Articles

The article briefly describes the biography, scientific path and political ideas of Noam Chomsky (born in 1928), a prominent intellectual of our time. Beginning his scientific research in linguistics, but with a keen interest in politics, Chomsky already in the middle of the last century became known as a scientist who made the second cognitive revolution, a political activist condemning the US foreign policy and a political philosopher consistently justifying his political ideal - libertarian socialism. One of the main tasks of the study is to build a holistic image of the scientist, whose political concept is a logical continuation of his discoveries in the field of linguistics, reasoning about the nature of man, about the responsibility of people (ordinary people and intellectuals) for the injustices and iniquities occurring in the world. The methodology of the research includes the use of textual analysis and historical-analytical approach, allowing to present the concept of N. Chomsky in the context of political realities and scientific research in the United States in the last third of the 20th century. As a result of the study, the author concludes that N. Chomsky is a real example of a “responsible intellectual” who consistently defends his unpopular and sometimes dangerous position proving the incompatibility of democracy and capitalism.

The article analyses Russian playwright and philosopher A. Sukhovo-Kobylin’s study about Vsemir (Allworld) from the point of view of its socio-political content. This topic is insufficiently covered in scientific discourse and the article aims to fill that gap. The origins of A. Sukhovo-Kobylin’s ideas are examined through historicalpolitological reconstruction and political-textual analysis and as a result a reconstruction of his socio-political conception is presented. The article demonstrates the evolutionary orientation of the study about Vsemir which makes it close to the ideas of Russian cosmism and highlights the stages of humanity’s development (telluric, solar and sidereal) and the ways of achieving its ideal state described by A. Sukhovo-Kobylin. It considers the ratio of Spirit and Matter in the study about Vsemir and notes the dependence of human evolution on the mode of cognition and the way of interacting with other human beings. In addition, the article demonstrates such important socio-political component of these ideas as the necessity of overcoming individualism and building a unified planetary community.

The article, using the example of two interrelated categories ‘independence’ and ‘service’, which have been constantly present in the domestic spiritual and political discourse for several centuries, traces the process of transformation of the value foundations of Russian civilization in the spiritual and political thought of the 18th century. Analysis of the works by the authors of the 18th century was carried out on the basis of the search database of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. In total more than 600 texts created in 1701–1800 were studied. The main research methods in addition to the general scientific methodological apparatus were content analysis and political-textual analysis. The concepts of ‘independence’ and ‘service’ in the 18th century were largely linked. The concept of ‘independence’ was using in the literature of this period in two meanings: ‘state independence’ (state sovereignty) and ‘personal independence’ (private sovereignty). Personal independence had to be sacrificed by the subjects of the Russian sovereign in favor of state sovereignty. This sacrifice was most often justified by the need for each resident of Russia to serve the sovereign, the state and the Fatherland.