the classic Confucian monuments "Shang shu," "Lun yu," "Xiao jing," etc. Although "Kong-zi jia yu" for a number of reasons, is not considered a classic text of Confucianism, but it carries an enduring philosophical value. The study of "Kong-zi jia yu" seems to the author of this work to be an urgent scientific task, the solution of which can expand the arsenal of world philosophical knowledge, as well as contribute to the dialogue of the philosophical cultures of the East and West.

Reading and Print Cultures in Waterford, 1865–1939

This article sets out to explore the emergence of reading and print cultures in Waterford over the period from the opening of the city’s Free Public Library to the outbreak of the Second World War in the twentieth century. It is intended to add to the growing body of writing emerging on reading and books in Ireland by honing in on the development of a local reading culture in an era of more democratic access to books, periodicals and other printed matter. By surveying the development of various lending and circulation libraries up to the establishment of the Waterford Free Public Library in 1896 and beyond into the Free State era, the argument will be made that many of the concerns around self-improvement and literacy remained constant despite the shift from member-run libraries to municipal libraries and from Victorian concerns about moral self-improvement to early Irish state concerns about nation-building and Catholic morality in the 1920s and 1930s. The article will also explore the publishing and book trade in the city throughout the same period. This small but significant industry provided employment for some of the very people who were the target of self-improvement and concerns about their ability to consume ‘morally dubious’ literature.

An innovative approach to the development of intellectual potential in primary school

The article discusses innovative teaching methods in primary school. The widespread introduction of new forms and methods of teaching, including modern information technologies, to ensure the possibility of individual development of each child. The development of the ability to motivate actions, independently navigate the information received, the formation of creative non-standard thinking, the development of children through the maximum disclosure of their natural abilities, using the latest achievements of science and practice, are the main goals of innovation. Innovative activity in education as a socially significant practice aimed at moral self-improvement of a person is important because it is able to ensure the transformation of all existing types of practices in society.

Noonomics. Experience of Creative Continuation of S.D. Bodrunov’s Ideas

The article presents the main provisions of S.D. Bodrunov’s theory of noonomics and synthesizes them with the leading theories of the leaders of the Frankfurt school: Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth. Noonomics refers to a new stage in the development of society as a whole, in which people will be forced out of material production, which will allow everyone to freely develop their creative powers. However, on the way to noonomics, humanity must avoid falling into a state of “digital concentration camp,” which is possible only by transforming human nature itself, moving “from zoo- to noo-state.” This implies a synthesis of science and culture and the highest value of moral self-improvement for each person. Therefore, it is the development of the human mind that will allow the transition to noonomics. It is the study of the content and possibilities of the mind that will allow us to creatively develop the theory of noonomics by using J. Habermas’s concept of communicative rationality and A. Honneth’s new theory of socialism. Communicative rationality is a special capability which makes possible to achieve mutual understanding between representatives of con-flicting social classes and develop universal norms of activity that allow for the sustainable development of society as a whole. This capability can be developed within a special institutional environment based on solidarity activities. Thus, each person will consider the successful implementation of the plans of others as a condition for the possibility of implementing their plans. This network of social institutions based on solidarity activity will be the realization of freedom in its social form. Within the framework of solidarity activities, new universal meanings of social development arise, which the communicative community will be able to formulate. Further, these meanings will replace the existing ones, which are focused on profit and unlimited economic growth, and thus transform the existing institutional system.

Moral improvement through mathematics: Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole’s Nouveaux éléments de géométrie

This paper examines the ethical and religious dimensions of mathematical practice in the early modern era by offering an interpretation of Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole’s Nouveaux elements de geometrie (1667). According to these important figures of seventeenth-century French philosophy and theology, mathematics could achieve extra-mathematical or non-mathematical goals; that is, mathematics could foster practices of moral self-improvement, deepen the mathematician’s piety and cultivate epistemic virtues. The Nouveaux elements de geometrie, which I contend offers the most robust account of the virtues cultivated by mathematics in the period, was envisaged by its authors to cultivate moral, Christian and epistemic virtues that could serve in the fulfilment of moral and Christian obligations. In this paper, I set out the goals of mathematical inquiry for the Port-Royalists and describe the specific virtues they believed a revised edition of the Elements of Euclid could foster. I show that Arnauld and Nicole believed that an acquaintance with mathematics could render a student of Euclid more just, truth-loving, attentive and humble, and better able to discern truth from falsity.