Vol 34, No 2 (2023)

In the scientific literature, due attention is often not paid to the difference between the perception of things and the perception of images, which leads to a conceptual non-distinction between affects and emotions. The purpose of the article is to fill this theoretical gap, in connection with which to turn to the analysis of classical and modern philosophical literature. As a result of the research, the author introduces the following distinction: if things are something that always exists and occupies a place in space, then images are non–spatial imaginary. At the same time, images can be perceived both as imaginary and as things without being things. In the latter case, they appear as simulacra or as ghosts. The author comes to the conclusion that affect characterizes the attitude to things, and emotion characterizes the attitude to images. Affective attitude is possible both in animals and in humans. An emotional attitude is possible only for a person, because a person lives in time, and an animal lives in space. In the first case, we can say that animals live among things, and in the second – that a person does not live in the world, but in the picture of the world. The steady existence of things is one thing, the steady existence of images is another. If Descartes believed that things could be created by God at any given time, then Spinoza, rejecting the idea of doubling the world, built a flat ontology, which later determined the thought of Deleuze and Massumi. For Kant, the idea of doubling the world is fundamental, since it justifies the possibility of a person being the basis of the reality of a new chain of causes and effects.

The article examines the peculiarities of influence on the formation and development of the spatiotemporal organization of human being of topological structures which are around the individual and external to him and characterizing the concrete historical stage of the development of the Russian culture of the second half of the twentieth century. The methodology and theoretical basis is the chronotopological concept by A.A. Ukhtomsky and M.M. Bakhtin, asserting the immanent interconnectedness of time, space and human, as well as the theory of social chronotope and topological philosophizing. Time and space of human being are understood as a chronotopological structure, which includes a system of topological and related temporal practices, immanent to the individual and developing together with him throughout his life. As a spatial structure that has been formed in culture, recreational topology is studied, which is a closed, well-groomed and isolated from the surrounding space or locus, which is the result of realized human topological practices for the arrangement and care of space or place of residence, work, recreation, scientific research, conservation and demonstration of cultural heritage. Getting into such a closed equipped space, radically different from the surrounding alienated unsettled public space, a person begins to perceive it as a topological standard, consciously or unconsciously transferring and reproducing it in his own individual chronotopology, in the sphere of his personal world and microchronotope of consciousness. If the recreational space is associated with a personally significant event in human life, it acquires the ethical significance for the individual, becomes existentially filled for him, acquires unity with his existence.

. In this paper I will comment on a few theses of a psychologist Alexander Poddiakov regarding the psychology of acting in new and ambiguous circumstances, as well as that of developing cognitive research abilities. While comparing intelligence, creativity and research abilities testing, Poddiakov reflects upon methodological side effects, namely, doubtful correlation between them, immanent bias on the side of tests’ creators, oxymoronic way to present those tests as a ‘standard list of creative answers’. Notable and worth our reflection is the uncertainty of Poddiakov’s point of view which we intend to scrutinize: while acknowledging the value of intelligence and creativity testing as such, the author occasionally stumbles upon ‘hidden pitfalls’ of this praxis, wherein, undoubtedly, the very ambivalence of the era, which all of us are part of, is revealed — that which has been raised to the level of a civilizational imperative of techno-prosthesization of subjectivity and culture. Mainly I will be alluding to Poddiakov’s article ‘Mind Testing Practices: from regulation to freedom’ [Poddiakov, 2016] and our private correspondence. The aim of a proposed extensive comment is broadening the epistemological space of the discourse presented by Poddiakov, towards questions of philosophical-psychoanalytic kind while focusing on those which consider subjectivity in a broader perspective than that which regards testing practice specifically. I hope that meditations presented below will serve as an inspiring example of a productive trans-disciplinarity within the framework of which it is possible to make a ‘second order’ argument reflecting not only upon the very ‘phenomena’ through the lens of conventional methodologies but also the methodologies themselves. Throughout the article I will address Paul Virilio’s book ‘The Vision Machine’ [Virilio, 2004] wherein the author elaborates on problematics of re-structuring the subject in the context of technologization of visual contact with the world.

The article highlights the research project of the Department for Humanitarian Expertise and Bioethics on the philosophy of sports. The philosophical ideas of Boris Yudin were chosen as philosophical prerequisites for problems and approaches to their solution. Central to them is the idea of a subject turned in its activity (cognitive or constructive) on itself. The authors of the project proposed to explore the phenomenon of sport in the light of the philosophical concept of human, addressing at the same time to new general philosophical concepts and “synthetic” directions of philosophical knowledge. The anthropological vector in considering the philosophical problems of sports offers new approaches to solving both old and new philosophical and anthropological problems.

Two types of power extreme are compared — a barbell and power tricks (on the example of two books of outstanding strengths Yu. Vlasov and P. Filaretov). The fundamental difference is seen in the way of demonstrating achievements. The position of classical sports is characterized by institutionalization, financial and political support, regulation, refereeing, recording, entertainment, fans and business. Today, sports are spreading that can be characterized as non-classical, in which motivation, support, demonstration of achievements, entertainment, etc. have changed radically. Both types of sports exist side by side, although there is a tendency for classical sports to migrate towards non-classical ones. This poses the problem of a new filling of sports with motives, values and meanings.

The article deals with the problem of respect for personal autonomy in sports and the practice of restricting athletes. The two justification factors for restrictions, medico-paternalistic and ethical, are in close correlation with each other and with the ethics of public competitions. The article analyzes the problem of respect for personal autonomy from the point of view of the contradiction between the formally rational set of rules that reflect the standards of fair sports and the unformalized impulse of an autonomous actor, determined by his desire for self-realization and public recognition in its entirety, including the features of biosocial identity. The article analyzes the case of female athletes with a naturally elevated level of testosterone in the blood.

Sports hypnosis as a subset of sports psychology is based on the findings of physiologists and psychiatrists. Its use helps athletes to get rid of fears, create the right moral attitude before competitions, recover more quickly from traumas and overcome psychological barriers. Hypnosis addresses first of all the athlete's brain and focuses on mental training, while the traditional. approach to the training process considers the athlete's work only as physical. Such a radical difference in approach prevents the expansion of the use of hypnosis in sport.

This essay examines the social portrait of contemporary iron men and women, i.e., non-elite amateur triathletes. It is questioned the widespread belief in their unique exceptionality as socially successful people and natural-born endurance athletes. It is shown that the commodification of endurance sports (running, cycling, cross-country skiing, and triathlon) led to the division of communities into two generations — the displacing original and the emerging contemporary. The original generation was characterized by a more democratic social composition and more sustained engagement. The contemporary generation prefers symbolic recognition and a shorter commitment to sports. This opens up discussions about enduring and ephemeral matters in sports.

The Japanese setsuwa collection Honchō Shinsen-den (11th–12th centuries), continuing the tradition of Chinese stories about Taoist “immortals”, unites thirty stories about people who somehow went beyond the limits of the human lifespan. Not all of them follow the instructions of the Taoist texts about longevity; many combine Buddhist asceticism with the worship of Japanese kami, living in the mountains or, less often, leading an ordinary worldly life. Well-born persons and famous monks coexist here with commoners, and nothing is known about some other than their miracles. The list of Japanese “immortals” unites the heroes of antiquity, famous monks and laity of the 8th–11th centuries. and contemporaries of the narrator. In separate groups, one can single out the founders and keepers of holy places, wonderful helpers, people who have reached the heights of mastery in poetry and music. The path of the “immortal” does not imply the fulfillment of a set of prohibitions or requirements common to all, and the miracles themselves are also different. A common feature of Japanese ascetics in Honchō Shinsen-den is their disinterest in immortality as such: everyone simply does his own thing or keeps “non-action” in the way he chooses for himself. A series of stories about the “immortals” allows us to re-imagine Japanese history and paint a new picture of the country of Japan itself as providing the conditions for achieving immortality. Taoist teaching, as it is presented in the collection, is close to Mahayana Buddhism with its orientation towards asceticism for the sake of others.

The article describes the life and work of Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801–1894), who was servant of the Honourable East India Company (HEICo) in Nepal in 1820−1843. After this he worked as an independent scholar in Sikkim until 1858. Hodgson was among the first European scholars of Buddhism, and the article focuses on the analysis of his views on Buddhism, as well as his efforts to collect Sanskrit manuscripts of classical Buddhist texts. The life and scientific research of Hodgson is considered a typical example of the activities of the first Western Orientalists, who combined service in the colonies with the study of the languages and culture of the Asian peoples. Hodgson received special training for colonial officials and worked for many years as a servant of the HEICo in Nepal, where, along with his official duties, he studied natural history, ethnography and religion of the region. Hodgson collected and donated to universities, libraries and museums in Europe more than four hundred manuscripts of Sanskrit Buddhist writings, previously either completely unknown to European science, or known only in Chinese and Tibetan translations. The study and translation of these manuscripts laid a solid foundation for European Buddhology. In his own works on Buddhism Hodgson identified and characterized four philosophical schools of Indian Buddhism, outlined the Buddhist concepts of the "primordial Buddha" (Adi-Buddha), "contemplation buddhas" (dhyani-buddhas), described Buddhist cosmology and a number of other Buddhist concepts. In addition, he classified the genres of Buddhist literature, took part in the discussion about the original language of the Buddhist canon, showed the inconsistency of the ideas that existed at that time about the African origin of Buddha Shakyamuni. Hodgson's Buddhist views gained recognition in the 19th century, but the accumulation of scientific knowledge about Buddhism showed the fallacy of many of the concepts he put forward. Nevertheless, they played a role in the formation of Western Buddhology, and understanding the history of the study of Buddhism in the West is completely impossible without taking into account Hodgson's works.