Solutions to word problems are moderated by the semantic alignment of real-world relations with mathematical operations. Categorical relations between entities are aligned with addition, whereas certain functional relations between entities are aligned with division. Similarly, discreteness vs. continuity of quantities is aligned with different formats for rational numbers. These alignments have been found both in textbooks and in the performance of college students in the USA and in South Korea. The current study examined evidence for alignments in Russia. Textbook analyses (...) revealed semantic alignments for arithmetic word problems, but not for rational numbers. Nonetheless, Russian college students showed semantic alignments both for arithmetic operations and for rational numbers. Since Russian students exhibit semantic alignments for rational numbers in the absence of exposure to examples in school, such alignments likely reflect intuitive understanding of mathematical representations of real-world situations. (shrink)

Measuring psychological attributes, such as motivation, typically involves rating scales, assuming that an attribute can be ordered, and that ratings represent this order. Previously, only the first assumption had been tested, albeit limited. First, we checked the ordinal structure of motivation, looking at whether people can establish transitive relations between motivation levels in pairwise comparisons; and we found different ordering patterns: strict transitive, weak transitive, changing order, and intransitivity. The rate of intransitivity was similar to that found previously and was (...) somewhat higher than we obtained when we asked participants to compare definitely quantitative attributes. Second, we checked if specific ordering patterns were related to individual interpretations of the statements that deviated from expected motivation types. Indeed, about a third of participants miscategorized statements, and these deviant interpretations were related to intransitivity as well as weak transitivity. Third, we checked whether Likert ratings represent the order of motives obtained from pairwise comparisons. We found rather homomorphic representation: ratings correlated with the order, but they did not differentiate between different ordering patterns and hierarchies of motives. We conclude that the Likert rating scale provides less information about respondents than pairwise ordering. The findings question the mainstream practice of using rating scales without testing underlying assumptions. (shrink)

In this study we replicated the explanatory effect of a label which had been found by Giffin et al.. In their experiments, they used vignettes describing an odd behavior of a person based on culturally specific disorders that were unfamiliar to respondents. It turned out that explanations which explain an odd behavior through a person’s tendency to behave that way seemed more persuasive if the disorder was given a label that was used in the explanation. We replicated these results in (...) Experiment 1, and in a follow-up Experiment 2 we examined the familiarity with category information and the evaluation of that category over time. We realized that the label effect persists even when people make judgments based on their recollections about a category. Furthermore, according to a content analysis of the recollections, participants in the label condition remembered more information from the vignettes but tended to forget an artificial label; however, they used other words from the disorder domain instead. This allowed us to suggest a new interpretation of this effect: we suppose that in the Giffin et al. experiments the label did not bring any new features to a category itself, but pointed to a relevant domain instead, so the effect appeared from the activation of areas of knowledge in semantic memory and the application of relevant schema for learning a new phenomenon. (shrink)

California is a landmark setting for studying produce recovery efforts and policy implications because of its global relevance in agricultural production, its complex network of food recovery organizations, and its environmental and public health regulations. Through a series of focus groups with organizations involved in produce recovery (gleaning organizations) and emergency food operations (food banks, food pantries), this study aimed to deepen our understanding of the current produce recovery system and determine the major challenges and opportunities related to the produce (...) recovery system. Operational and systematic barriers to produce recovery were highlighted by both gleaning and emergency food operations. Operational barriers, such as the lack of appropriate infrastructure and limited logistical support were found to be a challenge across groups and were directly tied to inadequate funding for these organizations. Systematic barriers, such as regulations related to food safety or reducing food loss and waste, were also found to impact both gleaning and emergency food organizations, but differences were observed in how each type of regulation impacted each stakeholder group. To support the expansion of food recovery efforts, participants expressed need for better coordination within and across food recovery networks and more positive and transparent engagement from regulators to increase understanding of the specifics of their unique operational constraints. The focus group participants also provided critiques on how emergency food assistance and food recovery are inscribed within the current food system and for longer term goals of reducing food insecurity and food loss and waste a systematic change will be required. (shrink)

Within the framework of a new interdisciplinary scientific scientific field – epistemological urbanism – the authors develop the idea of the human right to their city and show the epistemological nature of this right, which is explained by the fact that it is conditioned by the processes of cognition and scientific communication. Three main provisions are substantiated. Firstly, the city is an intelligent system. “The right to your city” is a specific right to scientific and intellectual production and consumption. Such (...) a right is not realized in every locality designated as a city, but only where there are conditions for intellectual dynamics – where art, education and science are developing. Secondly, the intellectual system of the city has autonomy. Each city has its own intellectual resource. Realizing the right to their city, citizens are involved in the activity of the city's scientific and intellectual autonomy. In other words, a city where there are opportunities to realize the “right to the city” generates an autonomous scientific school or a set of scientific schools. Thirdly, cities how research centers form a scientific network. Not a scientific consortium with common ideas and goals, but a network based on the principles of proliferation. The authors insist on the decentralization of science not for the purpose of its enclavization, but for the purpose of developing the potential, multi-vector and intellectual self-realization of urban communities themselves. It is shown that the development of science as a whole can be ensured by the heterogeneity of science itself : integration and differentiation give rise to an integration scientific and communicative process. (shrink)

The current research aims to answer the following question: “who will be held responsible for harm involving an artificial intelligence system?” Drawing upon the literature on moral judgments, we assert that when people perceive an AI system’s action as causing harm to others, they will assign blame to different entity groups involved in an AI’s life cycle, including the company, the developer team, and even the AI system itself, especially when such harm is perceived to be intentional. Drawing upon the (...) theory of mind perception, we hypothesized that two dimensions of mind: perceived agency—attributing intention, reasoning, pursuing goals, and communicating to AI, and perceived experience—attributing emotional states, such as feeling pain and pleasure, personality, and consciousness to AI—mediated the relationship between perceived intentional harm and blame judgments toward AI. We also predicted that people are likely to attribute higher mind characteristics to AI when harm is perceived to be directed to humans than when it is perceived to be directed to non-humans. We tested our research model in three experiments. In all experiments, we found that perceived intentional harm led to blame judgments toward AI. In two experiments, we found perceived experience, not agency, mediated the relationship between perceived intentional harm and blame judgments. We also found that companies and developers were held responsible for moral violations involving AI, with developers received the most blame among the entities involved. Our third experiment reconciles the findings by showing that perceived intentional harm directed to a non-human entity did not lead to increased attributions of mind to AI. These findings have implications for theory and practice concerning unethical outcomes and behavior associated with AI use. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the Russian Symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov’s perception of Evgeny Boratynsky’s poetry. The specific focus is on Ivanov’s interest concerning the way Boratynsky’s lyrics relate to his philosophy of art. The article examines various types of lyrics in which Ivanov echoes Boratynsky’s poetry. One of these is a revival of the genre of “friendly epistles,” a genre that was popular in Russian poetry of the Golden Age. In poems of this type, Ivanov uses some of the (...) artistic principles typical of “Pushkin era” poems and refers to Boratynsky’s works. The article features Ivanov’s address to Boratynsky in the poem “Before Boratynsky’s portrait,” which serves Ivanov as a means to express his main aesthetic concepts. The article concludes with a suggestion that one of the reasons why these poets belong to the tradition of “the poetry of thought” is the influence of Goethe on both. (shrink)

The paper addresses the topical issue of implementing the Bologna system in the Russian higher education since its entering the common educational environment in 2003 and that of English as a Medium of Instruction as a language of instruction in Russian universities. The article presents the analysis of the current sources on the topic surveying the data on EMI in the higher educational institutions in Russia and abroad. The data show significant advancement in the system of EMI in foreign countries (...) whereas in Russia the process of establishing such a system is still under development. The undertaken research reveals sufficient discrepancies between the present day demands for the formalized layout of the EMI structure in the Russian higher education system and it's functioning in work. The author dwells on the topic at hand highlighting the importance of not only maintaining the structure of English as a Medium of Instruction in Russian universities but also designing and implementing the national system of such instruction in correlation with the global standards. (shrink)

The right to resist and the right to rebel have again become relevant as legal problems. Their justifications traditionally derive from natural law, human rights, the principle of the lesser evil or of the social contract. Interpretation of the right to resist expresses the tendencies to the law of people, in particular, the right to self-determination, distinguishing national and international understanding, and underscores the special nature of such right. Also, two-level research of the right to resist should be distinguished research (...) of the right to resist – the first is a debate about the nature character and legislative consolidation of this right, partly focused on preventive-limiting its properties, whereas the second one is updated at the time of social upheaval and legal concerns, and it contains not only the evaluation of the events, but sometimes attempts to justify ex post risk of abuse and original post-legitimation of public authorities. An important condition for the existence of the right to resistance is a legitimate aim. This could be called the internal condition, which is provided by those who implement this right. Other condition (which can be called external) and the base of implementation should recognize certain actions, acts or decisions by public authorities – those that violate human rights are illegal and unfair. At the same time, the purpose and result of the right to resistance may be changes in the public authorities, the termination of abuse of authority and violation of human rights by its agents, return to democratic legal regime or change in the constitutional system, aimed at creating a state of law, as well as in some cases, when combined with the right to self-determination, – the achievement of independence. The author of the present paper considers that the right to resist is an individual right, a human right. The author inclines to the idea of the collective nature of the right to resist implementation, but warns against simply counting the number of persons engaged in it. In other words, it does not matter how many people commit acts, but it does matter how many people support them. Considering the modalities of implementing the right to resist, it should be noted that these forms can be active or passive, expressed in actions directly or indirectly. The right of rebellion is an extreme form of the right to resist, which is carried out in case if the non-violent means of resistance are exhausted or proved ineffective. The conditions (and bases) of the right of rebellion are phenomena, such as the following: (1) massive human rights violations by public authorities (quantitative criterion); (2) systematic human rights violations by public authorities (accumulating criterion); or (3) extraordinary human rights violations by public authorities (criterion by serious, explicit and violent nature of the violation). Ambiguous is an issue of the limits of the right of rebellion, its permission and proportion, as well as whether it is possible to develop a mechanism for exercising this right. (shrink)

Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, EarlyView.

Cet article traite du travail de la FDIF avec les femmes des pays extra-européens, souvent appelés « pays en voie de développement ». La FDIF défend l’anticolonialisme et l’antiracisme, se mobilisant pour l’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes « du monde entier ». L’article explore les enchevêtrements entre le travail de la FDIF pour changer le statut des femmes et les activités de développement dans le contexte de la compétition culturelle de guerre froide. Les documents analysés montrent que les (...) programmes de soutien aux femmes des pays « en développement » mettent en avant la solidarité avec la lutte anticoloniale et le soutien étatique à la maternité et à l’enfance. Si la présentation par la FDIF de ses activités en faveur des femmes des « pays en développement » souligne les différences par rapport aux approches de ses concurrents occidentaux, ses programmes s’appuient pour la plupart sur les mêmes idéologies de la modernité et n’accordent pas beaucoup d’attention aux formes précoloniales et autres formes spécifiques de pouvoir et de solidarité des femmes. En outre, les animatrices de la FDIF expriment souvent leur manque de confiance à l’égard de leurs interlocutrices des « pays en voie de développement » et même des attitudes racistes envers les femmes non-européennes. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to assess the phenomenon of longevity as a particularly important component in the study of increasing life expectancy and reducing mortality. The article reveals the possibilities of increasing life expectancy and reducing mortality through research in the field of the phenomenon of longevity, self-preservation behavior and social information systems. The scientific novelty lies in substantiating the possibilities of changing demographic behavior through the prism of the study of longevity as a kind of model of (...) natural physiological aging of the population, as well as using the system of social "programming" of the population as a special social management tool. As a result of the study, unique opportunities for changing the demographic behavior of the population have been identified, which should be used in the development of practical measures for the implementation of social and demographic policy. (shrink)

The article considers reflection as a method and condition of the transcendental philosophy of Kant and Husserl. At the beginning, the author refers to Kant's predecessors who used the term reflection (Wolf, Baumgartner) and concludes that Kant, when referring to reflection, rather adheres to the tradition laid down by Leibniz. Based on the text of the “Critique of Pure Reason”, the article argues that it is with the help of reflection that the formation of a priori categories and a priori (...) synthetic principles can be explained. The author distinguishes between reflection and the transcendental unity of apperception and examines, within the framework of the phenomenological interpretation of the “Critique of Pure Reason”, the role of this unity in the predilection of sensory diversity. The article shows the continuity in the understanding of reflection between transcendental phenomenology and Kant's philosophy. In Husserl's philosophy, reflection as a method is associated with reduction and contemplation. The author dwells on the features of the use of reflection in Husserl's studies, which include, first of all, the temporal language of description and the dependence of reflection on the phenomena to which it is directed. Orlova Yulia Olegovna (1970 2011) – is a Russian philosopher, Ph.D., in 1998 - 2011 worked at the Department of Ontology and Theory of Cognition of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University. (shrink)

The paper provides a conceptual study of network conflict phenomenon, identifying the essence and specifics of its manifestation in the social system. The process of modifying the system of social interaction, which leads to the formation of many political, economic and social contradictions, contributes to the formation of network conflicts. The paper identifies such essential characteristics of network processes that affect the dynamics of a conflict situation, such as, first, physical distance and the anonymity of network actors. They contribute to (...) the formation of a sense of responsibility lack for the consequences of the conflict, create the illusion of absence rules, which can lead to a wrong perception of the problem and increase conflict. Secondly, sensory reduction, the inability to create a complete image with visual information leads to a deterioration of mutual understanding. Third, the appearance of the illusion of understanding the actor’s actions due to the creation of a distorted representation and incorrect perception of the information provided. Fourth, the absence of sanctions for violating values and norms makes it impossible to control the development of a conflict situation. Fifth, shortening the time interval for transmitting information creates, on the one hand, opportunities to control the speed of communication and forms additional opportunities for thinking about the problem, on the other hand, leads to the creation of the illusion of control over the situation. The article deals with the ontological, phenomenological and axiological modes of interaction of network structures in the situation of conflict confrontation. The paper concludes that the most effective way to reduce the impact of destabilizing factors on the system is systematically changing the network of interactions between its structural elements. Any system tends to adapt to the changed conditions of existence. Lack of regulation can lead to the destruction of network education. At the same time, the transformation of the conflicting form of interaction between actors leads to a change in the network. The study of conflicts, features and specifics of network elements interaction is practically significant, because this analysis will help to detect and activate integrative social mechanisms. (shrink)

SUMMARYIn 1803, the most prominent Japanese astronomer of his time, Takahashi Yoshitoki, received a newly imported Dutch translation of J. J. Lalande's ‘Astronomie’. He could not read Dutch, yet he dedicated almost a year to a close examination of this massive work, taking notes and contemplating his own astronomical practices. How did he read a book he could not read? Following the clues Yoshitoki left in his notes, we discover that he found meanings not only in words, but also in (...) what are often taken for granted or considered to be auxiliary tools for data manipulation, such as symbols, units, tables, and diagrams. His rendering of these non-verbal textual elements into a familiar format was crucial for Yoshitoki's reading, and constituted the initial step in the process of integrating Lalande's astronomy into Japanese astronomical practices, and the subsequent translation of the text into Japanese. (shrink)

ArgumentAn unusual compass, on which east and west are reversed, provides insight into the dynamics guiding our understanding of artifacts. By examining how such compasses were used in Tokugawa Japan, the benefits they brought, and how users knew how to read them, this article uncovers the cognitive factors that shape our interaction with technology. Building on the methodological approach of thedistributed cognitiontheory, the article claims that reverse compasses allowed the user to conserve cognitive effort, which was particularly advantageous to Tokugawa-period (...) mariners. Moreover, the article shows that even non-professional Tokugawa Japanese had a relatively easy time reading reverse compasses due to similarity between the compasses’ orientation and Tokugawa timekeeping practices. Building on the bodily and cognitive habits they had developed through the practices of keeping time, users could identify and interpret cultural cues embedded in the structure of reverse compasses. (shrink)

This work is a review of the book by Stephen T. Davis “God, Reason, and Theistic Proofs". The author discusses some methodological, logical and ontological advantages and disadvantages of this book as well as some features related to the translation of the book into Russian. The analysis is presented here not in chronological (chapter by chapter), but in a thematic order that enables the reader to get quickly acquainted with topics and problems considered in the book.

It's not my place to talk about politics, I'm not a political scientist or even a sociologist. My business is logic, theory of argumentation and communication. So I can only speak confidently about how we reason and how we try to convince someone with the help of our reasoning. Let's look at several arguments, which are offered to us, if not by the state itself, then by those who agree with the "special operation" in Ukraine.

A study of the way in which poets, priests, and sages sought for wisdom in ancient Greece by descending into caves or underground chambers. Yulia Ustinova offers a novel approach by juxtaposing ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuropsychological research.

The article presents literary, sociological and cultural points of view on the problem of the literary canon, describes the mechanisms of canonization and defines the boundaries of the Russian classics. The author discovers a connection between the texts claiming the status of the canonical hierarchy and the question of ethnicity. The article establishes that the construction of both a national self-portrait and the image of a foreigner (the Other) are the most important functions of the classical canon. The object of (...) this research is a unified discursive field of Russian classical literature. The subject is the generalized image of the German that forms in this field. The author, resorting references to current research practices of discourse analysis, establishes that the portrait of a German is based on such conceptual categories as: 1) the connection with the soil and nature, 2) the connection with roots, 3) reliance on reality and "mundanity", 4) planning, 5) positivism and subordination, 6) perception of life as a mechanism. The construction of the Other creates an opposition to the "Russian" in the structure of the classical text and builds a series of binary pairs: heredity / freedom, stability on the ground / ability to jump, clear planning / dreaminess, legalism / Paschality, self-aggrandizement / self-abasement, godlessness / Orthodoxy. The article reveals that the German hero acts as a constituent of the Other, provoking self-determination and self-identification. (shrink)

This paper explores the historical and social context of population genetic research conducted in India by focusing on a study by Reich et al which aimed to reconstruct Indian population history. The paper addresses two themes. First, it considers the agendas and modes of thinking about Indian populations and the caste system on which this study appears to be based. Second, it reflects on the medical implications of this study as they were presented in Reich et al's findings. I suggest (...) that while genetic mapping of Indian populations appears to have inherited many of the problems characteristic of population genetic research conducted in the USA and globally, the specificity of this research in India involves a peculiar interplay of the postcolonial pursuit of genomic sovereignty, desire by the Indian state to become a player in the global realm of biotechnology, and age-old discourses naturalising caste and regional differences. My argument is that, although the study has offered conceptual space for a wide range of interpretations, it has a strong potential not just for naturalising caste and regional differences in India, but also for pathologising them without necessarily bringing tangible healthcare benefits in the foreseeable future. (shrink)

The Belarusian-Russian scientific-practical conference “Designing the Future and the Horizons of Digital Reality” is an outcome of long-term cooperation between scientists of the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, and the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The conference participants focused on the problems of digital transformation of social reality, the formation of a common scientific and technological space of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, (...) the interdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge and the role of the theory of self-organization in these processes. The conference participants also raised the issues of modern management theory, artificial intelligence, strategies for ensuring global national security, new generation transport, and prospects for Eurasian integration. (shrink)

This article is aimed at examining the impact of Jesuit philosophical education, particularly the Cursus Conimbricensis, on the intellectual culture existing during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Slavic territories now part of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. We have sought to trace the movement of Coimbra Aristotelianism to the East and discern the most promising directions for further research. Although any direct references to the Coimbra Course made by Russian-speaking intellectuals of the period are hard to find, we propose (...) an examination of the circulation and provenance of the actual volumes as a means of establishing the link between Slavic thought and Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelianism. (shrink)

The article aims to provide a semiotic interpretation of the sign of the Ecclesiastical Court within the legal framework from temporal and spatial perspectives. The starting point of the research is the idea that the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Court is inextricably linked to the history of Russian society and secular court. Consideration of the pre-revolutionary ecclesiastical and secular law helps us explore principles of the ecclesiastical proceedings and organization, identify contradictions in understanding modern Ecclesiastical Court. Its sign is (...) not only limited to the legal interpretation. In his novel The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky F. M. gave the sign of the Ecclesiastical Court symbolic meaning and, thus, expanded it beyond the existing legal framework. The Ecclesiastical Court is one of the symbols of Russian spirituality which is reflected in the concept of “Russian soul”. Rational elements of the sign of Ecclesiastical Court as well as its sensual and metaphorical components, are analyzed using the category of Truth. Clearly, the Cross is sign-symbol for Christianity. But if applied to the concept of Ecclesiastical Court, the Orthodox Cross becomes a sign-index. As a result, several semantically heterogeneous meanings of the sign of Ecclesiastical Court are revealed and described. (shrink)

The essence of the financial stability of public and communal higher educational establishments in the context of current socioeconomic situation in Ukraine has been determined as a state of the financial resources which enables educational establishments to organize the qualitative educational and scientific activity and form the occupational competitiveness of graduates on the base of complete and timely financing of submitted expenditures. The basis of efficient economical activity (including fulfillment of special-purpose programmes) and qualitative educational services is the reception of (...) plan special-purpose financial recourses. The author has explored that current practice of the assessment of the financial stability of state higher educational establishments doesn’t take into account the main aspects of this process in their interconnection and interdependence. The intellectual model of estimating the financial stability of state higher educational establishments has been developed on the base of fuzzy logic which enables to assess the level of the financial stability of educational establishments via simultaneous application of quantitative (maneuverability equity ratio, autonomy coefficient, funding coefficient, the ratio of correlation conducted expenditures and income received, the ratio of payables and receivables, the ratio of the approved cost estimate of special and general funds, the ratio of cash and actual expenditures) and qualitative (assessment of scientific and educational potential quality, assessment of education quality, evaluation of international recognition, the graduates satisfaction of received education and the opportunity to use it in work, employers perception of quality of education in Ukrainian universities, experts perceptions of the quality of education in Ukrainian universities, cooperation between universities and companies-employers) indexes. (shrink)

Organizational restructuring involving mass layoffs is an integral part of the corporate strategic landscape. While aimed at increasing a company’s efficiency and profitability, it often falls short of desired objectives, partly due to negative consequences for remaining employees, the so-called “survivors”. As workforce reductions may jeopardize a company’s legitimacy, we develop a model that links the change in post-restructuring employee productivity to the factors that help mitigate legitimacy issues. By using a comprehensive and innovative dataset of restructuring announcements reported by (...) European companies over the post-crisis period, we analyze the moderating effect of the restructuring extent on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and economic justification as legitimacy tools in counterbalancing the negative effects of job reduction measures. Our findings reveal that in reactive layoffs, induced by financial difficulties, initially high levels of CSR help lessen negative effects of restructuring on employee productivity in low-extent restructuring events; while in high-extent restructuring events employee productivity is supported by continuing investments in CSR. We provide evidence that both the level and dynamics of CSR practices play a significant role, and their effect on employee performance is conditional on the restructuring context. (shrink)

This article proposes a generational approach to the study of the formation of the philosophical tradition. A philosophical generation is a powerful intellectual pattern with its own optics, sets o...

This article presents the central paradigms of the understanding of love by early twentieth-century Russian philosophers. It shows that interpreting the meaning of erotic love as a way of overcomin...

Fake news is created as ordinary news stylistically but it consists of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes. The text is generally constructed to cause negative emotions and feelings in readers: fear, panic, distrust, and paranoia. It is done to manipulate the opinion and consciousness of a large number of people and eventually leads to changes in the values, ideas and attitudes that already exist in the public awareness. The result is a schism that has already gone beyond the usual spiritual strife. (...) Moreover, its expansion has weakened the defining feature of Russian Orthodoxy which lies in trust and support of the state and authorities. The Russian Orthodox Church has to deal not only with public health crisis but also with profound differences within its ranks over the churchgoers’ behavior in the conditions of a pandemic. The article analyzes legal regulations and mechanisms for countering fake news about the Russian Orthodox Church, and provides examples from the judicial practice. It also determines the mechanisms of the worshippers’ reaction to the fake news involving the Russian Orthodox Church. Using semiotic methodology, the author reveals re-encoding of the symbolic meaning of such signs as “Russian Orthodox cross” and “red cross”. The connotative meaning of these signs leads to contradictions in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

The article discusses the characterization of the visualization of visible reality in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The author suggests that semiotic and legal analysis should be used to understand the meaning of the color code of the novel. Semiotic discourse reduces the ambiguity, uncertainty, and expression of the color code to a conscious, discrete, and conditioned meaning of individual colors. Legal analysis helps to better understand the main idea and other aspects of the novel, encoded in colors. Psychological, (...) personal associations, and symbolic methods are used to reveal direct and indirect meaning of the colors used by Dostoyevsky. The basic characterization of colors proposed by Goethe is employed as a key for color decoding. The article also establishes the correlation of the color code of the novel with the colors of the flags of the Russian Empire and the German Confederation. The message and meaning of the same colors of these national flags are contrasted. The interpretation is complemented by the author’s drawings, which enable to visualize the color code that stores and transmits information about national identity. (shrink)

Strong links between the cults of apoikiai and metropoleis, forging the Hellenic identity of the colonists, have long been recognised. It becomes increasingly clear that in addition, the mental world of the population of colonies was conditioned by an amalgamation of Greek and local identities. Many important cults of Greek cities in the northern Aegean and the Black Sea area, such as Abdera, Odessus, Olbia, Chersonesus, and the Cimmerian Bosporus, featured both Greek and indigenous elements, their scope and nature varying (...) from place to place. Appropriation of local gods can also be viewed as part of appropriation of the local territory and its traditions. The adaptation of Hellenic gods to the new setting and worship of local gods started at an early stage and served as a powerful cognitive mechanism establishing safe ties to the environment, mediating between different ethnic groups, and shaping people’s self-image and communal identity. The innovations in cult were often expressed by changing names or epithets of deities, emphasizing the change in their nature and functions. (shrink)

La prophétie inspirée et la divination par les signes impliquent des activités distinctes et requièrent des compétences différentes de ceux qui les pratiquent. Une relecture des sources anciennes débouche sur l’idée que la suprématie de la prophétie directe ne peut être écartée comme une invention platonicienne. Des modes de prophétie sont loin d’être une interprétation moderne et ils étaient déjà perçus ainsi au second millénaire avant notre ère. La prophétie extatique, phénomène précieux, dépendant de la volonté des dieux, était imprévisible (...) et difficile à manipuler. Il n’est pas étonnant que la plupart des spécialistes définissent la divination directe en Mésopotamie comme secondaire par comparaison avec la divination traditionnelle par les signes; c’est la situation en Grèce, où la corrélation est inverse, ce qui demande une explication. Abandonner la dichotomie entre prophétie directe et indirecte revient à retirer à la culture grecque une de ses caractéristiques principales. (shrink)

The article considers modern tendencies prevailing in the higher education system while training technical specialists nowadays. According to the authors, excluding the humanitarian courses from curriculum results in the complete dissolution of subjectivity in the impersonal world, which is deprived of “living” knowledge, that is, definite knowledge of a definite person. The application of such an approach is illustrated by the actor–network theory (ANT). While studying several works by ANT founders, it turned out to be clear that such an approach (...) eliminates any differences between natural and humanitarian, engineering, and philosophical knowledge. As a result, the net emerges consisting of numerous actants and which requires from every participant his “building‐in” a model with the functions being delegated to him in advance. The article concludes that an “alive” component is disappearing from the higher education nowadays when the main stress is being made on the knowledge acquired a priori, not a posteriori. (shrink)

The purpose of the study was to experimentally test and establish the degree of effectiveness of strategic directions for the application of the educational potential of physical culture within the educational process of the university. The scientific novelty lies in the justification of the need for the introduction of educational functions and their implementation within the discipline: "Elective courses in physical culture and sports". The adequacy of the methods used allowed us to obtain reliable results indicating the confirmation of the (...) hypothesis put forward by us and the achievement of the set research goal, which assumes a high degree of efficiency of introducing scientifically based and presented strategic directions of the application of educational functions of physical culture into the educational process of the university. As a result, the proposed strategic directions can be used in the educational process of any university, within the framework of which the program "Elective courses in physical culture and sports" is being implemented. (shrink)

The genderalization of the learning process is currently of key importance for the formation of the academic and political foundations of pedagogical innovations in the education system. This article presents the results of a study aimed at defining the concept of modern pedagogical innovations in the field of gender education. The analysis of the obtained data allowed us to identify seven different concepts of the concept of gender pedagogical innovations, formulate an updated definition and propose a cycle of the pedagogical (...) innovation concept. The article analyzes the factors contributing to the successful implementation of gender-based innovative pedagogical practices in the education system. Considers the issues of configuration and level of intensity of the influence of different gender factors involved in the implementation of innovative pedagogical practices, the relationship between the level of intensity of the identified factors affecting the dynamics of pedagogical innovation and change level of the education system as a whole. (shrink)

This paper reports on an experimental study investigating the acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian by heritage speakers living in Norway. The participants are 54 Norwegian-Russian bilingual children (4;0-10;2) as well as 107 Russian monolingual controls (3;0-7;0). Previous research has shown that grammatical gender is problematic for bilingual speakers, especially in cases where gender assignment is opaque (Schwartz et al., 2015; Polinsky, 2008; Rodina and Westergaard, 2017). Furthermore, factors such as proficiency and family type (one or two Russian-speaking parents) have (...) been argued to be important. Interestingly, previous findings differ with respect to the kind of errors children make: restructuring to a two-gender system (masculine-feminine, see Polinsky, 2008) or defaulting to masculine (see Rodina and Westergaard, 2017). It is also not clear to what extent children are sensitive to gender cues or whether certain agreement patterns are simply memorized. To investigate this, we used both existing nouns and nonce words and tested both transparent and opaque gender cues. The results were checked against a number of background factors measuring exposure, proficiency, and dominance. Our findings show that bilingual children are clearly sensitive to morphophonological cues for gender assignment. The most common and robust error pattern for all bilinguals involved overgeneralization to masculine (especially affecting neuter and opaque nouns). At the same time, children from families with two Russian-speaking parents and monolinguals also occasionally overused feminine with vowel-final nouns. The following variables were found to be the most reliable predictors of accuracy on grammatical gender tasks: cumulative length of exposure (CLoE) and consistency of input in Russian, as well as the presence of older siblings, with CLoE to Russian being by far the most robust and important predictor. Furthermore, we show that a lexical diversity measure (number of different words in a Russian narrative) is also correlated significantly with the children’s performance on the gender tasks. At the same time, our results indicate that relative measures of dominance (e.g., the difference in exposure between the two languages or the difference in narrative scores) may be redundant when more robust absolute measures are present (CLoE and lexical diversity in the heritage language). (shrink)

This article discusses the specifics of social and philosophic approach to studying society in the context of two basic tendencies in modern social researches: interdisciplinary studies and commitment to search of meaning/sense. Both tendencies point to a special subject of this research – text. The authors believe that social philosophy has a particular characteristic that should be preserved and an introduction of the concept “public text” will help the preservation. Publicity of social text is determined as its special status in (...) the society consisting in creation of socially meaningful senses. Among public texts the authors single out publicistic texts that are of special format and possess expressed socially transforming potential. This article proposes valuative model as a method of analytically clear and reflexive reading of such text. It is being established that sociocultural research of modern days will have broader perspective in regards to specificity and thingness if it is involved with studying (analysis and interpretation) of namely texts. Social and philosophic research itself becomes text as well – mainly author’s and intentionally published, that preserves special features of philosophical text in general. The concept of “social text” loses virtual status at that, philologism as a regular consequence of modern interdisciplinary studies is being overcome and the subject of social and philosophical reflection is obtained from the area of text creation. The authors note two main research options of social philosophy – generalization of work results from experts in cultural studies, social studies, political studies, etc. (critical and methodological); determination and comprehension of socially important intents (reflexive and textological). (shrink)

This article seeks to contribute to the literature on corporate governance with particular focus on state-owned enterprises (SOEs). We put our analysis into the context of Russian SOEs operating in an economy with a high level of the state presence, and investigate the relationship between board characteristics and the dividend policy of SOEs. Specifically, we add to the studies on corporate governance in emerging markets by consideration of professional attorneys, a special category of mandated directors and a unique feature of (...) boards of Russian SOEs. We analysed a panel of 1,226 firm-year observations for 2009-2012, the specific period of incremental innovations in SOEs' governance. Generally, our results support the agency theory and demonstrate that an increase in the proportion of independent directors and professional attorneys and an increase in the dividend payouts occur simultaneously, while the proportion of executives on the board is negatively related to the payout ratio. (shrink)