The basic epistemological principles of the Russian religious and philosophical thought - the principle of the unity of faith and knowledge, and the principle of symbolic realism as the unity of apophatic and the cataphatic knowledge of God - contributed to the enrichment of philosophy by the elements of contemplation becoming a methodological framework that assisted in the solution of the problems concerning the possibility of mystical experience, the reality of conscious communication with the absolute, human final destiny, and the possibility of theosis. Overcoming the antinomian dissociation of faith and knowledge, symbol and reality Russian philosophers moved towards their optimal combination.

The article attempts at researching the metaphysical abstractions in history by means of methodologies of philosophical analysis. The content- essential features of metaphysics and abstraction were identified and through them the essence of the metaphysical abstractions in history was disclosed. Some metaphysically abstract concepts of historical development and their malfunction in approaching historical events are revealed. In conclusion the author notes that the general feature of metaphysical and abstract concepts is willing or unwilling formation of a distorted picture of history, presenting it as incomplete, one-sided, uniform and non-developing.

The article is aimed at revealing the methodological essence of the categories “necessity” and “occasionality” and applying them to historical analysis. The peculiarities of the genesis of necessity and occasionality are described and their role is shown in historical perspective. The author discloses the difference between these two phenomena, their dialectic unity, interconnection and interpenetration. The opportunities of techniques formed on the basis of these phenomena are considered in the process of historical cognition.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the eco-philosophical teaching of the German Green Party. The authors consider these provisions regarding the opportunities and prospects for transition to the model of social development, allowing of overcoming the existing conflict between man and nature. The future of humanity is in a direct dependence on its ability to change the nature of spiritual and practical attitude to nature. However, calling to making peace with nature, eco-philosophers sometimes do not take into account the specificity of social adaptation in relation to the environment. The article focuses on the Green theorists’ understanding of the essence of human and its relationship with nature.

The article argues that the emergence of specifically human interactions involved and required the formation of public, first of all industrial relations. The latter following the development of tools and raising productivity (which only allows to satisfy all growing needs) had to be continuously improved. However, regardless of the level of industrial relations (social formations), the process of their building through interaction is always associated with the opposite actors: Organizer and Executor.

The article states the need of transferring from the paternalistic system of state management to the practice of social contract between citizens and authorities. The variants (models) of transition to the state of social control are provided. It is reasonably substantiated that under the conditions of democracy and developed market system attempts to build effective and sustainable state of the paternalistic basis have little chance of success and that corruption is incompatible with the observance of the principles of civil society and is always accompanied by a violation of its principles. An alternative to paternalistic design is a state of social contract between citizens and authorities, with total transparency of the work of the state in all spheres of life and with the institutions that help to use the expert potential of the civil society. The social contract itself can be more and more developed, more beneficial for all and more stimulating the process of building a welfare state.

The paper analyzes the possibility of explicating the idea of being in the context of socio- philosophical interpretation of the theory of social self-descriptions. The difficulties encountered in the course of this explication and connected with the uncertainty of the concept of social being in modern social philosophy are shown. The examples are given of the evolution of social self-descriptions in the course of social development and their analysis in terms of conceptualization of existential elements and autopoietic measurement. The relevance is stressed of introducing the concept of being in the theory of social self-descriptions for the development of modern social sciences ontology.

This article focuses on the problems of modern families within the frameworks of post-modern society. The author of the article considers the transformation of a family in the light of philosophical concepts of modernity that describe the postmodern society as multi-variant, «crisis», «shock» on the one hand and as a society of «freedom», «consumption», «mass culture», «mobility», «individualism» - on the other. The author points out that in postmodern societies such values as family and children are losing their significance thus giving way to the feelings of self-actualization and safety. Large families with many children are going to be regarded as unusual and even deviant.

The analysis of world experience of social and cultural integration of migrants into the receiving society is one of the pressing problems of today. The article describes various models of such adaptation accepted in the world practice, the positive and negative aspects of these models, as well as the hidden contradictions. Special attention is paid to the measures undertaken by the Government of Moscow on the creation of favorable conditions for sociocultural adaptation of immigrants in the megacity. The positive experience is shown of decreasing social intensity of the processes of adaptation.

Modern psychology is characterized by a contradictory combination of attempts to become an empirical science and practices of applying various pseudoscientific “methods”. As a result the knowledge about humans received that way turns against them. This makes a bioethical approach an essential form of humane expertise of contemporary psychological “practices”. It is necessary to spread the main “do no harm” principle of medical ethic to psychological practices and it is rational to base the course of pedagogical psychologists’ training on the synthesis of Orthodox Christian ethics and anthropology.

The article states the qualitative philosophical and theological novelty articulated by Christian theologians in respect of matter in comparison with the traditional views of Hellenic philosophy. If in Plato there is a negative attitude towards matter, when physicality is regarded as a source of evil, in the Christian tradition we find a radical change of the understanding of matter, which is destined for transformation in the future and in this century in accordance with the plan of God the creator. Mysterious transformation of matter and the human body occurs first of all in the Incarnation, in the miracle of the resurrection of human bodies, in the Church sacraments and in the Eucharist.

The paper presents a concise philosophical and theological review of the concept of “person” from antiquity to the present day and the history of this concept in the Russian language. The author discards the idea of the absence of terms denoting an individual being in Old Russian thinking and highlights the similarity of understanding the concept “person” in modern linguistics and theology. The etymology of the word “person”, going back to the Slavic root “lic”, as well as the proximity of the Russian terms “person”, “face” and “image” confirm the need for theological use of the term “person” along with the traditional Greek terms “ύπόστασις”, “πρόσωπον” and the Latin “persona”.