Hannah Arendt, <em> Origins of Totalitarianism </em> : - Ernest Becker, <em> The Structure of Evil: </em> - Lev Shestov, <em> Dostoevsky and Nietzsche: The Philosophy of Tragedy </em> : - Arundhati Roy, ‘The End of Imagination’: - Paul Valéry, ‘Politics of the Mind’: - Anton Chekhov, <em> In the Ravine </em> :
The article examines the work of the famous Russian sculptor and architect Dashi Namdakov. It is suggested that the origins of his talent lie in the depths of Buryat traditional art. The roots of Buryat art date back to the Paleolithic era, which is confirmed by the images of female figurines that were found by A. P. Okladnikov during the excavations of the prehistoric sites of the Baikal region. On the small sculptures made of mammoth bone, the lines of the face are finely worked out and the faces are framed in hair in the form of rays and snakes. Hats and clothes in these figurines are decorated with animal elements, which are considered to denote the native archaic culture which later appeared in a shamanic worldview. The basis of ancient art was syncretic and synthesized religious cult and myths. Later on ancient art, beliefs and ideas about the universe were incorporated in the cult images of the Buryat Mongols and today are communicated in a combination of archaic beliefs and esotery. This peculiarity of Buryat art leaves an original and unique imprint on modern art culture. Visitors of Dashi Namdakov's exhibitions get the feeling of an amazing connection between modernity and mythological antiquity. The article includes a short interview with the master jeweler Dashi Namdakov, in which he speaks about his work, about its origins and his future expectations.
This article is an analysis of the theory of cultural identity by Zheng Xiaoyun, a distinguished Chinese philosopher. His theory of cultural identity presented here gives a new perspective to the study of cultural identity. Zheng Xiaoyun's work The Theory of Cultural Identity has won recognition with Chinese academia and has been widely cited there, yet it is little known abroad, Russian academic thought included. Zheng Xiaoyun investigates the relations between cultural and national identities, stating that culture revolves around cultural identity. He comes to the conclusion that cultural and national identities are determined by the cultural development of individuals and society in general (horizontal determination) as well as by the global identity coming into being (vertical determination). His novel ideas and insights add to the academic discussion of the problems of identity. The comparison of Zheng Xiaoyun’s ideas and the theories of Russian and foreign researchers shows notable distinctions: western authors tend to look into psychological aspects of identity, Russian research focuses on its cultural dimension, whereas in China maintaining one’s cultural identity in a changing world is the key problem of identity research. In his works Zheng Xiaoyun studies the functionilg of cultural identity in an alias language environment and explores how strong national identity and values determine the life of a group. Key topics in Chinese identity research today, such as regional identity and Asian identity, call for an in-depth analysis of national and cultural identity and tap from the works of Zheng Xiaoyun. The comparative analysis has proved that his ideas on determining the foundations, mechanisms and types of cultural identity corresponds with other academic traditions. However, Zheng Xiaoyun’s study outlined in this article brings about novel structural approaches to the analysis of the dynamics of identity creation. Following on from the principles of historicity and objectivity, the philosopher develops the basic prerequisites for combining structural and cognitive approaches in studies of modern national and global identities.
The article analyzes the approach of Georges Florovsky to the problem of the secular (worldly, earthly, immanent). Georges Florovsky gave the secular tendencies in the Christian world a negative assessment as they led to cultural crises. He proposed to seek their origin in the antinomic (God-human, both earthly and heavenly) nature of the Christian church. He deduced that the origins of secular culture stemmed forth from the medieval attempts to break this antinomy, to create Heaven on Earth. This could be seen in the Byzantine Empire (subordination of the Church to the Emperor), in the Latin world (assignment of secular power to the Pope), in the European postReformation thought (through the blurring of the distinction between theology and de-Christianized philosophy), and later in the Russian religious philosophy (attempts to formulate the idea of Christian state). Drawing on the concept of the divine-human antinomy of the Church, Georges Florovsky insisted that the Church should neither try to blur the line between the religious and the secular not try to influence secular politics, but should instead proceed from the fact that culture is intrinsically religious and substantially theologised. In fact, he objected to the ecclesiasticisation of politics and offered to proceed from the assumption that Christianity (religion) is universal by default. Georges Florovsky used a dual, dialectical approach in which secular discourse is seen as a religious one that aspires to secular power and consequently ceases to be religious, creating a kind of secular culture that threatens Christianity itself. In order to overcome this secular culture Christianity is called upon to abstain from direct political influence on it. While avoiding limitations of the religious-secular dualism of the Enlightenment and allowing the Church thought to prevent aggravating relations with secular politics, this approach fails to properly distinguish between the causes and the effects of the secular discourse. The conclusion identifies ways of furthering Florovsky’s approach and thought.
Jane Duran, Society for Indian Philosophy and Religion
The aesthetic aspects of the Jagganath festival at Puri are investigated, and it is argued that this remarkable Hindu gathering provides much evidence for a set of overall Hindu artworld constructs. Two foci help us to address the salience of this celebration: the first focal point centers on the importance of Vaishnavism and the various avatars that may be included in devotion, while the second focus reminds us of the nearby site of Konarak, with its globally-known stonework. The strength of the use of color in the festival is also acknowledged. Finally, the work of Rowland, Mishra and Wilkins is cited, and some work of aestheticians on the concepts of representation and symbolism alluded to.