This paper discusses literacy as a socio-political phenomenon from the perspective of several relatively independent educational discourses. The first is critical education theory and research revealing the hidden mechanisms by which education policies act in the interests of a global market economy. The second is the perspective of critical pedagogy scholars on contemporary educational challenges, who offer responses similar to those discussed in current discourse on informal civic education. The third is the heated discussion of high-stakes literacy testing (related to (...) OECD literacy studies such as PISA, IALS, etc.) the results of which are used as a source of argumentation for diverse attitudes and educational consequences. Based on an analysis of literacy theory, research on active citizenship and civic education, the term “civic literacy” is proposed and argued as a relevant conceptual frame for conceptualizing school as an institution which can be involved in resistance to all forms of power politics or ideological indoctrination and manipulation, while at the same time, respecting the traditional values and aims of general education. (shrink)

The modernizing global world with new sociocultural practices actualizes the study of creativity as a constitutive phenomenon of human personality in the context of the challenges of modern era. The object of this research is creativity as a cultural phenomenon. The subject is creativity in the S. Freud's concept of psychoanalysis. In the era of change and uncertainty, when the role of creativity is increasing, the ideas of S. Freud acquire special significance. The article considers the unconscious in the context (...) of the social, in correlation with social factors and as a key position in creativity. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study includes cultural-historical and comparative methods. The systemic approach allowed viewing the phenomenon of creativity as a system in combibation of elements. The author also used the methods of analogy, analysis, comparison, and generalization. The discovered by Freud mechanism of sublimation is considered through the lens of creativity, as a way of redirecting energy displaced into the field of the unconscious by social factors, the sphere of creativity. The psychoanalytic concept serves as the methodological basis for explaining creativity as a complex process in combination of the conscious and unconscious. (shrink)

The prominent Russian intellectual, Nikolai Berdyaev, is renowned for his metaphysics of creativity, which he founded on a unique concept of freedom. His unorthodox interpretation of human freedom and the reality of the Spirit became a kind of manifesto for religious existentialism. This article analyzes the social and metaphysical significance of Berdyaev's philosophy of creativity in the context of the European and Russian philosophical traditions.

The subject of this research is the philosophy of history of Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev as the founder of “Russian idea”, the problematic of which was principal in reasoning of the representatives of the Russian sociopolitical thought regarding the place of Russia in world civilization, its sociocultural and national identity. Alongside the assessments of the vector of Russian history as a whole and its separate stages, the subject of the analysis is also the character of author’s discourse, which united the perception (...) of history as the synthesis of historical narrative and philosophy of history, fine intuition, and rational analysis. Methodology of research of Chaadayev’s works as the most remarkable representative of Christian historicism suggest the application of interdisciplinary approach, principles of intellectual history, comparative culturology, and retrospective political science. The scientific novelty is defined by specification of the stages of creative evolution of P. Y. Chaadayev, conclusion on similarity of the worldview and theoretical-methodological basis of the delegates of two movements of the “Russian Europeanism” represented by the Westernizers and Slavophiles. Accent is made on the difference of the heuristic value of methodology of P. Y. Chaadayev’s history for the assessment of historical fates of the European and Russian people. (shrink)

The paper analyzes the development of medical ethics in the USSR, and its socio-psychological, scientific-technological, and organizational factors. Special attention is given to the interdependence of moral-ethical problems with organizational issues. Keywords: professional ethics, medical ethics, moral relations, perestroika , socialism, Marxism-Leninism, USSR, bioethics CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this?