Abstract: The article discusses trends in the development of J. Law’s social topology. The main trend covered is a development of the mentioned topology against the background of an actor-network theory. The article emphasizes that J. Law’s topological framework was created within the actor-network theory and has been elaborated as the response to methodological problems of this theory. Intending to overcome such problems, J. Law has progressively revised the research capabilities of the actor-network theory, and therefore his methodology has expanded beyond studying networks. Given the outlined fact, the article raises an issue of whether J. Law’s topology could be still used while assembling the topological ideas launched within the network approach. The article addresses the issue arguing that the affirmative answer to the question is acceptable if the activity underlying the elaboration of J. Law’s notions is described from the point of view of the actor-network theory. The article provides a list of theoretical assumptions that should contribute to reintegration of the ideas of J. Law’s topology and those of the actor-network theory. Findings from the field of the potential network design aiming to construct plausible development scenarios of the networks of various types rank high on the list. The article stresses that in this case at least two classes of the aforementioned findings are of great interest, namely those that are relevant to the analysis of the networks in social reality, and those of relevance to the examination of the descriptions of social reality created with the means of the network approach.

Keywords: social research methodology, John Law, actor-network theory, network approach, social networks, social relations, social space, social topology, theory synthesis, potential network design

Abstract: In composition “The Vision of God” (1453), Nicholas of Cusa explores the question of the perception of beauty through “vision of the invisible”. In this discourse he leans on the earlier compendium of texts by Raymond Lully, particularly fragments from the text “From the Book of Discussion Between Peter and Raymond” (“Ex libro disputationis Petri et Raimundi”, late 1420’s). The article traces the understanding of the concept of beautiful by Nicholas of Cusa in evolution from the early compendium to the treatise “The Vision of God”. The key method of research lies in the rational reconstruction of the ideas of Cusa associated with the concept of beauty. The work also applies the methodology of comparative analysis of specificity of the use of certain notions characteristic for the ancient and scholastic philosophical traditions, but at this point, in the context of their implementation and re-interpretation particularly in the teaching of Nicholas de Cusa. Based on the conducted research, a conclusion is made that the definition of beauty common to the teaching of Nicholas de Cusa by no means is synonymous to Plato’s comprehension of the “beauty as such”. The concept of beauty in the teaching of Cusa does not suggest the establishment of any hierarchy of the beautiful, but rather alleviates all need for it. Analysis of compendium of the text of R. Lully along with the own compositions of Nicholas of Cusa shows how exhaustively and seamlessly do the ideas and cognitive constructs of R. Lully conform with the teaching of Nicholas of Cusa.

Keywords: Metaphysical principle, Sense perception , Species, Abstract form of type, Knowing ignorance, Invisible vision, Absolute vision, Pure color, Delecatio, Beautiful thing

Abstract: This article examines the teaching on the essence of Buddha (Sanskrit – tathāgatagarbha, òèá. de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po) as in presented in the canonical literature of Sutra and Shastra, as well as commentator tradition of the Tibetan Buddhism. This teaching is the principal in personology of Buddhism, because through the notion of the “essence of Buddha” (tathāgatagarbha) and adjacent notions – “natural glow of mind (prakṛtiprabhāsvaratācitta)” and “naturally existing spiritual seed” (prakṛtipragotra)” is revealed the purpose of the perfecting motion, motion process towards the goal and its basis. The work is conducted based on the peer Tibetan-language sources viewed in the context of the living tradition of Central Asian Buddhism. It has been established that the essence of Buddha is considered in the literature of Sutra as a present in each person highest, absolute “Self” (ātman), different from the empirical “Self”, which Buddhism denies as the self-existent phenomenon. The key question within the Tibetan commentator tradition consisted in interpretation of the essence of Buddha as a positive being that manifests when an individual becomes disengaged from the distorting factors; or as such non-implying a positive content of negative factors.

Keywords: disengagement , personality, soteriology, Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, Madhyamaka, Mahayana, essence of Buddha, Tathagatagarbha Sutra, Ratnagotravibhaga

Abstract: This article provides the search results of the value foundations of religions in their cultural manifestation within the social space of Chuvash Republic, as well as describes their qualitative characteristics. The authors present the results of philosophical analysis of the content, structure, and functional potential of the impact of invariant (or attributive) characteristics of value foundations of the religious outlook upon human consciousness. The article substantiates the principle of interaction between the scientific and religious outlook within the university social space, as well as provides the proof of possibility of their mutual influence without losing the value orientations aimed at construction of human and society. The author show the possibility of regulating relations of the two sociocultural institutions of the regions – religion and education through the social space of the flagship university. The article suggests a mechanism of conjunction and potential integration according to the purpose of building the scientific and religious outlook preserving the identity of each. Socio-philosophical analysis of characteristics of the religious values from the perspective of their compatibility and non-confrontational interaction allowed determining the attributive positions and value foundations for every religious culture. The authors established the hierarchical importance of he identified value foundations:   Private for separate religious organization; For regional religious community; For all regional religions communities as a whole.   The interrelation of various religious communities take place on the basis of the principle of systematicity, manifesting as the subsystems with own differences and functions cooperating within the framework of the more general subsystem of university culture.  

Keywords: mechanisms of social control, social institutions, factors of development of society, regional culture, University social space, value foundations of religion, University culture, Orthodox religion, Islam religion, Paganism

Abstract: The subject of this research is the strategy of hybrid war. An attempt is made to demonstrate that war alongside any social phenomenon undergoes transformations. At the same time, this entails not the simple process of qualitative transformations that lead to the change of quality. In the conditions of globalization and information-technological revolution, the modern conflicts suffer drastic, qualitative changes. Evolution lead up to revolution that creates new circumstances for further evolutionary development. The transition from old quality to new implies the multiplicity of forms, and only consideration of the specific character of phenomena and historical factors, within which takes place the development of these events, allows understanding which forms trigger the leaps, turns from one quality to another. The methodology is based on application of the evolution of strategies of the modern conflicts of dialectical law of transition from quantitative changes to qualitative as most general law of development. The article also uses comparativist method. The scientific novelty lies in the attempt to use dialectical law of transition from quantitative changes to qualitative for analyzing the genesis of strategies of a hybrid warfare. It is stated that the most profound and comprehensive impact upon the changes in the character and content of modern conflicts is produced by the processes of globalization and information technology revolution, which create the new mechanisms of interaction and interdependence at the global and regional scales. It is illustrated that the paradigm shift of modern conflicts is associated with the trend of transition from the linear to nonlinear model of war based on application of the indirect asymmetric actions. The author examines the changes in framework elements of hybrid war that determine the content of the philosophy of war as humanitarian components of the teaching on war. The logics of strategy of counteracting the hybrid warfare must be structures with consideration of the nonlinear configuration of strategic forces and capabilities. The model of such strategy must reflect the following key tasks aimed at protecting the state from hybrid aggression:   Transition from the form of securing the space of military-political, economic, and cultural worldview spheres of the state towards functional control over the most essential strategic elements of each sphere; Ensuring of possibility of the immediate concentration of crucially important efforts and resources in the most threatened zone. Today this is the front of information warfare. Directing reconnaissance and its close cooperation with the bodies of military-political administration and armed forces for the purpose of implementation of strategy that allows using the privilege in the threatened areas.  

Keywords: strategy, quality, quantity, transition, cold war, information warfare, hybrid warfare, content, essence, national security

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the philosophical examination of the concept of “social capital”, which at the presents time exceeds the framework of sociology and social psychology. However, the confined empirical content of the notion of “social capital” does not allow revealing the profound aspects of the objects at hand and does not produce the expected result. The subject of the research is the dialectical logics of shifting of the concept of “social capital” from empirical level towards theoretical, and acquisition of philosophical content based on determination of the ontological grounds of social capital. In the course of this research, the authors apply the methods of conceptual analysis and synthesis, principles of primacy of social being, systematicity, and dialectical controversy. The scientific novelty lies in revealing the dialectics of emergence of the new socio-philosophical category of “social capital” on the basis of “paradigm vaccination”, which takes place in the process of implementation in economic and politological articles of the applied empirical notion of social psychology and sociology – “social capital”; as well as in determining the ontological grounds of theoretical content of the indicated concept. The author conclude that the notion of “social capital” of theoretical level can be productively applied in socio-philosophical studies of the objective potential of social development, foundations of its stability and sustainable development.

Keywords: Theoretical notion, Empirical notion, Social ties, Social psychology, Intellectual capital, Cultural capital, Social being, Social, Trust, Social capital

Abstract: This article examines and analyzes the motives, grounds, and directions of the criticism of historicism in philosophical concept of Leo Strauss. The author determines and organizes the basic arguments proposed by Strauss against the principle of historicism. All objections made by Strauss are divided into two groups: the first includes the arguments that contest not the very content of the principle of historicism, but the attributed to it methodological meaning in the context of philosophical  and scientific cognition; the second includes the conceptual (general philosophical and worldview) objections against historicism. Strauss views historicism as a challenge faced by the modern philosophy. According to Strauss, the key role in development of the classical philosophical tradition and establishment of the concepts of historicity, played the consolidated in modern age idea of progress. Strauss assembles all of the major objections and arguments that were expressed against historicism by the representatives of various philosophical trends of the XX century. Personal contribution of Strauss into the criticism of historicism consists in substantiation of the thesis that this principle cannot have the historical and empirical explanation, but represents an inward controversial philosophical ideology. He conclusively demonstrated that the position of historicism cannot be confuted by the historical facts and arguments, but rather rejected for the sake of some other (not less fundamental than historicism) philosophical principle.

Keywords: historicity, political philosophy, natural law, Leo Strauss, classical philosophy, relativism, philosophy of history, history, historicism, historism

Abstract:   This article analyzes the state of ideological sphere of public consciousness. It is dedicated to identification of the inner extended logics of (self-) development of the concept of ideology in terms of its own interpretation, self-reflection, and practice of utmost transitions. The latter means the analysis of historicity of the indicated phenomenon, which underlines that the time of development of effective functionality of the basic large-scale ideological programs is exhausted as a result of completeness of their ontological grounds in form of historical period of industrialization and classical industrial development. The following conclusions were made: formulation of historical genesis of ideology in the context of emergence and establishment of bourgeois relations; statement that ideology does not carry in itself the fatal falsehood; that it is substantial and possesses the quality of accomplished vicissitude; manifests as quasi-consciousness of the large system structures; it is a subjective-social form of comprehending the historical processes, imitational and private; ideologies are the form of public consciousness of the industrial societies and their timed completes naturally.  

Keywords: criticism, forms of consciousness, individual, reality, imitation, vicissitude, concept of ideology, ideology, privacy of ideological consciousness, civilization

Abstract: This article examines the multiplicity of Buddhist practice in their inner unity, as well as substantiates the approach that acknowledges the crucial theoretical-methodological importance of the Indo-Tibetan presentation of Buddhist philosophy and practice in their functional interrelation through the categories of "Base", "Path" and "Fruit". The key subject is the philosophical and soteriological contents of these categories, as well as multi-stage conceptualization of the Path and various schemes of multi-stage systematization in Indo-Tibetan Siddhanta texts alongside treatises about the paths and stages. The author applies the historical-philosophical methods, system and comparative approaches, combination of academic standards of scientific rationalism with the principles of Buddhist hermeneutics; suggests the approach towards multi-stage conceptualization of Buddha’s Teaching based on the Indo-Tibetan sources that represents a “gradual” path on enlightenment as a universal method of presentation of Buddhist doctrines and practices in their inner unity; provides academic analysis of the content of the Base (absolute and relative truth), Path (combination of meditative practices), and Fruit (final goal and results of the Path – status of Buddha). It is established that Buddhist philosophy is not limited by the content of the Base, but also captures the Path and the Fruit. A position is formulated about the inadequacy of contraposition of philosophy and practice in Buddhism; “gradual” and “instantaneous” ways of enlightenment. Conclusion is made that the idea of “gradualness” is not strictly the approach of the Gelugpa school, but rather exists in all of the Tibetan Buddhist schools and dates back to the Indian heritage: the idea of “gradual” path that is not reducible just to the temporal sense was substantiated not only in the Mahayana, but also in the early Buddhist texts.

Keywords: Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, two truths, Fruit, Path, Base, Siddhanta, Buddhist philosophy, Tsongkhapa, gradualism

Abstract:   This article analyzes the content of categories of the Chinese Buddhism, formed as a result of collision of the categorical apparatus of the Indian Buddhism with the categorical apparatus of the Ancient Chinese philosophy. The author examines the peculiarities of its establishment on Chinese cultural platform in the context of worldview orientations of the Buddhist philosophy and soteriology. The work considers the hermeneutics of Buddhist concepts revealing their semantics, which depends on the gnoseological, ontological, psychological, and soteriological context, as well as affiliation of text that contains these concepts to one or another direction or school. The article provides the analysis of content of the categories of Chinese Buddhism, which reflect the specificity of Buddhism perception of the world base on dialectics of conditional and absolute truth, as well as peculiarities of categorical apparatus of the Ancient Chinese philosophy. The author determines the specificities of these categories characterized by polysemy on one hand, and semantic identity on the other.  

Keywords: philosophy, hermeneutics, nature of Buddha , consciousness, truth, categories, concepts, written text, absolute truth, conditional truth

Abstract: The subject of this research is the nature and sources of the lust for power as anthropological phenomenon that reveals a special dimension of life of any human being. It is claimed that the attractiveness of power is not dictated by the amenities or resources, accessibility of which promises the privilege of the status of supremacy. Moreover, power is interpreted as a burden aggravated by fear, responsibility, narrowing the personality, serving as a source of inner conflicts. At the same time, the author the position that the irrational magnetism of power is justified by its passionate nature, rooted in the in-depth layers of human psyche, tight interweaving with the relevant processes of establishment and increasing personal strength, as well as consolidating of vitality. Lust for power appears as the concentration of energy of self-esteem, demonstrates the tendency towards transgression of personal limits. The research is conducted within the framework of philosophical anthropology. The author leans on the theoretical messages of the philosophy of life, concept of will to power by F. Nietzsche. Special attention is given to the expansive character of manifestation of the lust for power. A conclusion is made that having the dynamic nature, power is forced to constantly augment its might, overcome antagonism, and tirelessly overreach itself, otherwise, it will lose the win positions. However, in such implacable expansion of power that has achieved the level of any rebuke, in constant chase for extending the territories within power also hides the threat to its existence.

Keywords: power instinct, domination, transgression, expansion of power, passion, need for power, will to power, Nietzsche, destructiveness, coming into being

Abstract: The subject of this research is the ethical categories of “good” and “evil”, analyzed in the context of modern moral consciousness. The object is the metaphysical aspect of ethics, examined as one of its most essential grounds. The author meticulously explores such aspects of the topic as the interrelation of the utilitarian-pluralistic, imperative, and creative concepts in comprehension of the basic notions of ethics, conceptual contradictions between them, as well as identifies the rational and metaphysical foundation for the theoretical understanding of the categories of “good” and “evil” applicable to the modern moral culture. The author applies axiological method as the key for defining the content of the study, as well as the method of structural analysis. The following conclusions were made: the biosocial perception of the categories of “good” and “evil” that forms the common moral consciousness, cannot serve as substantial grounds for ethical consciousness; ethics originates from metaphysics, and the basic notions of ethics are defined in terms of the metaphysical ideas of inherent value and freedom of an individual. Author’s special contribution consists in analysis of the creative concept in comprehending the categories of “good” and “evil”. The scientific novelty lies in the attempt to rationalizes the conceptual component of the ethical consciousness regarding its metaphysical content.

Keywords: metaphysics, spirit, creativity, freedom, value, evil, good, ethics, duty, mind