Russian religious philosophy does not op-pose mystical experience which is treated as a contact with transcendent reality to intellectual cognition, but unites them in a single whole. V. Solovyov, P. Florenskiy, S. Bulgakov and N. Losskiy substantiated insufficiency of rational and empirical knowledge and suggested reaching authentic cognition by means of religious ex-perience.

The article studies the features of ontologi-cal aspect Plato's philosophy and the idea of the Good. Plato's reference to the ideal Good became logical continuation of his spiritual and philosophical searches. Plato's humanistic character reveals itself in recognition of absolute values standing above egoistical interests of individual and group. The author describes the na-ture of Good and philosophy of Plato and considers the genesis of the principle of Good as methodological base of Plato's philosophy possessing something more than ontological aspect. The need of radical rethinking of the values of modern civilization is particularly stressed.

The article discusses the features of historical consciousness determined by postmodern time and postmodernist criticism of classical historicism. The concept of F. Ankersmit is debated. It is argued, that contemporary historical consciousness acts in two modes - theoretical and practical. The first one was produced in the process of postmodernist criticism development, in the second one the renovated historicism reemerges, which has turned postmodernist criticism into a persistent form of its own limitation.

The article considers social and philosoph-ical ideas of W. Blake's poetry from the viewpoint of G. Debord's concept. The author researches Blake's posi-tion of "social viewer", the owner of "double-eyesight" who forged revolutionary and reformist ideas with sym-bolic ones. Special attention is paid to situation-depend-ent and psycho-geographic peculiarities in Blake's po-ems, his innovative approach to Christian social ideas.

The author analyzes the phenomenon of norms and values in the process of social transformation. In the context of value disclosure standards essential characteristics of norms and values are revealed. The main approaches to interpreting social transformation of value systems are examined by example of Т. Parsons's structural-functional analysis, I. Prigogine's synergetics, M. Lotman's semiotics, and social-normative axiology by К. Marx.

This article is devoted to the problem of identification of Russian religious philosophy as a ho-listic independent direction in the world of philosophy. It reveals the causes of turning to isihasm, Byzantine philosophical and mystical tradition, which became one of the sources of the originality of Russian philosophy. The key issues are emphasized that defined the nature of philosophical searches in Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries. The influence of isihasm can be found in the most significant ontological, anthropological and methodological ideas of Russian religious philosophy.

The theory of intelligible essences, "order and relations of which are the same as order and re-lations of things" seems so natural to us, as it is still a very useful cognitive instrument in many domains of reality. Dashing growth of scientific knowledge from Co-pernicus and up to Newton was a result of application of mathematical methods to real world, i.e. the art of ascending from random and unsubstantial qualities of things to their hidden mathematical essences. But can any classifying scheme be a cognitive tool? This article attempts at clarifying the matter.

Patristic idea evolved in a serious discus-sion about the nature of God-like man and human ways to God. This explains its philosophical character even in the sphere of preaching, not only in epistemological controversies. It is generally assumed to consider the period of Patristics as a part of ancient and medieval philosophical development. As for Cappadocian School, its anthropology presents a synthesis of Christian dog-matics and philosophical ideas of antiquity, mainly of the neo-Platonists.

Antiquity represented elements as a mat-ter, ether or idea tensed to a certain degree, which led to a conclusion that colours should depend on the type of elements. Empedocles, Democritus, Plato and Aris-totle perceived colour as a body or substance deriving the beauty of colour from their general understanding of beauty. Thus the concept of colour accepted by antique philosophers and the one used in art did not coincide as it was in the subsequent history of art.

The article is devoted to the problem of some social and cultural grounds for Zen introduction in Russia including: globalization in cultural space re-sulted in the "globalized" Zen coming from the West; the so-called "Thaw" experience (1960-s) of the Soviet gen-eration when Zen initially penetrated into Russia and long-termed traditions of Mahayana Buddhism on the territory of Russia.

The article deals with comparative analy-sis of two conceptions: "Society of Spectacle" by French philosopher Guy Debord and "Society of Infotainment" ("Mediaspectacle") by American philosopher Douglas Kellner. New approaches are considered to the consumer society and post-industrial information stage in modern social development. The urgency of changing the meth-odology of social analysis is substantiated by sticking to neo-marxist treatment of democratic processes in modern Russia.