Vol 23, No 3 (2019)

RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES OF EAST

“KITAB AL-MAWAQIF” AN-NIFFARY AS A SPECIFIC GUIDE IN THE SUFI TERMINOLOGY. NOTION “MA‘ARIFA” IN THE TEXTS OF AL-QUSHAYRI, AL-HUDJWIRI AND AN-NIFFARY

Pskhu R.V.

Abstract

The paper deals with the non-usual interpretation of the main works of an-Niffary (Iraqi Sufi, X century) as an original and specific guide in the Sufi terminology. The specific character of the text (which expresses in the direct dialog between God and the mystique and the translation through him the divine definitions of the basic Sufi and Islamic values) obliges a reader to treat the text more attentively that to the ordinary texts created by the human being. The most famous Sufi treatises on Sufism and its terminology are Qushayri and Hudjwiri's works,which contain definitions of most important Sufi terms and notions. Niffary works are not so well-known, but they also can be regarded in a sense as a specific guidebook on Sufi terminology. The paper deals with the peculiarities of understanding by those three mystics the Sufi term “ma'arifa” (mystical knowledge), which sometimes is mistranslated as gnosis. One of the basic distinction in such an understanding is that for Niffary (in contrast with Qushairy and Hujawiri) there is no outward sign of successful attainment of mystical knowledge. Further both Qushayri and Hudjwiri point out that the Sufi practice can not contradict the Sunna. Meanwhile Niffary says that Sunna is significant only if there is ma'arifa, not vice versa.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):265-272
pages 265-272 views

Muhammad Ben 'Abd al-Jabbar an-Niffary. [Standing #] 11. Mystical knowledge of mystical knowledge (ma'arifa ma'arif) of “Kitab al-mawaqif”

Pskhu R.V.

Abstract

Translation from Arabic R.V. Pshu

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):273-277
pages 273-277 views

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FINAL SALVATION IN HINDU TANTRIC SOTERIOLOGY

Pakhomov S.V.

Abstract

The specificity of tantric soteriology consists of a combination of three basic principles - unity, salvation, and bliss. This article explores the principle of salvation. Spiritual liberation implies the final overcoming of obstacles hindering the new worldview. Unlike the principle of unity, the principle of salvation focuses on difference, not on identity, drawing a sharp line between the desired state of liberation and the present state of dependence. The main obstacles to spiritual liberation are expressed in the well-known triad “avidyā - karma - saṃsāra”. The principle of salvation appears in Tantrism in two interrelated forms, the ascetic and śaktic ones. Both of them agree with each other in rejection of spiritual ignorance. Spiritual ignorance is the main “negative goal”; without deliverance from it there is no freedom. The state of ignorance is existential one and endowed with powerful protective “forces”. The principle of salvation implies the deliverance not only from everything that is usually considered negative (passions, sensual desires, suffering, etc.), but also of “positive” things (virtue). In the śaktic mode of the principle of salvation, it is assumed that an incorrect view of reality is eliminated by a correct view of it. Due to the fact that, according to the tantric adepts, the energies of the divine Śakti act in the world, the understanding of this fact leads the adept to stop perceiving himself as a dependent being even in the midst of an infinite variety of processes and events of the world. Life is then perceived as an unconditioned, spontaneous “divine play”, a stream of divine pleasure. Ascetic form can be reduced to an ontological interpretation of the principle of salvation, and śaktic form to a cognitive one.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):278-289
pages 278-289 views

A BUDDHIST CANONICAL TEXT WITH A COMMENTARY AS A TRADITIONAL HYPERTEXT. THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE BRAHMAJĀLASUTTANTA WITH CORRESPONDING COM MENTARY FROM THE SUMAṅGALAVILĀSINĪ

Paribok A.V.

Abstract

The publication presents the initial passages of the famious Pali Brahmajālasuttanta with the corresponding parts of its traditional commentary Sumaṅgalavilāsinī as a sample of the ancient hypertext. It is meant as a valuable source to such fundamental philological and hermeneutical questions as what is commented ans what is disregarded by the commentator; how, why and whatfore is in commented.
RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):290-301
pages 290-301 views

MORAL DILEMMAS IN THE ERA OF HIGH-TECH SOCIETY

CORPOREALITY AND THE SELF: DISSOLVING BORDERS WITH TECHNOLOGY

Selchenok A.K., Berest V.A.

Abstract

This paper describes the concept of corporeality in the context of science art and the role of technology in contemporary culture. Human corporeality is a body endowed with soul and meaning. It results from personal and social experience, historical development, or cultural context and its implicit impacts. The subject of this research is corporeal code that organize the nature of modern artistic productions and human being identity. Contemporary artists use the strategies of participation and interaction, forms of interventions to make art an agent of social change and to become active drivers for the new identity process activation. Problems of identity make up a significant layer in contemporary art. The identification process develops in them in various directions. We can characterize its evolution as a change of identities. Recognizing the role and intense impact of technology on contemporary culture, we can trace two main directions: one involves extension of human senses and abilities by creating new solutions, software and tools, that let us get advanced understanding of the reality, and the second one is based on presupposed physical capacities of the human corporeality. According this approach the understanding of reality as a reality given in sensations is disappearing. The virtual world comes to replace it, our essence becomes involved in the process of mixing and indistinguishability until its complete disappearance.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):302-311
pages 302-311 views

LOVE END POBOTS. Will humanity become digisexual?

Maylenova F.G.

Abstract

Mechanisms that help people in their lives have existed for centuries, and every year they become not only more and more complex and perfect, but also smarter. It is impossible to imagine modern production without smart machines, but today, with the advent of robotic android robots, their participation in our private lives and, consequently, their influence on us, becomes much more obvious. After all, the robots that are increasingly taking root in our lives today, are no longer perceived by us simply as mechanisms, we endow them with human properties of character and often experience different emotions in relation to them. The appearance of a robot capable of experiencing (or still imitating?) emotions can be considered a qualitatively new step in the life of a person with robots. With such robots, it will be possible to be friends with them, to look for (and probably get) support from them. It is expected that they will be able to brighten up the loneliness of a variety of people, including disabled people, lonely old people, to help in caring for the sick and at the same time entertain them with communication. Speaking about the relationship with robots, it is difficult not to mention such an important aspect of human communication as sex, which, on the one hand, is not only a need, as in all living beings, but also the highest form of human love and intimacy, and on the other - can exist and be satisfied completely separate from love. It is this duality of human nature that has contributed to the transformation of sex and the human body into a commodity and the development of prostitution, pornography and the use of sexual images in advertising. The emergence of android robots can radically change our lives, including the most intimate areas of life. The development of the artificial intelligence sex industry opens up a whole new era of human-machine interaction. When smart machines become not only comfortable and entertaining, but literally enter our flesh, become our interlocutors, friends and lovers who share our feelings and interests, what will be the consequences of this unprecedented intimacy between man and machine?

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):312-323
pages 312-323 views

SHIFTS IN THANATOLOGICAL APPROACH UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF BIOMEDICAL PROGRESS: ONTOLOGICAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL, ETHICAL

Zhelnin A.I.

Abstract

Death is an invariant of human existence, a kind of its “omega point”. At the same time, the attitude towards it is not a constant, but rather undergoes changes, being incorporated in a wide sociocultural context. The mail goal of the article is an analysis of the nature of these changes at the present stage specifically under the influence of rapid biotechnological progress and dilemmas generated by these changes. Firstly, there is a tendency of increasing optimism: some theorists tend to perceive death not as an inevitable reality, but rather as a problem and a challenge. At the same time a radical direction arises, believing that death can be overcome only through the complete separation of man from its body substrate. The utopian nature of this project forces more moderate theorists to look for indirect way, which consists in a “war” with aging as the main predecessor of death, up to attempts of its complete abolition. Gradually, the formation of scientific immortology as a kind of opposition for thanatology takes place. At the same time, many theorists, and even more ordinary people remain skeptical position about the prospects for victory over death. It can be concluded that biomedical progress actualizes general human intention for self-preservation and death avoidance, but science requires an assessment of not only the objective possibilities for overcoming death but also both ontological and anthropological (including moral) consequences of it.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):324-333
pages 324-333 views

TECHNOLOGICAL ALIENATION OF A PERSON AND MORAL DILEMMAS AS ITS CONSEQUENCES

Prokofyeva D.V.

Abstract

This article aims to identify new moral dilemmas generated by technological progress and its consequence - the phenomenon of technological alienation in modern society. It examines the relationship between the phenomenon of alienation, technological progress and moral dilemmas they cause in modern society. In addition to the emergence of new moral and existential issues that arises as the consequence of the direct “collision” of a person and technologies as a result of their widespread introduction into our lives, we consider moral dilemmas arising from technological progress in such areas of life as politics, economics and education. Each of them poses a deeper problem for the person - an alienation from other people, from the species essence and from oneself, which allows us to designate this question not only as social problem, but also affecting existential questions.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):334-345
pages 334-345 views

THE PROTESTING SELF OF BIOETHICS AND THE PATIENT

Popova O.V.

Abstract

The article considers the history of bioethics formation as a human rights movement aimed at establishing patient autonomy and limiting the practice of uncontrolled medical manipulation of human body, biomedical experimentation on people in the name of science, “public good” and other values. It is shown that the forms of expression and content of the statements of the protesting bioethical expert and the content turned out to be extremely diverse and based on conflicting ethical principles, actually demonstrating total rejection and confrontation of various conceptual arguments and often not contributing to the development of a universal, acceptable to all stakeholders ethical position. The article considers the peculiarities of bioethical protest and philosophical reasoning in connection with the emergence in the field of modern medicine of the diagnosis of brain death and gives a general idea of the intense public perception of this diagnosis.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):346-355
pages 346-355 views

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

ETERNAL VALUES: SIGNIFICANCE OF CREATIVITY OF A.S. PUSHKIN IN THE AGE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS (For the 220th Birth Anniversary)

Moiseenko M.V.

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the importance of Pushkin's work in the age of scientific and technological progress, to identify and analyze the moral values that accompany the work and personality of Alexander Pushkin and are particularly relevant to our time. The article discusses the moral values of honor and dignity, the ratio between good and evil, concepts of duty, justice, love and friendship, happiness, freedom, creativity, patriotism, national idea, peoples’ friendship and the problem of preserving Russian language in modern Russia. The article is written through the prism of interpretation of Pushkin’s creativity by Russian philosophers abroad and modern philosophers. The article deals with the problem of using neural networks that make it possible to reproduce the style of A. S. Pushkin. The author concludes about the relevance of the work of A. S. Pushkin in our days. The issues of preserving spirituality, moral values, national identity, and optimistic Renaissance perception of the world, of understanding the beauty of life, remain relevant and in demand in modern age of rapid scientific and technical progress, both in Russia and in the world.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):356-362
pages 356-362 views

TECHNOLOGY ETHICS OF N. FEDOROV AS A successor OF NIETZSCHE’S IDEA OF SELF-OVERCOMING: THE UPBRINGING OF THE SUPERMAN AND THE SCIENCE

Kosorukova A.A.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the general principles of understanding of human development by N. F. Fedorov and F. Nietzsche. The article considers Fedorov’s philosophy of the common task to be a partial continuation of the general contours of Nietzsche's thought about the will to power. Nietzsche’s position is viewed through the prism of the concept of the will to power as a vital force overcoming the nihilistic devaluation of values (the ethics of vitalism). The concept of Fedorov is considered, first of all, from the point of view of his understanding of human self-improvement as the elevation of the power of human will over the blind natural elements. In this context, the question of the legitimacy of understanding Fedorov as an advocate of scientific and technological progress is considered. In the article, along with the parallels between Nietzsche and Fedorov, another idea of kinship of their philosophical optics through the understanding of philosophy as ethics is also carried out.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):363-372
pages 363-372 views

SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS

ECOLOGY OF HUMAN AND NATURE IN THE INFORMATION AND TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT : 10th International Scientific Conference on Problems ecological outlook (“EcoMir-10”)

Ivlev V.Y., Ivleva M.L., Falco V.I.

Abstract

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RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2019;23(3):373-381
pages 373-381 views

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