Humanism in the works of Thomas More "Utopia" and Evgeny Zamyatin "We"
Introduction
The whole world is going through difficult times today. The new political and economic situation could not but affect the culture. Her relationship with the authorities has changed radically. The common core of cultural life has disappeared - a centralized management system and a unified cultural policy. Determining the paths for further cultural development became the business of the society itself and the subject of controversy. The absence of a unifying socio-cultural idea and the retreat of society from the ideas of humanism led to a deep crisis in which the culture of all mankind found itself. beginning of XXI century.
Humanism (from lat. humanitas - humanity, lat. humanus - humane, lat. homo - man) - a worldview, in the center of which is the idea of man as the highest value; emerged as a philosophical movement during the Renaissance.
Humanism is traditionally defined as a system of views that recognize the value of a person as a person, his right to freedom, happiness and development, and declaring the principles of equality and humanity as the norm of relations between people. Among the values of traditional culture important place occupied the values of humanism (goodness, justice, non-covetousness, the search for truth), which is reflected in the classical literature of any country, including England.
Over the past 15 years, these values have experienced a certain crisis. Ideas of possessiveness and self-sufficiency (the cult of money) were opposed to humanism. As an ideal, people were offered a "self-mademan" - a person who made himself and did not need any external support. The ideas of justice and equality - the basis of humanism - have lost their former attractiveness and are now not even included in the program documents of most parties and governments in various countries of the world. Our society gradually began to turn into a nuclear society, when individual members of it began to withdraw within the framework of their homes and their own families.
The relevance of the topic I have chosen is due to the problem that has bothered humanity for thousands of years and worries now - the problem of philanthropy, tolerance, respect for one's neighbor, the urgent need to discuss this topic.
Through my research, I would like to show that the problem of humanism, which originated in the Renaissance, reflected both in the work of English and Russian writers, remains relevant to this day.
And to begin with, I would like to return to the origins of humanism, considering its appearance in England.
1.1 The emergence of humanism in England. The history of the development of humanism in English literature
The birth of a new historical thought refers to late medieval when in the most advanced countries of Western Europe the process of decomposition of feudal relations was actively going on and a new capitalist mode of production was emerging. It was a transitional period, when centralized states took shape everywhere in the form of absolute monarchies on the scale of entire countries or individual territories, the prerequisites for the formation of bourgeois nations arose, and the social struggle became extremely intensified. The bourgeoisie, which was emerging among the urban elite, was then a new, progressive stratum and acted in its ideological struggle against the ruling class of feudal lords as a representative of all the lower strata of society.
New ideas find their most striking expression in the humanistic worldview, which has had a very significant impact on all areas of culture and scientific knowledge this transitional period. The new worldview was basically secular, hostile to the purely theological interpretation of the world that prevailed in the Middle Ages. He was characterized by the desire to explain all phenomena in nature and society from the point of view of reason (rationalism), to reject the blind authority of faith, which had so much hampered the development of human thought earlier. Humanists bowed before the human person, admired her as the highest creation of nature, the bearer of reason, high feelings and virtues; humanists, as it were, opposed the human creator to the blind power of divine providence. The humanistic worldview was characterized by individualism, which at the first stage of its history, in essence, acted as an instrument of ideological protest against the estate-corporate system of feudal society, which suppressed the human personality, against church ascetic morality, which served as one of the means of this suppression. At that time, the individualism of the humanistic worldview was still moderated by the active public interests of most of its leaders, and was far from the egoism inherent in the later developed forms of the bourgeois worldview.
Finally, the humanistic worldview was characterized by an avid interest in ancient culture in all its manifestations. Humanists sought to "revive", that is, to make a role model, the work of ancient writers, scientists, philosophers, artists, classical Latin, partly forgotten in the Middle Ages. And although already from the XII century. in medieval culture, interest in the ancient heritage began to awaken, only during the period of the emergence of a humanistic worldview, in the so-called Renaissance (Renaissance), this trend became dominant.
The rationalism of the humanists was based on idealism, which largely determined their idea of the world. As representatives of the then intelligentsia, the humanists were far from the people, and often openly hostile to them. But for all that, the humanistic worldview at the time of its heyday had a pronounced progressive character, was the banner of the struggle against feudal ideology, and was imbued with a humane attitude towards people. On the basis of this new ideological current in Western Europe the free development of scientific knowledge, previously hampered by the dominance of theological thinking, became possible.
The revival is associated with the process of formation of secular culture, humanistic consciousness. The philosophy of the Renaissance defines:
Aspiration to the person;
Belief in his great spiritual and physical potential;
Life-affirming and optimistic character.
In the second half of the XIV century. a tendency to give the study of humanistic literature the most great importance and to regard classical Latin and Greek antiquity as the only example and model for everything that concerns spiritual and cultural activity.
The essence of humanism lies not in the fact that it turned to the past, but in the way in which it is known, in the relation in which it is to this past: it is the attitude to the culture of the past and to the past that clearly defines the essence of humanism. The humanists discover the classics because they separate, without mixing, their own from the Latin. It was humanism that really discovered antiquity, the same Virgil or Aristotle, although they were known in the Middle Ages, because it returned Virgil to its time and its world, and sought to explain Aristotle within the framework of the problems and within the framework of the knowledge of Athens of the 4th century BC. Humanism does not distinguish between the discovery of the ancient world and the discovery of man, because they are all the same; to discover the ancient world as such is to measure oneself with it, and to separate and relate to it. Determine the time and memory, and the direction of human creation, and earthly affairs, and responsibility. It is no coincidence that the great humanists were for the most part statesmen, active people, whose free creativity in public life was demanded by their time.
The literature of the English Renaissance developed in close connection with the literature of pan-European humanism. England later than other countries took the path of development of humanistic culture. The English humanists learned from the continental humanists. Particularly significant was the influence of Italian humanism, dating back in its rudiments to the 14th and 15th centuries. Italian literature, from Petrarch to Tasso, was, in essence, a school for English humanists, an inexhaustible source of advanced political, philosophical and scientific ideas, a rich treasury artistic images, plots and forms, from which all English humanists drew their ideas, from Thomas More to Bacon and Shakespeare. Acquaintance with Italy, its culture, art and literature was one of the first and basic principles of any education in general in Renaissance England. Many British traveled to Italy to personally come into contact with the life of this advanced country of what was then Europe.
Oxford University was the first center of humanistic culture in England. From here began to spread the light of a new science and a new worldview, which fertilized the entire English culture and gave impetus to the development of humanistic literature. Here, at the university, a group of scientists appeared who fought against the ideology of the Middle Ages. These were people who had studied in Italy and had adopted there the foundations of a new philosophy and science. They were passionate admirers of antiquity. Having gone through the school of humanism in Italy, Oxford scholars did not confine themselves to popularizing the achievements of their Italian brethren. They grew up to be independent scientists.
English humanists adopted from their Italian teachers admiration for philosophy and poetry. ancient world.
The activities of the first English humanists were predominantly scientific and theoretical. They developed general issues religion, philosophy, social life and education. The most complete expression of the earliest English humanism early XVI century received in the work of Thomas More.
1.2. The emergence of humanism in Russia. The history of the development of humanism in Russian literature.
Already among the first significant Russian poets of the 18th century - Lomonosov and Derzhavin - one can find nationalism combined with humanism. It is no longer Holy Rus', but Great Rus' that inspires them; the national epic, the intoxication with the greatness of Russia relate wholly to the empirical existence of Russia without any historical and philosophical justification.
Derzhavin, the true "singer of Russian glory", defends the freedom and dignity of man. In poems written for the birth of the grandson of Catherine II (the future Emperor Alexander I), he exclaims:
"Be the master of your passions,
Be on the throne man."
This motif of pure humanism is increasingly becoming the crystallization core of the new ideology.
In the spiritual mobilization of the creative forces of Russia, Russian Freemasonry of the 18th and early XIX centuries. On the one hand, it attracted people who were looking for a counterbalance to the atheistic currents of the 18th century, and in this sense it was an expression of the religious demands of the Russian people of that time. On the other hand, Freemasonry, captivating with its idealism and noble humanistic dreams of serving humanity, was itself a phenomenon of non-church religiosity, free from any church authority. Capturing significant sections of Russian society, Freemasonry undoubtedly raised creative movements in the soul, was a school of humanism, and at the same time awakened intellectual interests.
At the heart of this humanism was a reaction against the one-sided intellectualism of the age. The favorite formula here was the idea that "enlightenment without a moral ideal carries poison in itself." In Russian humanism associated with Freemasonry, moral motives played an essential role.
All the main features of the future "advanced" intelligentsia were also formed - and in the first place here was the consciousness of the duty to serve society, in general, practical idealism. It was the path of ideological life and active service to the ideal.
2.1. Humanism in the works "Utopia" by Thomas More and "We" by Evgeny Zamyatin.
Thomas More in his work "Utopia" speaks of universal equality. But is there a place for humanism in this equality?
What is a utopia?
“Utopia - (from the Greek u - no and topos - a place - that is, a place that does not exist; according to another version, from eu - good and topos - a place, that is, a blessed country), an image of an ideal social system, devoid of scientific justification; genre of science fiction; the designation of all works containing unrealistic plans for social transformations. (" Dictionary living Great Russian language "V. Dahl)
A similar term arose thanks to Thomas More himself.
Simply put, a utopia is a fictional picture of an ideal life arrangement.
Thomas More lived at the beginning of a new time (1478-1535), when a wave of humanism and the Renaissance swept over all of Europe. Most of More's literary and political works are already of historical interest to us. Only "Utopia" (published in 1516) has retained its significance for our time - not only as a talented novel, but also as a work of socialist thought brilliant in its design.
The book was written in the then popular genre of "traveler's story". Allegedly, a certain navigator Raphael Gitlodey visited the unknown island of Utopia, whose social structure impressed him so much that he tells others about it.
Knowing well the social and moral life of his homeland, the English humanist, Thomas More, was imbued with sympathy for the misfortunes of her masses. These moods of his were reflected in the famous work with a long title in the spirit of that time - "Very useful, as well as entertaining, truly a golden book about the best structure of the state and about the new island of Utopia ...". This work instantly gained great popularity in humanistic circles, which did not prevent Soviet researchers from calling More almost the first communist.
The humanistic outlook of the author of Utopia led him to conclusions of great social acuteness and significance, especially in the first part of this work. The author's perspicacity was by no means limited to ascertaining a terrible picture of social disasters, emphasizing at the very end of his work that, with careful observation of the life of not only England, but also "all states", they are "nothing but a conspiracy of the rich, under the pretext and under in the name of the state thinking about their own benefits.
Already these deep statements prompted More the main direction of projects and dreams in the second part of Utopia. Numerous researchers of this work stated not only direct, but also indirect references to the texts and ideas of the Bible (primarily gospel ones), especially ancient and early Christian authors. Of all the works that had the greatest impact on More, Plato's "State" stands out. Many humanists saw Utopia as a long-awaited rival to this greatest creation political thought, a work that existed by that time for almost two millennia.
In line with humanistic quests that creatively synthesized the ideological legacy of antiquity and the Middle Ages and boldly rationalistically compared political and ethnic theories with the social development of that era, Mora's Utopia emerges, reflecting and originally comprehending the full depth of the socio-political conflicts of the era of the decomposition of feudalism and the initial accumulation of capital.
After reading More's book, you are very surprised at how much the idea of \u200b\u200bwhat is good for a person and what is bad has changed since More's time. To the ordinary citizen of the 21st century, More's book, which laid the foundation for a whole "genre of utopias", does not at all seem to be a model of an ideal state. Rather, the opposite is true. I really would not want to live in the society described by More. Euthanasia for the sick and decrepit, forced labor service, according to which you must work as a farmer for at least 2 years, and after that you can be sent to the fields during the harvest. "All men and women have one common occupation - agriculture, from which no one is spared." But on the other hand, Utopians work strictly 6 hours a day, and slaves do all the dirty, hard and dangerous work. The mention of slavery makes one wonder if this work is so utopian? Are the inhabitants so equal in it?
Ideas about universal equality are slightly exaggerated. However, the slaves in “Utopia” do not work for the good of the master, but for the whole society as a whole (by the way, the same thing happened under Stalin, when millions of prisoners worked for free for the good of the Motherland). To become a slave, one must commit serious crime(including treason or debauchery). Slaves are engaged in hard physical work until the end of their days, but in the case of diligent work they can even be pardoned.
Mora's utopia is not even a state in the usual sense of the word, but a human anthill. You will live in standard houses, and after ten years, you will change housing with other families by lot. This is not even a house, but rather a hostel in which many families live - small primary cells local government headed by elected leaders, syphogrants or philarchs. Naturally, a common household is conducted, they eat together, all matters are decided jointly. There are severe restrictions on freedom of movement, in the event of repeated unauthorized absences you will be punished - by making you a slave.
Implemented in Utopia and the idea iron curtain: she lives in complete isolation from the outside world.
The attitude towards parasites is very strict here - every citizen either works on the land or must master a certain craft (moreover, a useful craft). Only a select few who have shown special abilities are exempt from physical labor and may become scientists or philosophers. Everyone wears the same, the simplest, clothes made of coarse cloth, and, while doing business, a person takes off his clothes so as not to wear them out, and puts on rough skins or skins. There are no frills, everything is just the essentials. Everyone shares the food equally, and all the surplus is given to others, and best products transferred to hospitals. There is no money, and the wealth accumulated by the state is kept in the form of debt obligations in other countries. The same reserves of gold and silver that are in Utopia itself are used to make chamber pots, slop tubs, and also to create shameful chains and hoops that are hung on criminals as punishment. All this, according to More, should destroy the citizens' craving for money-grubbing.
It seems to me that the island described by More is some kind of frenzied concept of collective farms.
The prudence and practicality of the author's view are striking. In many ways, to social relations in the society he invented, he fits as an engineer who creates the most efficient mechanism. For example, the fact that utopians prefer not to fight, but to bribe their opponents. Or, for example, the custom when people choosing a mate for marriage are required to consider him or her naked.
Any progress in the life of Utopia does not make sense. There are no factors in society that force science and technology to develop, to change attitudes towards certain things. Life, as it is, suits citizens and some kind of deviation is simply not needed.
Utopia society is limited on all sides. There is practically no freedom in anything. The power of equals over equals is not equality. There can be no state in which there is no power - otherwise it is anarchy. Well, since there is power, there can no longer be equality. The person who controls the lives of others is always in
privileged position.
Communism is literally built on the island: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Everyone is obliged to work, doing agriculture and craft. The family is the basic unit of society. Its work is controlled by the state, and what is produced is donated to a common piggy bank. The family is considered a social workshop, and not necessarily based on consanguinity. If children don't like their parents' craft, they can move to another family. It is easy to imagine what unrest this will lead to in practice.
Utopians live boring and monotonous. Their whole life is regulated from the very beginning. Lunch, however, is allowed not only in the public dining room, but also in the family. Education is open to all and is based on a combination of theory and practical work. That is, children are given standard set knowledge, and at the same time learn to work.
More was especially praised by the socialist theorists for the absence of private property on Utopia. In More's own words, "Wherever there is private property, where everything is measured in money, it is hardly ever possible for the state to be governed justly or happily." And in general, "for public welfare there is only one way - to declare equality in everything."
Utopians strongly condemn the war. But even here this principle is not observed to the end. Naturally, Utopians fight when they defend their borders. But they are at war
also in the case “when some people are pitied, oppressed
tyranny." In addition, "Utopians consider the most just
cause of war, when some people do not use their own land, but own it, as it were, in vain and in vain. After examining these reasons for the war, we can conclude that the Utopians must fight constantly until they build communism and "peace in the world." Because there is always a reason. Moreover, “Utopia”, in fact, should be the eternal aggressor, because if rational, not ideological states wage war when it is beneficial for them, then utopians always, if there are reasons for it. After all, they cannot remain indifferent for ideological reasons.
All these facts in one way or another suggest the thought: was Utopia a utopia in the full sense of the word? Was it the ideal system to which one would like to aspire?
On this note, I would like to turn to the work of E. Zamyatin “We”.
It should be noted that Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (1884-1937), who is a rebel by nature and outlook, was not a contemporary of Thomas More, but caught the time of the creation of the USSR. The author is almost unknown to a wide range of Russian readers, since the works written by him back in the 1920s were published only in the late 1980s. The writer spent the last years of his life in France, where he died in 1937, but he never considered himself an emigrant - he lived in Paris with a Soviet passport.
The work of E. Zamyatin is extremely diverse. He wrote a large number of stories and novels, among which the anti-utopia "We" occupies a special place. Dystopia is a genre that is also called negative utopia. This image of such a possible future, which frightens the writer, makes him worry about the fate of mankind, for the soul of an individual, a future in which the problem of humanism and freedom is acute.
The novel “We” was created shortly after the author returned from England to revolutionary Russia in 1920 (according to some reports, work on the text continued into 1921). In 1929, the novel was used for massive criticism of E. Zamyatin, and the author was forced to defend himself, justify himself, explain himself, since the novel was regarded as his political mistake and "a manifestation of wrecking the interests of Soviet literature." After another study at the next meeting of the writers' community, E. Zamyatin announced his withdrawal from the All-Russian Union of Writers. The discussion of Zamyatin's "case" was a signal for a toughening of the party's policy in the field of literature: the year was 1929 - the year of the Great Turning Point, the onset of Stalinism. It became meaningless and impossible for Zamyatin to work as a writer in Russia, and, with the permission of the government, he went abroad in 1931.
E. Zamyatin creates the novel “We” in the form of diary entries of one of the “lucky ones”. The city-state of the future is filled with bright rays of the gentle sun. Universal equality is repeatedly confirmed by the hero-narrator himself. He derives a mathematical formula, proving to himself and to us, the readers, that “freedom and crime are as inseparably linked as motion and speed...”. He sarcastically sees happiness in the restriction of freedom.
The narrative is a note-summary of the builder of the spacecraft (in our time he would be called the chief designer). He talks about that period of his life, which he himself later defines as an illness. Each entry (there are 40 of them in the novel) has its own title, consisting of several sentences. It is interesting to see that usually the first sentences indicate the micro-theme of the chapter, and the last gives an outlet for its idea: “The bell. Mirror Sea. I burn forever”, “Yellow. 2D shadow. Incurable soul”, “Author's duty. Ice swells. The hardest love.
What alerts the reader right away? - not "I think", but "we think". A great scientist, a talented engineer, does not realize himself as a person, does not think about what he does not have own name and, like the rest of the inhabitants of the Great State, he wears a "number" - D-503. “No one is 'one', but 'one of'. Looking ahead, we can say that in the most bitter moment for him, he will think about his mother: for her, he would not be the Builder of the Integral, number D-503, but would be "a simple human piece - a piece of herself."
World United State, of course, is something strictly rationalized, geometrically ordered, mathematically verified, with the dominant aesthetics of cubism: rectangular glass boxes of houses where people-numbers live (“divine parallelepipeds of transparent dwellings”), straight overlooked streets, squares (“Cube Square. Sixty six powerful concentric circles: stands. And sixty-six rows: quiet lamps of faces…”). People in this geometrized world are an integral part of it, they bear the stamp of this world: "Round, smooth balls of heads floated past - and turned around." Sterile clear planes of glass make the world of the United State even more lifeless, cold, unreal. The architecture is strictly functional, devoid of the slightest decorations, “unnecessities”, and this is a parody of the aesthetic utopias of the futurists of the early twentieth century, where glass and concrete were sung as new building materials of the technical future.
The inhabitants of the United State are so devoid of individuality that they differ only by index numbers. All life in the One State is based on mathematical, rational foundations: addition, subtraction, division, multiplication. Everyone is a happy arithmetic mean, impersonal, devoid of individuality. The appearance of geniuses is impossible, creative inspiration is perceived as an unknown kind of epilepsy.
This or that number (resident of the United State) does not have any value in the eyes of others and is easily replaceable. Thus, the deaths of several “neglected” builders of the “Integral” who died during the testing of the ship, the purpose of which was to “integrate” the universe, are perceived indifferently by the numbers.
Individual numbers that have shown a tendency to independent thinking are carried out by the Great Operation to remove fantasy, which kills the ability to think. The question mark - this is evidence of doubt - does not exist in the United State, but in abundance, of course, the exclamation mark.
Not only the state regards any personal manifestation as a crime, but the numbers do not feel the need to be a person, a human individual with their own unique world.
The protagonist of the novel, D-503, cites the story of the "three scapegoats" well known to every schoolchild in the United State. This story is about how three numbers, in the form of experience, were released from work for a month. However, the unfortunate returned to their workplace and spent hours doing those movements that in certain time days were already the need of their body (sawed, planed air, etc.). On the tenth day, unable to stand it, they joined hands and entered the water to the sounds of the march, sinking deeper and deeper until the water stopped their torment. For the numbers, the guiding hand of the Benefactor, complete submission to the control of the custodians-spies, has become a need:
“It's so nice to feel someone's keen eye, lovingly protecting from the slightest mistake, from the slightest wrong step. Let it sound a little sentimental, but the same analogy comes to my mind again: the guardian angels that the ancients dreamed of. How much of what they only dreamed of materialized in our lives ... "
On the one hand, the human personality recognizes itself as equal to the whole world, and on the other hand, powerful dehumanizing factors appear and intensify, first of all, technological civilization, which introduces a mechanistic, hostile principle to man, since the means of influencing a technical civilization on a person, the means of manipulating his consciousness become ever more powerful, global.
One of critical issues that the author is trying to solve is the question of freedom of choice and freedom in general.
Both More and Zamyatin have forced equality. People cannot differ from their own kind in any way.
Modern researchers determine that the main difference between dystopia and utopia is that “utopians are looking for ways to create an ideal world based on the synthesis of the postulates of goodness, justice, happiness and prosperity, wealth and harmony. And dystopians seek to understand how the human person would feel in this exemplary atmosphere.
It is quite obvious that not only equality of rights and opportunities is expressed, but also forced material equality. And all this is combined with total control and restriction of freedoms. This control is needed to maintain material equality: people are not allowed to stand out, do more, surpass their own kind (thus becoming unequal). But this is the natural desire of everyone.
No social utopia talks about specific people. Everywhere the masses or individual social groups are considered. The individual is nothing in these works. “One is zero, one is nonsense!” The problem with utopian socialists is that they think about the people as a whole, and not about specific people. As a result, complete equality is realized, but this is the equality of unfortunate people.
Is it possible for people to be happy in a utopia? Happiness from what? From victories? So they are done by everyone equally. Everyone is involved in it and, at the same time, no one. From lack of exploitation? Thus, in a utopia, it is replaced by a public one.
exploitation: a person is forced to work all his life, but not for a capitalist and
on themselves, but on society. Moreover, this social exploitation is even more terrible, because
How does one have no way out? If, working for a capitalist, you can quit, then it is impossible to hide from society. And move somewhere
forbidden.
It is difficult to name at least one freedom that is respected in Utopia. There is no freedom to move, no freedom to choose how to live. A person driven into a corner by society without the right to choose is deeply unhappy. He has no hope for change. He feels like a slave locked in a cage. People cannot live in a cage, either material or social. Claustrophobia sets in, they want change. But this is not feasible. The society of utopians is a society of deeply unhappy, depressed people. People with depressed consciousness and lack of willpower.
Therefore, it should be recognized that the model of the development of society, proposed to us by Thomas More, seemed ideal only in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the future, with increasing attention to the individual, they lost all sense of realization, because if we build a society of the future, then it should be a society of pronounced individualities, a society strong personalities and not mediocre.
Considering the novel “We”, first of all, it is necessary to indicate that it is closely connected with Soviet history, the history of Soviet literature. The ideas of ordering life were characteristic of all the literature of the early years. Soviet power. In our computerized, robotic era, when the “average” person becomes an appendage to the machine, is only able to press buttons, ceasing to be a creator, a thinker, the novel is becoming more and more relevant.
E. Zamyatin himself noted his novel as a signal of danger threatening man and humanity from the hypertrophied power of machines and the power of the state - it doesn’t matter which one.
In my opinion, with his novel, E. Zamyatin affirms the idea that the right to choose is always inseparable from a person. The refraction of "I" into "we" cannot be natural. If a person succumbs to the influence of an inhumane totalitarian system, then he ceases to be a person. It is impossible to build the world only according to reason, forgetting that a person has a soul. The machine world should not exist without the world, the humane world.
Ideologically, the devices of the Unified State of Zamyatin and Mora's Utopia are very similar. Although there are no mechanisms in Mora's work, the rights and freedoms of people are also squeezed by the vise of certainty and predetermination.
Conclusion
In his book, Thomas More tried to find the features that an ideal society should have. Reflections on the best state system took place against the backdrop of cruel morals, inequality and social contradictions in Europe in the 16th-17th centuries.
Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote about what he saw with his own eyes. At the same time, the thoughts of More and Zamyatin for the most part are only hypotheses, a subjective vision of the world.
More's ideas were certainly progressive for their time, but they did not take into account one important detail, without which Utopia is a society without a future. Utopian socialists did not take into account the psychology of people. The fact is that any Utopia, by making people compulsorily equal, denies the possibility of making them happy. After all happy man- this is feeling better in something, in something superior to the rest. He can be richer, smarter, prettier, kinder. Utopians, on the other hand, deny any possibility for such a person to stand out. He must dress like everyone else, study like everyone else, have exactly as much property as everyone else. But after all, a person by nature strives for the best for himself. Utopian socialists proposed to punish any deviation from the norm set by the state, while simultaneously trying to change the mentality of a person. Make him an unambitious, obedient robot, a cog in the system.
Zamyatin's anti-utopia, in turn, shows what can happen if this “ideal” of society, proposed by utopians, is achieved.
But it is impossible to completely isolate people from the outside world. There will always be those who, at least out of the corner of their eye, will know the joy of freedom. And it will no longer be possible to drive such people into the framework of totalitarian suppression of individuality. And in the end, it is precisely such people, who have known the joy of doing what they want, who will bring down the entire system, the entire political system, which happened in our country in the early 90s.
What kind of society can rightfully be called ideal, given the achievements of modern sociological thought? Undoubtedly, it will be a society of complete equality. But equality in rights and opportunities. And it will be a society of complete freedom. Freedom of thought and speech, action and movement. Closest to the described ideal is modern Western society. It has many disadvantages, but it makes people happy.
If society is really ideal, how can there be no freedom in it? ..
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Problems of Humanism in Civil War Literature
(A. Fadeev, I. Babel, B. Lavrenev, A. Tolstoy)
Questions of humanism - respect for man - have interested people for a long time, since they directly concerned every living person on earth. These questions were especially sharply raised in extreme situations for mankind, and above all during civil war when a grandiose clash of two ideologies put human life on the brink of death, not to mention such “little things” as the soul, which was generally a step away from complete destruction. In the literature of that time, the problem of identifying priorities, choosing between the lives of several people and the interests of a large group of people is solved ambiguously. by different authors, and in the future we will try to consider what conclusions some of them come to.
Among the most striking works about the civil war, perhaps, is the cycle of stories by Isaac Babel “Konarmiya”. And in one of them a seditious thought about the International was expressed: “It is eaten with gunpowder and seasoned the best blood". This is the story of "Gedali", which is a kind of dialogue about the revolution. Along the way, it is concluded that the revolution should “shoot” precisely because of its revolutionary nature. After all good people mixed with evil people, making a revolution and at the same time opposing it. Alexander Fadeev's story "The Rout" echoes this idea. A large place in this story is occupied by a description of events seen through the eyes of Me-chik, an intellectual who accidentally fell into a partisan detachment. Neither him nor Lyutov - the hero of Babel - the soldiers can not forgive the presence of glasses and their own beliefs in their heads, as well as manuscripts and photographs of their beloved girl in a chest and other similar things. Lyutov gained the trust of the soldiers by taking away a goose from a defenseless old woman, and lost it when he could not finish off a dying comrade, and Mechik was never trusted at all. In the description of these heroes, of course, many differences are found. I. Babel clearly sympathizes with Lyutov, if only because his hero is autobiographical, while A. Fadeev, on the contrary, tries in every possible way to denigrate the intelligentsia in the face of Mechik. He describes even his most noble motives in very pathetic words and somehow tearfully, and at the end of the story he puts the hero in such a position that the chaotic actions of the Sword take the form of outright betrayal. And all because Mechik is a humanist, and the moral principles of the partisans (or rather, their almost complete absence) cause him doubts, he is not sure of the correctness of revolutionary ideals.
One of the most serious humanistic questions dealt with in the literature on the civil war is the problem of what a detachment should do with its seriously wounded soldiers in a difficult situation: carry them, taking them with them, putting the entire detachment at risk, abandon them, leaving them to a painful death. , or finish.
In Boris Lavrenev's story "Forty-First", this question, which is raised many times in all world literature, sometimes escalating into a dispute about the painless killing of hopelessly ill people, is decided in favor of killing a person finally and irrevocably. Less than half of the twenty-five people of Yevsyukov's detachment remained alive - the rest fell behind in the desert, and the commissar shot them with his own hand. Was this decision humane in relation to the lagging comrades? It is impossible to say exactly the total, because life is full of accidents, and everyone could die, or everything could survive. Fadeev solves similar problems in the same way, but with much greater moral torment for the heroes. And the unfortunate intellectual Mechik, having accidentally learned about the fate of the sick Frolov, who was almost a friend to him, about the adopted cruel decision trying to prevent it. His humanistic convictions do not allow him to accept murder in this form. However, this attempt in the description of A. Fadeev looks like a shameful manifestation of cowardice. In a similar situation, the Ba-Belevsky Lyutov acts almost the same way. He cannot shoot a dying comrade, although he himself asks him about it. But his comrade fulfills the request of the wounded man without hesitation and also wants to shoot Lyutov for treason. Another Red Army soldier, Lyutov, takes pity on him and treats him to an apple. In this situation, Lyutov will be more likely to be understood than people who shoot enemies with equal ease, then their friends, and then treat the survivors with apples! However, Lyutov soon gets along with such people - in one of the stories he almost burned down the house where he spent the night, and all so that the hostess would bring him food.
Here another humanistic question arises: do the fighters of the revolution have the right to plunder? Of course, it can also be called requisition or borrowing for the benefit of the proletariat, but the essence of the matter does not change from this. Yevsyukov’s detachment takes the camels from the Kirghiz, although everyone understands that after that the Kirghiz are doomed, Levinson’s partisans take the pig from the Korean, although it is the only hope for him to live through the winter, and Babel’s horsemen carry carts with looted (or requisitioned) things, and "men with their horses are buried from our red eagles through the forests." Such actions generally cause controversy. On the one hand, the Red Army soldiers make a revolution for the benefit of the common people, on the other hand, they rob, kill, and rape the same people. Does the people need such a revolution?
Another problem that arises in relations between people is the question of whether love can take place in war. Let us recall on this occasion the story of Boris Lavrenev "Forty-first" and the story of Alexei Tolstoy "The Viper". In the first work, the heroine, a former fisherwoman, a Red Army soldier and a Bolshevik, falls in love with a captured enemy and, then finding herself in a difficult situation, kills him herself. And what was left for her? In "Viper" it's a little different. There, a noble girl twice becomes an accidental victim of the revolution and, while in the hospital, falls in love with a random Red Army soldier. The war has so disfigured her soul that it is not difficult for her to kill a person.
The civil war put people in such conditions that there can be no talk of any love. The place remains only for the most rude and bestial feelings. And if someone dares to sincere love, then everything will end tragically. The war destroyed all the usual human values, turned everything upside down. In the name of the future happiness of mankind - the humanistic ideal - such terrible crimes were committed that are in no way compatible with the principles of humanism. The question of whether the future happiness is worth such a sea of blood has not yet been resolved by mankind, but in general such a theory has many examples of what happens when the choice is made in favor of murder. And if all the brutal instincts of the crowd one fine day are released, then such a quarrel, such a war will surely be the last in the life of mankind.
The problem of violence and humanism in Russian literature of the 20th century
So in the bitter death hour of the civil war, many writers of the 20th century raised the problem of violence and humanism in their works. This can be seen especially clearly in I. Babel's "Cavalry Army", in M. Sholokhov's "Don Stories".
The stories of the heroes in these stories show the incompatibility of the terrible destructive power of war and violence with human happiness, human nature itself.
The twentieth century is fraught with such cataclysms that have broken the music of folk life.
In the deadly battle of the civil war, people living in the same country, in the same village, often related by blood, clashed in an extremely sharp class struggle. The theme of violence in a fratricidal war, where a brother killed a brother, a son killed a father, was more and more clearly outlined because their views differed in ideological convictions. Native people who lived side by side for decades, sharing the last piece of bread with each other, brutally killed each other, destroying the established way of life for centuries.
The civil war forced everyone to choose which side you are on, it left no other choice.
Especially acute is the theme of violence between relatives, blood people shown by I. Babel in the "Konarmiya" in the short story "Letter". In this work, the son writes a letter to his mother, where he describes his life in the Red Army, how he has to be both hungry and cold “every day I go to bed without eating and without any clothes, so it’s very cold.” Further, Vasily Kurdyukov describes to his mother about his father, how he killed their son Fyodor Timofeevich, not understanding what grief a woman can go through, reading about how “daddy started to cut Fedya, saying - the skin, the red dog, the son of a bitch.” Further, the guy describes how, now his other brother Senka “began to whip dad” and kill.
This is where the tragedy of a cruel merciless war, relatives, the closest people destroyed each other “And I think that if I get caught by yours, then there will be no mercy for me. And now, dad, we will finish you ... "
Simultaneously with the theme of violence, writers of the 20th century also showed romantic plots in their works, where they glorified folk (universal) values. We can trace this from the stories of M. Sholokhov "The Foal" in the "Don Stories". In this work, a small foal, just born, awakens in people petrified by mortal battles, human qualities “a heart made of stone turns into a washcloth ...”, “I look at it, and my hand trembles ... I can’t chop.”
Peaceful labor, procreation, the unity of man with nature - these are Sholokhov's ideals, according to which, like a tuning fork, history should be tuned. Any deviation from this life that has been established for centuries, from the people's experience, threatens with unpredictable consequences, can lead to the tragedy of the people, the tragedy of man.
Humanism- (from lat. humanitas - humanity, humanus - humane) - 1) worldview, which is centered on the idea of a person, caring for his rights to freedom, equality, personal development (etc.); 2) an ethical position that implies care for a person and his welfare as the highest value; 3) a system of social structure, within which the life and good of a person is recognized as the highest value (example: the Renaissance is often called the era of Humanism); 4) philanthropy, humanity, respect for a person, etc.
Humanism took shape in Western Europe during the Renaissance, in contrast to the Catholic ideology of asceticism that preceded it, which affirmed the idea of the insignificance of human needs before the requirements of the Divine nature, brought up contempt for “mortal goods” and “carnal pleasures”.
The parents of humanism, being Christians, did not put man at the head of the universe, but only reminded him of his interests as a god-like personality, denounced contemporary society for sins against humanity (love for man). In their treatises, they argued that the Christian teaching in their contemporary society did not extend to the fullness of human nature, that disrespect, lies, theft, envy and hatred towards a person are: neglect of his education, health, creativity, the right to choose a spouse, profession , lifestyle, country of residence and much more.
Humanism did not become an ethical, philosophical or theological system (see this article Humanism, or Renaissance philosophical dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron), but, despite its theological dubiousness and philosophical uncertainty, at present even the most conservative Christians enjoy its fruits. And, on the contrary, few of the most “right-wing” Christians are not horrified by this attitude towards human personality, which is accepted in communities where the veneration of the One is combined with the lack of humanism.
However, over time, a substitution took place in the humanistic worldview: God was no longer perceived as the center of the universe, man became the center of the universe. Thus, in accordance with what humanism considers its system-forming center, we can speak of two types of humanism. The original is theistic humanism (John Reuchlin, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Ulrich von Huten, etc.), which affirms the possibility and necessity of God's providence for the world and man. “God in this case is not only transcendent to the world, but also immanent to it,” so that God for man is in this case the center of the universe.
In the widely spread deistic humanistic worldview (Didro, Rousseau, Voltaire), God is completely “transcendent to man, i.e. absolutely incomprehensible and inaccessible to him”, therefore a person becomes the center of the universe for himself, and God is only “taken into account”.
At present, the vast majority of humanitarian workers believe that humanism autonomous, because his ideas cannot be derived from religious, historical or ideological premises, it entirely depends on the accumulated human experience in the implementation of intercultural norms of living together: cooperation, benevolence, honesty, loyalty and tolerance towards others, following the law, etc. Therefore, humanism universal, that is, applicable to all people and any social systems which is reflected in the right of all people to life, love, education, moral and intellectual freedom, etc. In fact, this opinion affirms the identity modern concept"humanism" to the concept of "natural moral law" used in Christian theology (see hereinafter "Pedagogical proof ..."). The Christian concept of "natural moral law" differs from the generally accepted concept of "humanism" only in its supposed nature, that is, in the fact that humanism is considered a socially conditioned phenomenon generated by social experience, and the natural moral law is considered to be initially embedded in the soul of each person by the desire for order and all sorts of things. good. Since, from a Christian point of view, the insufficiency of the natural moral law to achieve the Christian norm of human morality is obvious, the insufficiency of “humanism” as the basis of the humanitarian sphere, that is, the sphere of human relations and human existence, is also obvious.
The following fact confirms the abstract nature of the concept of humanism. Since natural morality and the concept of love for a person are characteristic, in one form or another, of any human community, the concept of humanism is adopted by almost all existing ideological teachings, due to which there are, for example, concepts such as socialist, communist, nationalist , Islamic, atheistic, integral, etc. humanisms.
In essence, humanism can be called that part of any doctrine that teaches to love a person in accordance with this ideology's understanding of love for a person and the methods for achieving it.
Notes:
Thesis
Shulgin, Nikolai I.
Academic degree:
PhD in Philosophy
Place of defense of the dissertation:
VAK specialty code:
Speciality:
Theory and history of culture
Number of pages:
Chapter 1. The main philosophical and cultural problems of humanistic thought.
§1. Origins and different meanings of the concept of "humanism".
§ 2. Trends in the development of secular humanism in the philosophical and cultural thought of the XIX - XX centuries.
§3. Religious-idealistic humanism in Russian and Western European thought of the 19th-20th centuries.
Chapter 2. Reflection of the problems of humanism in the literature of the second half of the XIX century.
§ 1. Fiction in the socio-historical and general cultural context of the 19th century.
§2. The Crisis of Humanism in Fiction
Western Europe and USA.
§ 3. Russian literature: a synthesis of Christian and Renaissance humanism.
Introduction to the thesis (part of the abstract) On the topic "Humanism in European and Russian culture of the second half of the 19th century: based on fiction"
The relevance of research
The problems of humanism attract the growing attention not only of specialists, but of public and cultural figures in different countries. This is due to the general interest in the problem of man, which characterizes the entire twentieth century; with the rapid development of disciplines that study a person in his various aspects - philosophical anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, psychology. At the same time, many authors note that, along with the deepening of specific knowledge, a holistic idea of what a person is not only not developed, but, on the contrary, is increasingly disintegrating into many different theories and concepts. And if in theoretical terms such a variety of approaches can be considered justified, then in practical terms it entails many problems. With the “blurring” of the image of a person, ideas about his place in the world, about his relationship with nature, society, with other people, about the criteria for evaluating certain behavioral practices and social trends, educational and psychotherapeutic methods, etc., are also “blurred”, and in connection with this, the understanding of humanism becomes more and more uncertain. And it can be assumed that further research in this area will, along with the growing diversity of views, approaches, points of view, still strive to the limit to develop an integral system of ideas about a person. Thus, the relevance of the chosen topic seems undoubted.
Interest in this problem is also caused by the fact that in the twentieth century the differences that exist between Russian and western types humanism: between humanism, which is based on ideas about the unity and reality of higher spiritual values (developed in religious-philosophical, philosophical-idealistic directions), and secular, secularized humanism. Social practice recent centuries gave many examples of the concrete embodiment and development of ideas of both ideas about humanism, and thus now researchers have rich empirical material for verifying various concepts. In particular, in our opinion, those dead ends of secularized humanism that Russian philosophers wrote about were revealed: the loss of an idea of reality higher values and ideals has led not only to the erosion of moral norms, the growth of negative social trends, but also to the processes of disintegration of the individual, moreover, to the justification of these trends, for example, in the postmodernist paradigm. This situation also requires special consideration.
At the same time, it can be noted that studies of the problem of humanism are more fruitful when they are based not only on the material of sociology, psychology, cultural studies or other scientific disciplines, but also on the material of art and especially fiction, since fiction has its central theme precisely of a person and most directly affects the development of humanitarian knowledge. Prominent writers in their works they act not only as psychologists and sociologists, often penetrating deeper into the problem than scientists, but also as thinkers, often far ahead of scientific thought and, moreover, giving it new ideas. It is no coincidence that philosophical and scientific texts that have a human theme as their theme constantly refer the reader to literary examples. Therefore, to trace the development of the ideas of humanism on the material of fiction seems to be not only relevant, but also natural.
The period of development of fiction analyzed in this work is almost unanimously noted by literary critics as the most complete and complete, on the one hand, and diverse in directions, on the other. Moreover, it was in the second half of the 19th century that the tendencies that became dominant in the next century were formed and reflected in literary-artistic and literary-critical works. At the same time, the similarities and differences in the ideological and artistic approaches of Russian and Western literature were determined. The choice for the study of specific countries and works from the entire array of Western literature is due, firstly, to their greatest representativeness, and secondly, to the scope of the work.
The degree of development of the problem
Research in line with the chosen topic is divided into two blocks: on the one hand, these are philosophical and cultural works devoted to the problems of man and the problems of humanism as such, on the other hand, literary and critical works related to the chosen period. Since the very appearance and assertion of the term "humanism" is traditionally associated with the Renaissance, the dissertation research was based on works written starting from this period.
These include, firstly, the works of the Renaissance thinkers themselves, among whom we can name C. de Beauvel, J. Boccaccio, JI. Bruni, P. Brazzolini, JI. Valla, G. Manetti, Pico del Mirandola, F. Petrarch, M. Ficino, C. Salutati, B. Fazio, later M. Montaigne, N. Cusa, and others. Further development of the ideas of humanism takes place in the New Age and the Enlightenment in the works of such authors as F.-M. Voltaire, A. K. Helvetius, T. Hobbes,
P. Holbach, D. Diderot, J.-J. Rousseau, T. Starkey and others. In the XIX century. develops social issues in the works of F. Baader, J1.
Feuerbach, ML. Bakunin, A. Bebel, V.G. Belinsky, A.A. Bogdanov,
I. Weidemeier, A.I. Herzen, I. Dietzgen, N.A. Dobrolyubov, E. Kaabe, K. Kautsky, P.A. Kropotkin, N.V. Stankevich, N.G. Chernyshevsky, as well as K. Marx, F. Engels and later V.I. Lenin. At the same time, philosophical-anthropological and cultural studies developed in classical European philosophy in the works of G. Hegel, J.-G. Herder, G.E. Lessing, I. Kant, etc.; in German classical literature in the works of I.V. Goethe, F. Schiller; the historical and cultural perspective of research is reflected in the works of A. Bastian, F. Gröbner, J. McLennan, G. Spencer, E. Tylor, J. Fraser, F. Frobenius, K. Levi-Strauss, domestic authors such as S.S. Averintsev and others. In the 20th century, axiological and anthropological problems develop in the works of many authors - A. Bergson, N. Hartmann, A. Gelen, E. Cassirer, G. Marcel, X. Plessner, M. Scheler, P. Teilhard de Chardin , M. Heidegger and others. In addition, studies related to the problems of suppressing the personality through total manipulation of consciousness have acquired a special role; issues of interaction between man and technology, models of a new stage community development etc. These themes were developed by many authors, such as G. Lebon, G. Tarde, S. Silega, then F. Nietzsche, O. Spengler, N.A. Berdyaev, X. Ortega y Gasset, E. Fromm; G. M. McLuhan, J. Galbraith, R. Aron, G. Marcuse, K. Popper, F. Fukuyama, J. Attali and others.
And actually the theme of humanism, the analysis of this concept is also devoted to many works. It was raised by many of the above authors, and in the twentieth century it became the subject of a special study in the works of P. Kurtz, S. Nearing, L. Harrison, M.
Zimmerman, T. Erizer, in Russia - JT.E. Balashova, JT.M. Batkina, N.K. Batova, I.M. Borzenko, G.V. Gilishvili, M.I. Drobzhev, G.K. Kosikova, A.A. Kudishina, O.F. Kudryavtseva, S.S. Slobodenyuk, E.V.
Finogentova, Yu.M. Mikhalenko, T.M. Ruyatkina, V. A. Kuvakin and many others. It can be summarized that, thus, the vast majority of representatives of humanitarian thought in one way or another contributed to the development of the problem of humanism.
Analysis of Western and Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century is presented both in the articles of the writers themselves, who often acted as literary critics, and in the works of Western and Russian literary and art critics of the 19th and 20th centuries. - M. Arnold, E. Auerbach, JT. Butler, G. Brandeis, S.T. Williams, J. Gissing, J. Ruskin, I. Tan, E. Starkey, T.S. Eliot; N.N. Strakhova, N.A. Dobrolyubova, N.G. Chernyshevsky, D.I. Pisarev; A.A. Aniksta, M. M. Bakhtina, N.V. Bogoslovsky, L.Ya. Ginzburg, Ya.E. Golosovker, Yu.I. Danilina, A.S. Dmitrieva, V.D. Dneprov, E.M. Evnina, Ya.N. Zasursky, D.V. Zatonsky, M.S. Kagan, V.V. Lashova, J1.M. Lotman, V.F. Pereverzeva, A. Puzikova, N.Ya. Eidelman, B.Ya. Eikhenbaum and many others. Thus, one can note a very large amount of work devoted to various aspects of the chosen topic, but at the same time a special comparative analysis of humanism in Russian and in Western literature was not carried out, which led to the choice of the research topic.
Object of study: the main trends in the development of fiction in Russia and Western countries in the second half of the 19th century.
Subject of research: interpretation of humanism in Russian and Western literature of the second half of the 19th century.
The purpose of the study: to conduct a comparative analysis of the embodiment of the Western and Russian types of humanism in the literature of the second half of the 19th century.
In accordance with the purpose of the study, the following research tasks are set in the work:
1. Analyze the development of the concept of humanism in philosophical and cultural thought and determine its various meanings and interpretations.
2. Systematize the main differences between secular and religious humanism; identify problems associated with the establishment of secularized humanism.
3. Give a comparative historical overview of the main trends in the development of fiction in the second half of the 19th century in the USA, European countries oh and in Russia; trace the connection of the main literary trends with one or another interpretation of humanism.
4. Show the internal unity of various areas of Russian fiction.
5. Substantiate the special, synthetic nature of the Russian type of humanism on the material of the most outstanding works Russian fiction of the second half of the 19th century.
Methodological basis of the dissertation research
In the philosophical and cultural aspect, the methodological basis of the study was the principles of dialectical methodology (the principle of a comprehensive consideration of the subject, the principle of the unity of the historical and logical, the principle of development, the principle of the unity and struggle of opposites), the method of comparative historical analysis, elements of hermeneutic methodology, as well as general scientific methods: inductive , deductive and comparative-historical. In the study of fiction of the selected period, theoretically and methodologically significant for # the author were the methods literary analysis used by Russian and Western researchers.
Scientific novelty of the research
1. The main aspects of the development of humanistic thought are identified: socio-political, historical and cultural, philosophical and anthropological, ethical and sociological.
2. There are three main types of humanism: religious-idealistic humanism; classical secular (Renaissance) humanism; converted secular humanism; justified the transition from the second to the third type of humanism; the concept is revealed and the dead-end character of the transformed secular humanism is shown. sch
3. The relationship between the ideological and artistic crisis in Western literature of the second half of the 19th century is shown. and disillusionment with the ideals of classical secular humanism.
4. The formation of the main literary movements the second half of the 19th century from the standpoint of the secularization of classical secular humanism and its transformation into a transformed secular humanism.
5. A synthetic type of humanism, characteristic of Russian culture, has been identified and its main features have been identified: affirmation of the ideals of man and society; a call for the embodiment of these ideals in life; humanism in the aspect of compassion and sacrifice; psychology,
Aimed at identifying and affirming the Human in any personality.
In the study, a number of new results were obtained, which are summarized in the following provisions submitted for defense:
1. Several main aspects/problems have emerged in humanistic thought in the process of its development: the socio-political aspect as the problem of realizing the ideal of personal and social existence in real historical conditions; historical and cultural aspect: problems of the essence of culture, criteria of progress; philosophical and anthropological aspect: questions about the needs, goals, values of the individual; ethical and sociological aspect: problems of relations between the individual and society, the nature of morality, etc. Different answers to these questions have formed different interpretations of humanism.
2. One of central issues humanistic thought was the problem of the ideal of man and society. On this basis, three main types of humanism can be distinguished: religious-idealistic humanism; classical secular (Renaissance) humanism; converted secular humanism. The first is based on the idea of the existence of a higher spirituality the universe that determines personal and social ideals. In classical secular humanism, these ideals are preserved, but their ideological justification loses its integrity and is gradually "blurred". The transformed secular humanism is characterized by the destruction of ideals, the justification of "existent" being and the cult of material needs, a tendency towards moral relativism. On this path, humanistic thought actually reached a dead end, which in practice was expressed in the growth of social and psychological problems.
3. The second half of the 19th century, according to experts, was marked by a social and ideological crisis, which was reflected in the development of fiction in Europe and the United States. In the works of leading Western writers, the possibility of a just world order, the ability of a person to defend his freedom and independence in a hostile environment, the predominance of good over evil in the human soul were questioned. Thus, the crisis was associated with disillusionment with the ideals of classical secular humanism.
4. The search for a way out of the crisis in Western fiction was expressed in two main trends: the rejection of ideals that seemed unrealizable, the assertion of a “natural” person and the legitimacy of any of his desires and passions (the course of naturalism); and the implementation of a kind of escape from the surrounding reality (neo-romanticism, going into " pure art”, the course of decadence). Both tendencies are associated with the gradual destruction of the value core that was preserved in classical secular humanism, with its further secularization and the establishment of transformed secular humanism.
5. In Russian culture, religious and Christian ideas were creatively rethought on the basis of the best achievements of secular Western culture. This gave rise to a special synthetic type of humanism, which brought the leading Russian atheist thinkers closer to their opponents, who stood on a religious-idealistic platform, and at the same time differed markedly from Western European humanism.
6. The synthetic type of humanism, reflected in Russian fiction, was characterized by the following main features: assertion of the reality and effectiveness of the ideals of man and society, to which every person should strive; a call for the embodiment of these ideals in life; humanism in the aspect of kindness, compassion, sacrifice as the central idea of the majority literary works; deep psychologism, not aimed at the naturalistic " anatomical dissection» human soul, but on the identification and affirmation of Man in any, even "fallen" personality, colored by love, understanding, affirmation of the fraternal unity of all people.
Approbation of dissertation research
Approbation of the scientific material and the findings was carried out with the participation (in speeches) at:
International conferences: "Formation of a unified educational space in the Greater Altai region: problems and prospects" (Rubtsovsk, 2005);
All-Russian conferences, symposiums and meetings: scientific and practical conference " Theory and practice educational work V high school "(Barnaul, 2000); scientific symposium " Man of Culture"(Biysk, 2000); seminar-meeting "Problems of transformation and quality of socio-humanitarian education in Russian universities on the basis of state standards of the second generation" (Barnaul, 2002); scientific and practical conference "" (Rubtsovsk, 2005);
Many regional, interregional, city and intra-university conferences: regional scientific and practical conference " Spiritual origins of Russian culture» (Rubtsovsk, 2001-2004); interregional scientific and practical conference "Psychological and pedagogical training of specialists" (Moscow, 2001); interregional scientific and practical conference " Theory, practice and education in social work: realities and prospects"(Barnaul, 2002); city scientific-practical conference "Science - city and region" (Rubtsovsk, 2003, 2004); intrauniversity scientific and practical conference " Man in the context of modern sociocultural situation » (Rubtsovsk, 2004, 2005).
Dissertation conclusion on the topic "Theory and history of culture", Shulgin, Nikolai Ivanovich
Conclusion
Humanism is one of the most popular and frequently used terms. It is used in a wide variety of disciplines - in philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural studies; as well as in everyday language, in literature, in the means mass media. At the same time, humanism is one of the most arbitrarily interpreted concepts. At the same time, the difference in interpretations, as M. Heidegger rightly noted in his time, is primarily associated with the worldview platform of the author who uses this term, and she, in turn, with a particular culture, the mentality of a nation, with a specific social environment. . Therefore, even the very systematization of the meanings and meanings of this concept, the identification of the origins of its various interpretations are relevant from a theoretical point of view.
Perhaps even more relevant is the study of humanism from a socio-practical position, since it is the cornerstone concept of those areas of public life, trends and processes that directly relate to a person - education and upbringing, building a civil society, asserting and protecting human rights; the basic foundations of most social reforms. At the same time, as a rule, the initiators and authors of social programs and projects do not fix the fact that they often contain direct contradictions between the declared “ humanistic» goals and specific practices and methods, which very often turn out to be contrary to the real interests of the individual, that is, precisely inhumane. Thus, the clarification of the concept of humanism can contribute to a more qualified and detailed analysis these programs, the development of informed recommendations.
The study of the history of the development of this concept, the reasons for the emergence of its various meanings requires the involvement of theoretical and empirical material from many areas of knowledge, primarily philosophical and cultural thought. But no less important and promising, in our opinion, is the application of the results obtained to the analysis of those areas where humanism was the central concept. Literature is definitely one of them. Man, his problems, his place in the world, relationships with other people, with nature and society have always been the main theme of fiction. And without exaggeration, we can say that within its framework a peculiar literary anthropology developed, which not only intersected with philosophical anthropology, but in many ways significantly outstripped it, providing it with the richest empirical material, developing many private and even general interesting ideas, which subsequently were are in demand by philosophers, culturologists, psychologists, sociologists and everyone who in one way or another faces the problem of a person.
When studying the processes and trends in the development of fiction in the second half of the nineteenth century, as the most significant and in many respects defining period, it is striking that the ideological and artistic crisis noted by literary critics, which engulfed most European countries and American literature in this period, is inextricably linked with the crisis of humanism as such. The humanism of this time was a classic Renaissance-enlightenment humanism, which was in the process of transformation, with its belief in the omnipotence of the human mind, the ability to transform the world on rational principles and in accordance with the principles of justice; with conviction in the triumph of the principles of freedom, equality and fraternity, with faith in the linear progress of civilization. The reality of the noted historical period has practically dispelled these illusions. This led to the fact that the old ideals began to be discarded and humanism began to move into its transformed form. If earlier a person, who was claimed by the humanistic worldview, was understood as an ideal person endowed with very specific qualities, to which every person should strive, now a “cash” person has entered the stage, and “humanity" began to be seen in justifying all being , any manifestations of personality, including those that were previously rejected as unworthy of a person. In other words, there was a denial no longer of certain specific ideals, but of the ideal as such. These tendencies, as is known, were reinforced by the philosophy of positivism, which gained particular popularity during this period and significantly influenced the art of the second half of the nineteenth century. It was dominated by a non-judgmental, cold-blooded "scientific" attitude towards what is depicted, towards evil and pathologies, towards the "underground" of the human soul, which later quite naturally turned into an apology for this underground. As already mentioned, these processes had and have a serious social refraction, so it is especially important to trace their origins and roots, to identify the reasons that led to such a transformation of the concept of humanism.
At the same time, as is known, in Russian fiction, these processes proceeded significantly differently. As already mentioned, the religious-Christian worldview played a special role in its development. His interaction with secular culture, with the rapidly developing social and social thought, scientific worldview is one of the constantly discussed topics. But practically all authors agree that Orthodox Christian ideas in Russia were creatively rethought on the basis of the best achievements of secular Western and domestic culture and gave rise to a special type of worldview, far from church dogmatic Orthodoxy, and from the positivism popular in Europe. As a result, the development philosophical thought, art, culture as a whole in our country proceeded significantly differently.
This largely explains the phenomenon of the extraordinary popularity of Russian fiction in the West, a deep and unceasing interest in it, which, starting from the end of the nineteenth century, continued for many years. And now, as you know, a number of Russian writers are not only included in the golden fund of world literature, but occupy leading places in it. First of all, this is due to the truly humanistic potential of Russian literature, with its deep interest in the individual, which is fundamentally different from the positivist-scientific, dispassionate study, "scalping" of the human soul. At the same time, she was far from justifying the "bottom", opposed moral relativism or individualistic closure in " ivory tower". Russian writers saw their most important task not in condemning the "fallen", but not in justifying them, but in seeing the "spark of God" in every person and contributing to his moral awakening.
Thus, at the heart of the Russian, synthetic type of humanism lies precisely the affirmation of the ideals of the individual and society, to which each individual should strive; a call for the affirmation of these ideals in life; belief in the reality and effectiveness of higher values; humanism in the aspect of kindness, compassion, sacrifice as the central idea of most literary works. Of course, this does not mean that there were no trends in Russian literature similar to Western decadence or naturalism, but they were much weaker and, most importantly, reflected the same crisis phenomena that gave rise to these trends in the West.
Of course, within the framework of one study it was not possible to cover the entire spectrum of aspects of the problem raised and various approaches to its solution. At the same time, I would like to hope that the work will contribute to understanding the importance of analyzing the concept of humanism, its manifestations in culture, art and, in particular, in Russian fiction; will be of interest to other specialists working on similar problems.
List of references for dissertation research candidate of philosophical sciences Shulgin, Nikolay Ivanovich, 2006
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