Abstract

“Rethinking of philosophy to-day”, from my point of view, means new understanding of the “basic truths” of philosophy in their use in the analysis of actual social problems of the modern swiftly changing world. One of such actual problems is the problem of a nation that is the most stable social unit, representing a unity of a human and social being, and in this context a human being is understood as a national human being. Only in such a role becomes an element of a social structure of a society. It is not correct to oppose the culture, common to all humanity, and the concrete culture of an individual that is national culture. The essence of culture – the totality of spiritual values - is in its penetration from the culture common to humanity, into the national culture and inversely. There are two tendencies in the world development to-day: integration, mainly in the sphere of economics, and disintegration in national-state sphere, that not always takes place in a peaceful form. It is important to find scientifically based answers to the following questions: whether national traits of social life will always be the source of tension and conflicts or they will bring bright, original vital colors into the picture of a globalized world? In general, can explosive social elements be always formed in the socio-ethnic structure of a society? The answers to these questions are formulated in the sphere of natiology - in the interdisciplinary sphere ofscientific knowledge about a nation, that realizes an important function of natiological education and upbringing.