It has long been assumed that philosophy is a
divine science. At the same time the term philosophy is of
earthly origin. Socrates lowered philosophy from heaven to
earth in order to give mankind possibility to get out of captivity
of animal existence and to rise up to Heaven thus having
turned slave nature of man into free, universally creative essence,
i.e. to make man both natural and social creature.
Ancient philosophy tried to reflect the universe as an absolute,
endless, eternal and integral being As above, so below;
as below, so above is the statement of ancient thinkers
which gives ground to consider that earthly life is predetermined
by heavenly life.
Aristotle tried to banish heavenly content from philosophy
and convert it into earthly phenomenon, into human property.
Going down of philosophy to earth was a long historical
process, connected with the appearance of Homo sapiens.
On the Earth philosophy provides people with ability (though it
is only possibility at present) to unite abstract form of thinking
with free universally creative form of practice.

The phenomenon of dissymmetry studied today
as a problem within natural sciences has pre-philosophical
and philosophical sources.
Attaching a lot of significance to the broad and general
character of the phenomenon of rightism-leftism, the author
of the article focuses on revealing qualitative difference between
right (D) and left (L) objects states in pre-philosophical
and philosophical sources in addition to the similarity of these
objects, which became a very important factor in natural sciences
in the 20th century. The article also specifies the correspondence
between mythological, religious and Kantian
ideas about rightism-leftism and modern natural-scientific
definition of dissymmetry. The author stresses that fact the
problem of mirror reflecting first appeared as a religious concept
and then was investigated by natural sciences analyzing
the causes of such transition.

The biological time scale produces evolutionary
arrow of time. The recognition of the irreversibility of biological
time, universal character of evolutionary processes, or anything
that might be called biological paradigm that operates
on the basis of evolutionary thinking have so far conflicted
with only one but very important biological object - homo sapiens.
In accordance with traditional evolutionary concepts
man is not subject to natural selection and in this sense it is
eternal as a type. A new science - evolutionary epistemology
- states that this is not true. Man evolves through cognitive
programs. Human evolution is connected with the methods of
production, storage, reception and transmission of information.
Consequently, the evolutionary arrow of time is valid for
all alive.

Ecology can be defined as the system of knowledge
that pursues theoretical substantiation and practical
preservation of existing variety of planet biosphere. The study
of the given variety with the purpose of its preservation and
use passes a number of stages which can be characterized
as conceptual systems of ecology. They are as follows: ecology
as a part of biological science, the formation of social
ecology and an ecological paradigm, the study of the process
of globalization and creation of engineering ecology. Each
conceptual system of ecology has its own ontology with a
number of base categories and, first of all, time category. Human
activity has led to the appearance of a new world with
specific existential characteristics. The basic feature of this
reality is accurately fixed irreversibility of all natural processes.
This irreversibility testifies to formation of a new phenomenon
- an ecological arrow of time. The ecological arrow of
time is as manifestation of a variety of processes caused by
human influence on physical, geological, chemical and biological
properties of biosphere. These processes might result
in such a quality of the biosphere at which human existence
becomes impossible or doubtful.

The paper substantiates the necessity of applying
cognitive-value approach to social and philosophical
study of such a polysemantic, complicated dynamic and controversial
phenomenon as man-caused situations. The basic
characteristics of cognitive-value approach are as follows:
man-caused situations should not only be studied but estimated;
man is the cause of such situations that is why their
objective understanding is possible only through subjective
treatment; the assessment in man-caused situations has no
less determining power than the real world, etc. The consequent
application of cognitive-value approach has allowed of
eliminating content and borderline vagueness of such categories
as technological reality, technique, man-caused
situations.

The article provides a comparative analysis of
religious and rational approaches to cognitive process from
the angle of subject - object relationships and morality as a
means of cognition. The author develops the idea that religious
cognition is referred to closed rationality as it contains
the statement of a definite conceptual position. At the same
time the modern world picture can be sufficiently constructed
and perceived only by means of open rationality. The article
draws a conclusion that an individual can change his morality
by means of open rationality and he doesnt need a cognitive
paradigm imposed by religion.

The author traces the history of foreign student
corporations abroad, their foundation and influence upon social
and political life. Since the 13th century the first student
communities have started to appear in the University of Bologna,
created according to the principle of friendly association
of people from same area with the aim of uniting students
of certain countries to develop the sense of duty, honor and
patriotism. Later in the 18th - 20th centuries student corporations
approved a charter that all corporations should follow.
Polytechnic universities of Tartu and Riga became a cradle of
student corporations

According to the author, the world space globalization
attracts steady, universal change of regulation mechanisms
authority at various levels. The role of a civil society
raises, the authority of strong-willed decisions falls. The competition
between the nations passes to the area of economy
setting principles distinct from a policy of cooperation: economic
rationality starts to prevail over political one.

The article is dedicated to the problem of actualization
of the knowledge society concept in the modern
social theory. The author analyzes a range of the most
distinguished views reflecting the extreme and intermediate
points of knowledge society paradigm. That the views were
formed in the Russian socio-humanist discourse permits us to
develop general understanding of its specialties and orientation.
The article reveals diverse and polar nature of scientific
discussion on the concept of knowledge society leading
researchers to a higher level of reflection on the backbone
processes in modern society.

The article deals with the topical problem of
sense reality within communicative sphere of society in the
aspects of revealing the extrainterpretative components of
sense and making distinction between sense and meaning.
The definition of sense through the category of presence going
back to Heideggers philosophy is opposed to structuralist
and semiotic discourses that substitute sense for meaning and
reduce philosophical work to the process of interpretation. By
contrast with the postmodern philosophy of illusiveness of the
objective reality and absence of the representation the author
returns sense to the subject and its being-in-the-world as the
unity of corporal and conscious, emotional and rational while
analyzing M. Heideggers and H.U. Gumbrechts ideas

The article deals with the analysis of the concepts
of «virtual reality» and cyberspace; the reasons and
time of occurrence of the given phenomena in the development
of human civilization have been traced. It has been
shown that the Internet is the global information field uniting
all existing telecommunication and information networks. A
brief review of Russian scientists works studying the Internet
is presented. The parity of cyberspace and the real world is
considered. The difference between virtual sensual and real
images is analyzed.

The article explains the phenomenon of humanity
as a «third way» standing between religion and non-religious
consciousness and proves the legitimacy of the use of
the given concept. Humanity as benevolence and willing to
help others can by no means be reduced and equated to the
aspiration to correct the existing order of things - that ideal
of humanistic outlook under which all social upheavals of
the new and newest time took place. Humanity as a cultural
universal is a historically, regionally and typologically wider
phenomenon than humanism. The author of the article marks
the key positions of humanistic psychotherapy as example of
practical embodiment of secular humanity and charity practice
in modern culture «without God». Humanity of such approach
is determined by the fact that dialogue self-objectivization
presents itself a moment of mans growth, his self-eminence
and harmonization in the relation to himself and the world.

The article analyses the development of Christian
principle of transcendence in its contradictory correlations
with pantheistic tendencies of different stages of Russian
religious philosophy. The study also reveals the degree
of correspondence between various methodological positions
and principal bases suitable to form such philosophical systems
that would collocate with the Orthodox mystic experience,
Christian theistic outlook and the main aim of Russian
philosophy - to build the integral knowledge about the whole
being within the frameworks of Christian philosophy.

This article analyzes the philosophical and legal
concepts of B.N. Chicherin, P.I. Novgorodtsev, N.N. Alekseev
and their solutions for overcoming the sense of justice crisis.
B.N. Chicherin saw the exit in the creation of a constitutional
monarchy and civil society development. P.I. Novgorodtsev
offered the most appropriate way of building a jural state in
Russia by adhering to national sovereignty and individual
rights. N.N. Alekseev claimed by way of such exit an Eurasian
state, based on the recognition of the primacy of law and
morality.

The article consists of two parts. The first part of
the article is concerned with some aspects of theoretical work
of F.A. Stepun as a social philosopher. It analyses various estimations
of his contemporaries and modern scholars regarding
the identity of his social and philosophical heritage. It has
been stated that F.A. Stepun developed a methodology and is
one of Russian pioneers of the cognitive-value approach. The
second part substantiates the fact that F.A. Stepun managed
to develop his own original methodology (methodological
transcription) allowing effective investigation of social phenomena.
The main points of his methodological transcription
are that the concept of an incomprehensible world is
formed through emotional experience; emotional experience
doesnt become the subject of the concept and the concepts
are not felt; understanding of the movement from life experience
to art experience is possible only through the prism of
analysis of value relations; life experience is beyond logical
comprehension, art experience is amenable to the conceptual
understanding; all that is created by art can and should
be subjected to philosophical reflection.

In S.N. Bulgakov s works the problem of light
is considered in close connection with the question of transcendence
and immanence in the relationship of God and
the world. S.N. Bulgakov defines light as a divine energy, the
process that reveals the ontological relationship between God
and the world. The philosopher considers the idea of light
through the doctrine of Sophia as a conduit of divine energy
of light to the world. The article pays a lot of attention to defining
the concept of Sophia as fundamentally significant to
S.N. Bulgakovs work. The idea of light is also considered in
the context of the divine name theory, with the relationship of
the philosophy of the name and the philosophy of the image
(icon) as philosophical receptions of ideas of the energetic
nature of light being revealed. The article considers S.N. Bulgakovs
ideas of icon as a hieroglyph name that reveals its
symbolic content in man and through man.

The article is devoted to the philosophical fundamentals
of liberal upbringing and education. The development
of liberal upbringing and education ideas is presented
historically. Herein the author describes the essential qualities
of liberal upbringing ideas within the framework of the philosophy
of education. The connection between philosophy and
pedagogy is reviewed on the basis of historical retrospective
of the liberal upbringing and education ideas. Russian philosophers
views of the proclaimed subject have been studied.
The work also raises the issues of the origin of liberal
upbringing and education.

Existential analysis allows of complementing
the notion of communication as being «between you and I»
dialogical personalism by logos dimension (the immensity of
senses). V. Frankl considers sense a unique sense of selftranscendental
human existence; it is an imperative found
in objective reality transcending the boundaries between an
individual and the community that have a dialectical connection.
This openness to the world is the basis for considering
communication a condition of sense realization in its basic
forms (sense of life / sense of death, sense of suffering, sense
of activity and sense of love). However communication alone
does not implement the human aspiration to sense.

The article deals with some specific problems,
concerning certain characteristics of Joachims Trinitarian
theology used as a key to the philosophy of history. It emphasizes
particular qualities of his critical apparatus such
as «status», «aetas» and «tempus». Joachim shared with
many of his contemporaries the conviction that nature, persons
and events pointed beyond themselves to transcendent
realities. It was in this medieval and monastic environment
that Joachim formulated his theology of history. Focusing
particular attention on Joachims three-state schema of history,
modern Russian scholars lack for studying his Trinitarian
conceptions. Joachim assumed that God had given the
world, and particularly the history of the chosen people, a
multidimensional order and symmetry which reflects the Trinity
and its mysteries. The exegetical plan of Joachims four
major commentaries reveals that history for the abbot is an
allegory of the Trinity. Joachims various historical schemata:
two times, three states, and seven ages - are the symmetry
of the catholic doctrine of the Trinity.

In terms of Russias transition into the information-
oriented society the normative regulation of social relations
acquires particular significance. To regulate relations
in the information-oriented society it is essential to get rid of
the orthodox attitude towards state coercion as prescribed by
positivist law tradition. Emphasis is put on such a regulator of
social-legal interaction as participants responsible self-reflexion
that allows of creating self-regulatory poly-subjective sociality
adequate to existence and information flow principles.

The article is devoted to national identity which
includes some primordial factors (historical, areal-chronological,
territorial, linguistic, ethnic, political) and different manifestations
of human social being. Ethnic identity is realized
in speech experience where ethnicity is a communicative resource.
The «mother tongue» category is a typical expression
of national identity. The construction of ethnic consciousness
in multicultural environment is a result of intercultural communication.

The article is devoted to understanding the
problems of ideology and social practices of Jehovism under
current conditions of Russian confessional field. The urgency
of attention to modern doctrinal texts of the organization of
«Jehovahs Witnesses» in Russia is due to a complicated situation
formed around the controversial religious movement.
The purpose of this study is to examine possible strategies
and tactics of Jehovahs Witnesses applied at the present
stage of development of Russian religious space, and to identify
possible prospects for relations between the state and the
religious organization by analysing the texts of the latest editions
studied at prayer meetings of «Jehovahs Witnesses»
on the territory of Trans-Baikal region.