Inna Lisovich
DSc in Culture studies, CSc in Philology, Professor, Moscow University for the Humanities

Summary: The report examines the influence of neo-Platonic discourse on scientific knowledge and liberal arts in England and Europe in the Early Modern period. Aspiring to overwhelm the impact of scholasticism and Aristotle, humanists turned to Plato’s philosophy.

Keywords: early Modern period, scientific knowledge, Plato, Neo-Platonism, Aristotle, the visual, evidence, liberal arts, new philosophy

Roman Svetlov
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy; Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The principle of falsifiability (K. Popper) has become not only a criterion for distinguishing science from non-science, but also an important tool that regulates the claims of science for truth. Moreover, it fully corresponds to the epistemology of an «open» (ie, liberal) society. Falsifiability and fallibilism are not only scientific regulative principles, but also ideological imperatives of liberal concepts, and, in some cases, practices.

We compare with the principle of falsification the concept of impossibility of comprehending something developed by academicians of the III-II centuries BC. Formulated by Cicero in the «Teachings of Academics» Quattuor capita imposes on the one who agrees with him, the obligations typological close to the obligations of the principle of falsification. However, the scope and method of applying the regulative principles of Popper and the Academy differ from each other. This difference allows us to compare the boundaries of «science» in the ancient world and in modernity.

Keywords: the principle of falsification, Academic philosophy, the principle of ἐποχή

Marina Volf
DSc in Philosophy, director, SB RAS Institute of Philosophy and Law, Novosibirsk

Summary: Plato and Aristotle considered that Protagoras’ doctrine was a perceptual relativism, which is untenable because of its self-refutation. Plato offers two interpretations of relativism, one of which, Protagorean «secret doctrine», is often called Plato’s own theory of perceptions. Aristotle classifies Protagoras as subjectivists. Both interpretations took away the credibility of relativism, making it one of the negative markers of Sophistics. Contemporary justification of Protagoras is carried out either by attacking the illegitimacy of the term «relativism» itself, or by eliminating self-refutation in homo mensura thesis.

Keywords: relativism, theory of perception, homo mensura, Plato, Aristotle, Protagoras

Alexander Pogoniailo
DSc in Philosophy, professor, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The subject of this report is a comparison between the contexts of the Platonic “contemplation of the essence of number” (Resp. 525 e) and the Aristotelian ontological explanation of movement in the course of which the talk turns to the “countable number” (Phys.).

Keywords: number, count, one, many, articulation, categories

Igor Berestov
CSc in Philosophy, SB RAS Institute of Philosophy and Law, Novosibirsk

Summary: We show that the attempts of many contemporary interpreters to declare that Meno’s Paradox has been solved by Plato and/or Aristotle — through marking off the preliminary knowledge of the final knowledge — fail because of the problem of intentional identity. One of the facets the problem is expressed by Meno’s Paradox.

Keywords: Meno’s paradox, Posterior Analytics, intentional identity, abstract objects, epistemic operators, intensional context

Elena Lisanyuk
DSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Should physician engage himself into treatment of those hopelessly sick? In my lecture I will argue that Plato and Aristotle would have given opposite replies to this question. Plato would appeal to an argument from virtue, which is rooted in physician’s moral properties. Aristotle, whose reply is similar to what Hippocrates wrote, would justify his reply by means of an argument from patient, which focuses on his idea of phronesis and on practical syllogism.

Keywords: practical argumentation, ancient medicine, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, practical syllogism

Sergey Nikonenko
DSc in Philosophy, professor, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The article is devoted to ancient practice of likening to the image of a god or a perfect man (hero). The practice of likening is an imitation of character and deals of famous “first” Greek men: Mutheos, Orpheus, Heracles, Achilles, Odysseus, etc. Ancient and commentary sources concerned to the practice of likening are studied here (Plato, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, etc.). We try to prove that ancient famous man’s experience is not a subjective one but the attempt to be like eidetic image of “virtuous man”. So any famous man tries to acquire his “second nature” when he reaches the resemblance between him and a hero (god) both in image and in experience.

Keywords: experience, likening, ancient philosophy, virtuous man, eidos

Yuriy Romanenko
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The plot of the ontological dispute between Plato and Aristotle is interpreted in the light of Heidegger’s notions of «events» (Ereignis) and «ontological difference.» The essence of the dispute is due to the paradoxical nature of the manifestation of being in the world of existence. The logical structure of the paradox: something exists, because it does not exist, and, conversely, does not exist, because it exists. Consent can not but be about the unity of being, but this is what causes disagreement in relation to its multiple manifestations in existence. Paradox is a revolution of opinion (V. V. Bibikhin), or a change of aspect (L. Wittgenstein). A «secret harmony» (in the Heraclitean sense) between Plato and Aristotle is in the question of being, because being itself can not be a subject of wrangling, but their points of view end up in extreme contradiction on the problem of existence necessarily, setting the matrix of future disputes between their followers. The paradox of being is reflected in the paradox of the moment «suddenly» in Plato and of the moment «now» in Aristotle, which are different aspects of the same. The situational rotation of competing opinions around the secret in silence of being forms a double spiral of the genetic code of philosophy, which « stitching» its whole history, making it purposeful to clarify the meaning of being. This is the eventuality of the historically continuing dispute between Platonism and Aristotelianism.

Keywords: being, existence, event, ontological difference, paradox, history

Kirill Petrov
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Volgograd State Medical University

Summary: There is an attempt of reconstruction of Plato’s Theaetetus in the article. The hypothesis of the main issue of wisdom in the dialog was taken. The meaning of notions of “myth” and “dream,” and the context of those using was clarified.

Keywords: Theaetetus, knowledge, myth, dream

Gleb Likhachev
student, State Academic University for Humanities, Moscow

Summary: The paper deals with the questions about character and meaning of Plato’s myth about Er, that told Socrates in the end of the X-th book of the Republic. The author tries to find true philosophical point in such ending of the book. He answers the questions about correlation between this mythological story and the whole dialog, among them is the question about Plato’s criticism of myth-making in the books 2, 3 and 10. Also in this paper the author draws a parallel between the myth of Er’s travel and general teaching of the «Republic» about Good.

Keywords: Plato, ethics, the Republic, Plato’s myth, Plato’s eschatology, myth about Er

Alexander Shadow
postgraduate student, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The concept of the element is an intermediate link between the concepts of chaos and cosmos in the ancient tradition. The theme of elements passed into ancient Greek philosophy from myth. If in the myth the elements are personified in divine images, then the early philosophy expressed them in the language of concepts. Common to pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle is the definition of the concept of elements through the category of spontaneity. It’s connected with a special ontological status of the elements, consisting in being between the real and the imagined.

Keywords: elements, cosmos, chaos, arche, ontology, imagination, pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle

Timur Artemev
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, North-Western State Medical University named after I. I. Mechnikov

Summary: We shall compare the methods of cognition of the Truth proposed by Plato and Husserl. Methods where validity of sensual feelings is rejected are conceptually similar. At the same time the true knowledge according to Husserl is based on sensory perception, and the systems of both philosophers in this kind are different. Supplementing the logic of concepts with the sensual ability and the new dictionary, Husserl creates the scientific philosophy.

Keywords: methods of knowledge of truth, catharsis, anamnesis, dialogue, phenomenological reduction, intuitive contemplation, intentionality experience, description of logical concepts

Stefano Petrucciani
PhD, head of the Philosophy department, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’

Summary: In the Second Book of the State of Plato, Glavcon represents the theory of the origin of laws, which, although in its extreme brevity, has an analogy with Hobbesian: laws are born of an agreement between people who through them are not at risk of violence and injustice. But what are the similarities and what are the differences between ancient and modern contractualism? And also: the thesis of the Glavcon can really be regarded as an anticipation of the theories of the political pact? The aim of the report is to provide an answer to these questions.

Keywords: Sovereignty, laws, Plato, Polis, society, violence, Hobbes, justice, force, contract, collective, freedom, liberalism, politics

Ivan Protopopov
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation

Summary: The report deals with the problem of ontological status of the idea of the good in the philosophy of Plato. In the dialogue «Republic» argued that the good gives all knowable things exist, but in itself is on the other side of existence. The author answers the question, how does the Platonic idea of the good related with being, in that case, if she is understood to as the idea of a single.

Keywords: the idea of the good, things and ideas, being, single and other, non-being

Stefano Maria Capilupi
PhD, Head of the Italian culture institute (Russian Christian Academy for Humanities), Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg; University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’

Summary: In the First Book of the State, the famous statement of the sophist Frasimachus, according to which justice is the law by which strongs impose their own profit, Socrates objects that justice is most likely to the useful of the weak people, which only the righteous are ready to support. The righteous do not seek only honor and glory, and they are agree to lead the State rather «to avoid terrible punishment, to be subordinate to those who are worse than them». This dialectic of internal useful and external profit is not sufficient to discover a concrete vision of the Good as such, understood as a common good? So why, in the philosophical and the theological traditions, the useful as such was later and more often posed in an unresolved antithesis with the idea of Good, exacerbating the division and the gap between ethics and the economic and political vision of things? The paper intends to propose new questions and possible approaches regarding the purely relational concept of good and human dignity in the context of ancient, medieval and modern traditions.

Keywords: the useful, the good, sophist, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Sergius Bulgakov, theology, philosophy, ethics, economics, politics, interior, exterior, visible, invisible

Giuseppe Di Giacomo
PhD, Professor, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’

Summary: The main theme of reflection, which Plato develops around the concept of mimesis, is the ability of the image itself to connect the visible and the invisible, that is, the presence and absence, sensually perceived and intelligible. It is from here, in Plato, that a distinction is made between two different possible ways of image configurations: on the one hand, the image is understood as «icon» (Eikon), and on the other hand as «idol» (Eidolon). In this sense, the object of Plato’s negative judgment is not mimesis as such, but rather that particular type of mimesis that requires the exhaustion of the invisible in the visible, and thus ends up dissolving in «false visibility».

Keywords: image, mimesis, analysis, Plato, visible, invisible, icon, idol, perceived, intelligible

Viktoria Bojko
MA student, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: These theses are intended to demonstrate the relationship between a philosophical method in its developing and a social perspective of «The State» of Plato and Aristotle’s «Policy». It is demonstrated that the Platonic Idea defined in its unity and multitude of its determinations and the uniform Essence given by Aristotle with an accent (though not final) on the special moment of the Natural serve as the necessary basis for the research of the above mentioned social perspective as proposed by these great thinkers of Antiquity.

Keywords: morality, idea, definiteness, relation, method, state system

Oleg Nogovitsin
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Technology; Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Editor in Chief of the Journal “ESSE: studies in philosophy and theology”

Summary: The paper addresses the problem of the source and social function of the Greek tragedy as well as Plato and Aristotle’s philosophical reflection on this issue. Tragedy is considered as historical experience of reflection on the spirit of Greek tyranny. The paper examines the specific features of Plato and Aristotle’s standpoints with regard to the phenomenon of tragedy; the political context of formation of these standpoints is also dealt with.

Keywords: poetics, tyranny, democracy, Aristotle, Plato, catharsis, tragedy, policy

Oleg Nogovitsyn
CSc of Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University

Summary: The paper proves that Plato is the founder of a strictly scientific natural-science concept of morality. Plato’s mind and good, the combination of which gives morality, are entirely natural principles. The moral decision is therefore always situational and personal.

Keywords: ethics, Plato, morality, pleasure

Walter Sennhauser
lecturer, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The paper discusses the mathematical axiom of choice as an example of the substantial impact of the platonical views on the formation of the classical type of mathematics.

Classical mathematics, i. e. mathematics that is studied in our schools and universities, relies substantially on the views of Plato’s philosophy, and hence is sometimes called «mathematical platonism», in contrast to other mathematical schools, reflecting the beliefs of Aristotle. To show this «platonism» of classical mathematics by using a concrete example, the paper discusses the axiom of choice. Further follow some words about the advantages of this mathematical platonism, which makes clear why most modern mathematicians prefer the «platonic» and not the «aristotelian» form of mathematics, despite the fact, that some results look quite strange. To speak briefly: Plato’s philosophy is the foundation of modern and practically exclusively taught and used mathematics.

Keywords: Platonism, mathematics, axiom of choice

Rostislav Dyomin
lecturer, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg; “Peterschule” gymnasium

Summary: The purpose of speech is to show that characteristic of the Megarian school (Diodorus Cronus, etc.) attention to the concepts of “possible and impossible” was also characteristic of representatives of the ancient Chinese School of Names. The inclusion of a range of evidence about the views of philosopher Gongsun Long allows us to speak about the proximity of his views with the views of Diodorus Cronus. The assumption about the presence of ancient Chinese thinkers reasoning in which a combination of temporal and modal classification judgments.

Keywords: Megarian school, Diodorus Cronus, concepts of «possible and impossible», Chinese School of Names, Gongsun Long, Wei Mou, Deng Xi, temporal and modal classification judgments

Svetlana Karavaeva
CSc in Philosophy, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: “Ajax” and “Odysseus” are the only two of Antisthenes’s works that have survived in their entirety to the present day, and that introduce the court speeches of the two Homeric heroes that are related to the famous dispute over the right to own Achilles’s weapons. They are usually dated to Antisthenes’s early period, the time of his studies with Gorgias, thus it is considered primarily as an example of sophistic and rhetorical prose, and disappointing at that, since it has not attained its goal of being convincing. Another approach is based on an attempt to examine the speeches in question within the context of intellectual life in Athens from the mid-Vth century B. C. to mid-IVth century B. C. Antisthenes uses the characters of Ajax and Odysseus to express his own philosophical views, in particular, his perception of the nature of ἀρετή. However, this is where the researchers encounter another question — which of the heroes’ sides is represented by Antisthenes himself? Our paper will be devoted to the consideration of these and other viewpoints.

Keywords: ancient philosophy, Socratic Schools, Antisthenes

Irina Mochalova
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The report analyzes the process of formation of institutes of the «higher school» in Athens in the V – IV centuries BC. Rhetorical schools are considered as the main educational Institute and the basic model of the organization of school education. It is shown that the institutional and intellectual competition of rhetoric and philosophy leads to the creation of Socratic schools.

Keywords: institutional approach, rhetoric, philosophy, rhetorical school, Socratic school

Irina Protopopova
Candidate of Culturology, associate professor, head of Platonic Research Center, Russian State University for Humanities

Summary: The description, in the 2nd book of the “Republic,” of how the Guardians are educated, is based on the image of dogs-philosophers who possess an important philosophical ability to discriminate between their familiars and strangers: they fawn upon those who they know and bark at the strangers, though the first haven’t done them anything good and the latter, anything bad. Fully in accordance with the image of dogs-philosophers, the education of the Guardians since infancy relies on rejecting everything that is wrong and strange in the myths of gods and heroes, in poetry and music, that is, as Socrates declares it, on censorship, lies and all kinds of restrictions. All of this is aimed at the cultivation, above all, of obedience and devotion, though had been proclaimed at the start as the education of philosophical qualities.

The education of actual philosophers, the description of which begins at the end of book 5, is based, on the contrary, on a passionate love for truth cherished by a philosophical nature, and what is important here is the lack of whatever restrictions. A special value in the education of philosophers is accorded to contradiction as a method of investigation: if the same thing looks double-faced and contradictory, this calls, eventually, for the question τί ἔστι. The Guardians, on the contrary, are always content with only one face of the contradiction, resembling in this the dogs barking at strangers.

We believe that this metaphor has to do with Antisthenes and Cynics, as well as with Xenophon’s description of perfect warriors (in “The Constitution of the Lacedaemonians”).

If our assumption is correct and the allusion to Cynics serves the basis for the account of the education of the Guardians, then we are free to conjecture that the image of Socrates as a tyrant, censor and liar is no more than ironic and sarcastic, and the contradiction in the description of philosophical qualities of the Guardians (books 2–3) and of actual philosophers (books 5–7) is, in fact, illustrating the opposition between a dogmatic philosophy like that of Antisthenes, with its repudiation of contradictions, and a dialectical philosophy, to which contradictions serve the basis and method of investigation.

Keywords: the “Republic”, education of the Guardians, dogs-philosophers, Antisthenes, the Cynics, the Spartiates, Xenophon

Valerii Nikonorov
CSc in History, major research fellow, Institute of History of Material Culture, Russian Aademy of Sciences, St Petersburg

Summary: In an ideal state described by Plato in the utopian dialogue «Republic» a very considerable role was played there by the warrior estate called guardians (phylakes). An idea itself of arranging such a state in the form of three social groups — philosophers, guardians and producers of material values (craftsmen and farmers) — evidently reflects the most ancient Indo-Iranian structure of society that is well known by the instances of the Indian Aryans (the varnas of priests-Brahmans, warriors-Kshatriyas and farmers-Vaishyas) and of the Iranian tribes (the estates of priests-āθravan, warriors-raθaēštā and farmers and livestock breeders — vāstryō fṣ̌uyąnt). The fact that Plato borrowed the Indian model seems to be little probable because the Greek world had got a possibility to closely familiarize with realities of the social life in India only as a result of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, i. e. after the death of Plato himself. On the other hand, the latter was not able to adopt the idea from Achaemenid Iran of his time either, where social estates did not exist at all, whereas they were characteristic for the earlier Iranian society of the Avestan epoch. It is to be thought that Plato’s utopian state concept could quite be inspired by the real social order of the Scythians — Iranian-speaking nomads who dwelt in the Northern Pontic steppe area. An analysis of the Classical written sources allows us to maintain that it is in their milieu that the Avestan three-part social division into priests, warriors and commoners (farmers and cattle-breeders), which was traditional for the earliest Indo-Iranian peoples, had preserved. It was lost in Iran proper under the Achaemenids, but was restored most likely by the Dahae, the nomadic founders of the Parthian Arsacid empire.

The Northern Pontic Scythians were well known in Greece since the Archaic age, and so Plato disposed for sure of sufficient information about their social order. However, he used the «Scythian model» just in the most general sense and did not go further. To characterize the guardian estate in detail he resorted to the help of an experience of the most militarized Hellenic polis, Sparta, whose existence itself was brought under an absolute military diktat. True, Plato outlined the life conditions and social behavior rules of his guardians in so grotesque a form that looks strongly exaggerated even for Sparta.

Keywords: Plato’s Theory of State, caste of warriors, «Scythian model» of social structure

Alexei Garadja
senior research fellow of Platonic Research Center, Russian State University for Humanities

Summary: When looking closely into the metaphor of dogs-philosophers in the 2^nd book of the “Republic,” we are inclined to accept it as rather an allusion to Antisthenes and Cynics. As a proof among others, we propose to take into account two commentaries on Aristotle’s “Categories” where there is a question on how the Cynics have acquired their name; one belongs to John Philoponus (c. 490 – after 567), another to Elias (6 c. A. D.) of the same Alexandrian school.

Examining the reasons for naming the Cynics after dogs, both John Philoponus and especially Elias reveal a closeness to R. 375–376, where the philosophical qualities of dogs are exposed by their fawning on their familiars and barking at strangers. In these commentaries, such qualities of dogs are metaphorically equated to the behaviour of the Cynics, which equation sheds a reflected light back to the passage from the “Republic” and allows to raise a question on the status of the account on the education of the Guardians based on lies, censorship and restrictions.

Keywords: Plato, education of the Guardians, dogs-philosophers, Antisthenes, the Cynics, John Philoponus, Elias

Rustam Galanin
CSc in Philosophy, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: In the middle of the last century Italian scholar Guido Calogero wrote an article where has put forward a hypothesis according to which it was Gorgias who had taught Socrates his famous ethical doctrine nemo sua sponte peccat — nobody errs voluntarily. One of his main outcomes is that Socrates knew Gorgias’ Apology by heart and used its rhetorical composition for his own defending speech on the day of his trial. Opposite view, presented by James Coulter some years later, offered to forget about Gorgias and not to consider him as an ethical mentor of Socrates but turn to the content and meanings of the very Plato’s dialogues that — despite of many textual parallels in both Apologies — explicitly speak out : there is no resembling ethical intentions between sophistic rhetoric and Socratic one at all, and common philosophical differences between Gorgias and Plato are so huge that Plato’s Apology is to be labeled as anti-Palamedes.

Many years later Brazilian philosopher Maria Cecília de Miranda Nogueira Coelho, having researched these opposite positions, came to conclusion that one needs to introduce the third figure which would reconcile the belligerents, and laid this mission on Euripides’ Hippolytus. But, when it rains, it pours, and although Hyppolitus does consist with Socratic (or Gorgias’) ethical core, there is a little reason — because of chronological inconsistencies — to assume that Euripides has borrowed Gorgias’ doctrine. Hyppolitus was written and performed in 428 BC, but we know exactly that the first time Gorgias came to Athens is 427 BC.

A bit later, Raphael Ferber, and I am going to agree with him, suggested that the best way of how one can solve these riddles — is to forget about it, that is to say, leave Socrates, Gorgias, and Euripides aside, and turn entirely to Plato. His conclusion is: «The author of the Apology — Plato — is a poeta doctus and seems to remember — maybe even by heart — Gorgias’ Apology of Palamedes …But he uses Gorgias’ language with quite another intention. This he does by sharpening the meaning of expressions already used by Gorgias, such as alêtheia and doxa. This means not that the Apology is an anti-Palamedes. The Apology is, rather, an example of what we may call with Auguste Diès “la transposition platoniciennce” of Gorgias-style rhetoric into a rhetoric of truthfulness: rhêtoros de [aretê] talêthê legein (Apol. 18a5-6)».

Keywords: Sophistic, rhetoric, Greek drama, ethic, history of Platonism

Roman Svetlov
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy; Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The refusal of Antisthenes to see «tablehood» and «cuphood» is caused not only by his epistemological doctrine. In his opinion ideas have no real existence. However, they have the same effect on people’s minds, as the polis’ laws and superstitions. The cynical refusal to see ideas is of the same nature as the refusal to follow the laws and customs of ordinary people.

Keywords: Cynicism, criticism of Platonism, Antisthenes’ doctrine of knowledge, ethics and epistemology

Aleksey Panteleev
CSc in History, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of History

Summary: The report is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of apostasy in the Jewish, Christian and Pagan religious and philosophical traditions. We consider individual cases of such behavior and its motives. Despite the fact that each case was unique, there were much in common between them. This formed a negative assessment of the apostates both members of the abandoned community and by outside observers.

Keywords: ancient religion, early Christianity, Judaism, history of philosophy, apostasy

Igor Tantlevskij
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, Chairman of the Department of Jewish Culture, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The author of the paper demonstrates that the term lēḇ, lit. «heart», in the Books of Ecclesiastes and Proverb embraces the following spectrum of meanings: mind, conscience, individuality, selfness (NB: Heb. libbî, «my heart», is used in the Hebrew Bible as a synonym for «I»), reflection (cf., e. g.: Eccl. 1:16), emotions and perseptions of an intellectual nature (cf., e. g.: Eccl. 2:10:»joy» and Prov. 14:10: «bitterness»), and in fact — as a synonym for man’s spirit (soul) (cf., e. g.: Eccl. 7:28). The man’s «heart» is a centre of an intellectual and cognitive activity, it acquires and stores wisdom and knowledge — in contrast to the «flesh» indulging in «foolish» pleasures (cf., e. g.: Eccl. 2: 3ff.). Sometimes the concept of «heart» indicates a higher level of the mind’s development, something a «fool» lacks (cf., e. g.: Prov. 6:32, 7:7, 9:4, etc.), and which potentially capable people should strive to «acquire» (cf., e. g.: Prov. 15:32, 19: 8).

In some cases, the «heart» is characterized from an ethical point of view; cf., e. g.: Prov. 26:23: «the wicked heart». In the Hebrew Bible, there is no term identical to the word «conscience» in European languages [cf.: Gr. syneídēsis, Lat. conscientia]; here the «heart» acts as an internal judge, еvaluating the actions and thoughts of the person; cf., e. g.: 1 Sam. 24:6, 10; 25:31.

Tigran Tumanyan
DSc in Philosophy, professor, head of the Department of Eastern philosophy and cultural studies, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The main attention in the proposed paper is to consider the key directions of the medieval Arab-Islamic social and political thought. The most famous of these areas are the normative or legal, philosophical and moral-didactic.

Keywords: Islam, Ancient philosophy, Persian political tradition, Adab, State, Governance

Tatiana Litvin
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The theme of submitted abstract is the theory of motion, one of aspects in the philosophy of time by Plotinus, setting out in the seventh book of the third Ennead, in the context of the Platonic doctrine of the soul, relying on the «Timaeus» and «Phaedo». In particular, the criticism of the Zeno’s paradoxes in the Ennead is reconstructed, Plotinus comments to the ideas of Aristotle is described, the concept of motion is considered in light of Platonic-Pythagorean doctrine of numbers. In the paper the doctrine of the eternity of the One and the Platonic discourse on immortality of the soul are compared. The purpose of the report is to analyze and to clarify the comments of Plotinus to the question of movement and time, as well as the influence of Neo-Platonic concept of the soul in the later Christian debate.

Keywords: Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Plotinus, Timaeus, philosophy of time, motion, numbers, immortality of the soul, philosophy of history, the phenomenology of time

Oleg Kuliev
CSc in Philosophy, assistant, St Petersburg Mining University

Summary: An attempt is made to analyze the polemic of two thinkers. Their initial attitudes and their exegetical methods are compared. The formal similarity of the constructions of both authors is shown.

Keywords: exegetics methods, Origen, Heracleon

Maxim Prikhodko
CSc in Philosophy, priest, the Orthodox parish of St Nicolas, Seville, Spain

Summary: In the report is considered the doctrine of Evagrius Ponticus on men as a place where sensual and intelligible realties are interrelated. Evagrius’ concepts on forms, shapes, icons and noēmata existing in the soul play an important role in the ontological symbolism of Evagrius.

Keywords: Christian anthropology, mind, intellect, soul, body, Neoplatonism, entelechy, symbol

Dmitry Kurdybaylo
CSc in Philosophy, research fellow, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: Porphyry’s “Letter to Anebo” and Iamblichus’ “On mysteries” provide a comprehensive list of problems that form a borderline between their approaches to theurgy, to relations between gods and a human soul and to the soul’s ascent to the intelligible realm. Linguistic subjects comprise a noticeable part of that list of problems, because at least verbal invocations with strange or incomprehensible words and phrases were one of the most distinct attributes of theurgy. For Porphyry speech is an attribute of lower ontological levels, while gods stay in silence and do not use words. Consequently, the soul’s ascent to gods is followed by rejection of all linguistic phenomena. For Iamblichus the highest ontological level is attributed by silence in the same way, but the ascent of soul can be performed with the help of words and sounds, even and especially if they are “senseless” or incomprehensible. Porphyry accents on rational level of language, claims the possibility of expressing any thought in any language, adheres to conventional theory of names origin in the Aristotelian sense and relates the “correctness of names” to coherence of relations between names to relations between things. Iamblichus, on the contrary, values the suprarational level of language (which may seem to be irrational), denies the possibility of translation without loss of meaning, acknowledges the Establisher of names in the Platonic sense and understands the “correctness of names” as consistency between names and the nature of things. The conclusion reveals the dependence of linguistic views of Porphyry and Iamblichus on their metaphysics and psychology.

Keywords: Porphyry, Letter to Anebo, Iamblichus, On mysteries, Plato, Cratylus, philosophy of language, logos, mysticism, theurgy, ancient philosophy, history of linguistics

Eugene Makovetsky
DSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Fragments II.8-12 of The Imagines of the Elder Philostratus are considered in the report as a single lesson. It is possible to assume that the purpose of this lesson is to teach young men to taste of words. Methods which Philostratus uses for this purpose are an anamnesis and a listening.

Keywords: The Imagines of the Elder Philostratus, rhetoric, memory, Plato’s Meno, homophones

Evgeny Miroshnichenko
postgraduate student, St Petersburg State University, Institute of History

Summary: The report is dedicated to review of different opinions about character and features of Synesius’ Neoplatonic philosophy. The main question, which has been the matter of discussion until now, is: was Synesius a representative of Porphyrian tradition of Neoplatonism or of Jamblichus’ one?

Keywords: Synesius of Cyrene, Neoplatonic philosophy, theurgy, Porphyry, Jamblichus, Late Antique philosophy, Christianity

Dmitry Chernoglazov¹, Oksana, Goncharko^2
1 CSc in Philology, St Petersburg State University
² CSc in Philosophy, St Petersburg State University

Summary: We attempt to represent the main examples of Byzantine dialogues, created in style and technic of platonic dialogue. Each dialogue is briefly characterized in terms of the plot and content, as well as the key notions to which it is devoted.

Keywords: Platonic dialogue, history of Byzantine literature, history of Byzantine philosophy

Igor Evlampiev
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: It is proved that the idea of a non-existent Absolute did not arise in Neoplatonism, but much earlier, in the texts of Gnostic Christianity of the beginning of the second century. The conception of the birth of all that exists from the Absolute (Father), set forth in the Gospel of Truth, is seen as the source of the tradition that goes through the whole history of Christian philosophy.

Keywords: early Christianity, pantheism, Gnosticism, Gospel of Truth, non-existent God

Boris Dvinyaninov
postgraduate student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: There is interest in Asclepius, the Greek God of medicine and treatment, the image of which get new, but hereby different, reframe in the late antique period in the traditions of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism.

Keywords: Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Platonism, Asclepius, Aesculapius, Imhotep, Amenhotep, Anubis, Anpu, Hermanubis, Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, Proclus Lycaeus, Successor

Vladimir Rokhmistrov
Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: Plato in his dialogue “Symposium” demonstrates the way of ascent to contemplation of the divine through a conversation about love which transforms in real hymn to Eros. This ascent is excellent illustrated by Iris Murdoch’s novel «The Black Prince».

Keywords: Plato, Phaedo, The Republic, Symposium, allegory of the cave, Eros

Kirill Prokopov
postgraduate student, NRU HSE, Faculty of Humanities, School of Philosophy

Summary: The historical adequacy of so-called Socrates’ ‘intellectual autobiography’ in Phaedo is a question of much debate. It is not yet settled whether this is the authentic description of doing philosophy by Socrates before his maturity or it is Plato’s account of his earlier philosophical views. However, it can be assumed that the most plausible way to interpret this passage is by addressing to VI and VII books of Republic. To prove this, some parallels in both dialogues will be examined: the image of a prison; insufficiency of material causes for understanding the noetic objects; metaphor of the Sun and its reflection in water; a method of hypothesis as a way to the truth of beings. Such an analysis will provide a sufficient ground for clarifying limits of human knowledge that Socrates casts on his own method in Phaedo and how it relates to hierarchy of faculties of the soul in Republic.

Keywords: Phaedo, Republic, Socrates’ intellectual autobiography, cave allegory, divided line, method of hypothesis

Ludmila Rusinova
student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: This research deals with Plato’s theory of ideas from a gender perspective, by the example of the dialogues «Republic», «Symposium», «Theaetetus», «Phaedrus». What does the femininity of the Socratic method consist of? Why it the woman who is the mouthpiece for main meaning of the dialogue «Symposium»? How is the metaphor of pregnancy and childbirth linked to the reproduction of knowledge?

Keywords: antiquity, Plato, gender, femininity, masculinity, maieutics, Socrates, Diotima

Armine Bagdasarian
CSc in Philosophy, Russian State Institute of Performing Arts

Summary: When Plato talks about being, he inevitably comes into dispute with real and possible rivals. And in all cases, his main argument against contenders – doubles – opponents – sophists — is their «philosophical deafness» to such things as differentiation and death. Hence, it is possible to derive from the texts an understanding of a special «philosophical hearing». Using postplatonic analytical concepts I try to describe in my report the «philosophical hearing» as a reflexive game on speeches of being, when the attention of the hearing spontaneously shifts from the subject of speech to the source of its creation.

Keywords: Plato, Platonism, philosophical hearing, reflexive feeling, game, difference, death

Elena Alymova
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Hereby we would like to draw attention to a hypothesis concerning the formation of concept of Time in the Greek thought. According to our interpretation, the primordial topos, where the phenomenon of Time comes forth most conspicuously, is the Narrative. The Time in the Narrative doesn’t reveal itself as incorporated in the Story as one of its subjects, rather the Time presents itself as the time of a plot, which bestows an action with an intelligible form. We shall consider the authoritative definitions of Time given by Plato and Aristotle as well as dwell on the Time as one of the constituent principles of Plato’s dialogues.

Keywords: narration, narrative, plot (sujet), time

Roman Pavlovsky
teacher, Gymnasium #278, Saint-Petersburg

Summary: The theme of a subject is traditionally associated with the modern European philosophy. However, the methodological direction of Russian thought allows us to take a look at the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle from the point of view of the concept of a subject of activity. In this paper I shall present a critical analysis of the concepts implicitly presented in the works of Yu. N. Davydov, A. F. Losev, D. M. Khanin, S. S. Khoruzhij, G. P. Shchedrovitsky. Also there is an attempt to analyze the dramatic approach to Plato’s dialogues from the point of view of the notion of subjectness (on the example of John Sallis’ works). Particular attention is paid to the discursive, aesthetic and ethical fields of subjectness in their treatment by Aristotle.

Keywords: methodology, subject, subjectness, Plato, Aristotle

Serguei Panov
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, National University of Science and Technology MISiS

Summary: Plato’s metaphysics presupposes necessarily a dialetics of categories. Metaphysics becomes possible because were opened the resources of the theoretic prosopopeia in the culture where a absolutized desires’ sphere has stopped to serve a base for a certifying motivation of individual or collective actions. The culture begins to elaborate new regulatives of perception, of thought and of action for emancipated reactive consciousnesses in the objectivation of subject interior feeling discharges’ effects transferring them into blind orientations of our world understanding. The sophystics appears for Plato as an illusory method identifying subject meaning orientations with the truth according to the intensive force affecting the intuition.

Keywords: metaphysics, dialectics, nature, mimesis, good, categories

Sergey Slobodkovsky
MA student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The report presents the interpretation of the Plato´s myth from the Book VII of the Republic. The cave is considered as a krater (a vessel for wine mixing). It is analysed the relationship between this myth and other Plato´s dialogues, in which various types of dishes also have philosophical significance. “Timaeus” and “Symposion” are examples of such dialogues.

Keywords: Plato, Republic, myth of the cave, philosophical myth, symbol

Alexey Pleshkov
CSc in Philosophy, research fellow, Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Summary: The author raises the question of the relation of matter to time in the Timaeus. If eternity is the key characteristic of the Forms, and time — of the cosmos, then what is the temporal status of matter? On the one hand, it ‘exists’ before the creation of the cosmos (thus, out of time), on the other hand, it is opposite to the Model (thus, not eternal). In this case, Plato’s metaphysics leaves room for something third, besides eternity and time. It is argued, that Plato’s discussion of the instantaneousness (τὸ ἐξαίφνης) in the Parmenides can shed light on this mysterious third temporal status.

Keywords: Plato, the Timaeus, metaphysics of time, the Parmenides, eternity, time, instantaneousness

Fyodor Scherbakov
postgraduate student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: In offered report there are briefly covered some problems of the Stoic myth’s allegoresis. There is exploring its genesis, philosophical sources, cultural and historical context of it. There are concerned the relation to that type of exegesis inside the Stoicism and also polemics about it between other philosophical traditions. Significance of the allegorical interpretation is noted in that it was the highest philosophical practice and also it’s remarked that it had verification and apologetic character for the early Stoics’ doctrine. An etymology is considered as a very important instrument for the stoic allegoresis. By the time the allegoresis had lost its high status in consequence of predominance of ethical problems in this school but a lot of the most prominent pagan and Christian authors of the Middle and New Platonic directions were willingly practicing the allegoresis.

Keywords: allegoresis, allegory, Homer, Zeno of Kitium, mythology, the Stoic school, Cleanthes, Cornutus, Seneca, philosophical hermeneutics, Chrysippus, euhemerism, etymology

Tigran Tumanyan
DSc in Philosophy, professor, head of the chief of Eastern philosophy and cultural studies, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The main focus of the proposed paper is to consider some Biblical stories reflected in the historical tradition and political theory of Islam.

Keywords: Bible, Koran, Islam, political tradition, state, power

Darya Zaikina
student, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has introduced the concept of the four discourses in his XVII seminar on «Psychoanalysis Upside Down: The Reverse Side of Psychoanalysis». In fact, it allows to analyze any speech act. In this paper we attempt to find out what type of discourse are the speech of the Platonic Socrates and of his interlocutors, sophists, on example of such dialogues as «Alcibiades I», «Menon», «Protagoras». We also discuss the collision of two different types of discourse.

Keywords: psychoanalysis, discourse, the truth, object a, knowledge, subject, fantasy

Dmitriy Korotkov
CSc in Philosophy, senior lecturer, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Taking Maurice Blanchot’s philosophy as an example the reporter reveals the characteristics of postmodern perception of antiquity heritage and, in particular, Plato’s philosophy. The report offers a brief review of Maurice Blanchot’s thought and his vision of antiquity which is exposed through the analysis of his interpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Also the reporter dwells upon Blanchot’s understanding of Plato philosophy.

Keywords: Heidegger, postmodernism, Maurice Blanchot, neutrality, «La Bête de Lascaux».

Irina Morozova
Candidate of Culturology, associate professor, Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture and Arts

Summary: In the locus of the value interests’ crossing for science, philosophy, theology, there appeared the new interpretation of the Platonic philosophical heritage, the foundations of classical metaphysics, the projects of scientific-theological communication, reductionism, radical theology.

Keywords: metaphysics, integrity, holism, anti-essentialism, the synthesis of philosophy and theology, creativity, the cultural creation

Vadim Mursky
CSc in Philosophy, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Ivan Smirnov
postgraduate student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg; St Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Post-Graduate and Doctoral Studies; priest of Russian Orthodox Church

Summary: The paper discusses the common metaphysics of Plato’s dialogues «Respublica», «Parmenides» and «Timaeus» in the context of the panentheistic paradigm.

Keywords: Plato, the good, one, God, world, panentheism

Lada Shipovalova¹, Yulia Shaposhnikova^2
1 DSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Head of the Department of Philosophy of Science and Technology, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy
² CSc in Philosophy, seniour lecturer, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Based on a number of researches of the XX c., the report will reveal the problematic character of the concept of “the Scientific Revolution”, which roots in the ambiguous evaluation of ancient science by modern European thinkers.

Keywords: scientific revolution, ancient science, antiquity, epistemology, history of science

Anna Stepanova
DSc in Philosophy, professor, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St Petersburg

Summary: The article provides an analysis of the problem of the relationship of the antique (based on the example of the study of Plato) and contemporary understanding of numerology, which expresses metaphysical mathematical symbolism and opposite to it quantitative natural sciences, which operate with the concept of value. The adherent of mathematical intuitionalism H. Weyl assumes the metaphysical position of Plato, who appeals to the essence and the intuitive obviousness.

Keywords: Aristoteles, magic of numeral, mathematical thought, methaphysics, number, numerology, Plato, quality of theoretical number, value, H. Weyl

Yulia Azarova
CSc of Philosophy, associate professor, Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin

Summary: Levinas argues that Plato’s philosophy contains two Socratic elements that reduce the Other to the Same: firstly, the theory of Eros, and secondly, the theory of recollection. Although formally both theories postulate openness to the Other, in fact, they exclude it. For example, the theory of Eros is rather an egology than a heterology. Since Eros does not seek what differs from it, but to what is identical to its, Plato’s erotology is not the knowledge of the other. Similarly, the theory of recollection is rather a monologue of the soul with itself than a dialogue with other. If the cognition is a recollection of what the soul already possessed, then a knowledge belongs to me (my soul), but not to another. So, both theories point to the insufficient thematicization of the Other in the discourse of Plato.

Keywords: Levinas, Plato, Socratic element, Eros, theory of knowledge, recollection, Same and Other, heterology

Konstantin Ocheretyany
CSc in Philosopohy, scientific secretary, Centre for mediaphilosophy, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The word automaton, which grew on the basis of the ancient tradition, is rooted in the semantic reality radically different from the New European one. If for the New Time technical automatism is a sign of a rational dispensation of reality, then for the ancient and medieval thought automatism is blindness to the rational arrangement of the world. Plato connects automatism with a deviation from reality and lays the foundation of the ancient and medieval understanding of automatism, however, New Time will determine the reality itself as an impersonal resource that must be freely formed, in need of control of automata. Thus, reality will speak the language of technology. Modern media reality in its interfaces, models of interaction, modes of presence, returns to the Platonic understanding of automatism as a way out of reality, but in a positive sense as a way beyond the bounds of closed technical automatism to interaction, to spontaneity of reaction, to automatism of the living, causing a natural response and opening up the dimension human existence in failure, shift, error.

Keywords: automaton, technology, media, Plato

Dmitry Goncharko
CSc in Philosophy, St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (technical university)

Summary: It is supposed to distinguish two traditions of sign interpretation in semiotics: Saussure–Derrida’s tradition and Hjelmslev–Eco’s one. It is argued that the Platonic dialogue “Cratylus” is relevant in terms of both traditions.

Keywords: semiotics, sign, the “Cratylus”, Plato, F. de Saussure, U. Eco

Irina Batrakova
CSc in Philosophy, docent, North-Western State Medical University named after I. I. Mechnikov

Summary: The report plans to discuss the concept of science and scientific knowledge in Plato’s philosophy on the basis of the basic dialectical (so-called «Eleatic») dialogues. In the Ancient philosophy dialectics appears to be the basis of science, therefore relations between them will be analyzed with special attention. Therefore, it is so important to continually and critically rethink the experience of ancient dialectics, revealing its relevance to its heritage for modern philosophical thought. The influence of this concept on the development of European philosophy at the main stages of its development, in the Middle Ages, in the New Time (the metaphysics of R. Descartes) and in German classical philosophy, especially in I. Kant and G. V. F. Hegel, will also be investigated. The approach a famous Petersburgian philosopher E. S. Lin’kov will be considered separately. Linkov’s understanding of the development of science, knowledge, dialectical philosophy and logic from Plato to Hegel is valuable and actual for modern philosophical thought. A new volume of Lin’kov’s collected works will presented, in the edition of which the author of the report took a very active participation.

Keywords: Plato, Idea, Science and scientific, Cognition, Dialectic, History of Philosophy, E. S. Lin’kov and his works

Daniil Dorofeev
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, St Petersburg Mining University

Summary: The speech is devoted to the study of productive relations between philosophy and medicine in ancient Greek culture. The development of medicine as a science is realized by active and constant dialogue with philosophy. This is partly due to the general lack of differentiation of the sciences in the 6th-5th centuries BC, but the special worldview of the Greeks and them relation towards themselves and the world is also significant. In no other culture is there such active interaction of these sciences, from which both sides have won, no longer meet. Medicine was both a theoretical and practical discipline. Not surprisingly, ancient doctors sometimes engaged in philosophy (remember, for example, Galen), and philosophers turned to medicine (we mark only Alcmaeon, Empedocles, Aristotle). At every new stage in the development of ancient Greek philosophy, we meet our experience of turning to medicine. For example, medicine as the science about human nature of man (see the treatise of Hippocrates, which by the way, studied philosophy) was understood as a department of physics, forming the basis for understanding man as a microcosm (in Asclepion, treatment was determined by unity with nature, and the methods of «temple medicine» should not be blindly discarded). However, ancient medicine has never been confined to the natural philosophical, natural-science, «positivistic» character, which distinguishes it from modern, narrowly specialized discipline. In «Politics» Aristotle underlined three form of medicine education: the doctor as practice; Medical theorist; Just a medically educated person.

The beginning of the formation of the ethical line in Greek philosophy, connected with the emphasis on the «lifestyle» (bios) of the Pythagorean union, allows us to consider medicine as an integral «care about yourself» (epimeleia) and, consequently, educational practice. Philosophy and medicine are the science or, more correct, the art of life and everyday existence. It is interesting to compare philosophy and medicine as a practice of paideia: medicine, like philosophy, becomes part of the general self-forming, (self)education, caring for the body in the classical period is inextricably linked with the care of the soul, physical health is the reverse side of spirit health (calocagaty as the ideal of paideia). Philosophical-medical paideia should be understood as forming of unity image — Holistically organized practices of forming a certain image of a person. The iconography of ancient philosophers will also be revealed in the medical-aesthetic perspective.

Especially evident is the importance of medicine in Socrates and Plato, including in the features of their philosophical rhetoric (for example, medicine is a model for rhetoric in platonic “Fedr”, according to W. Jager), which will be analyzed. So, it will be pointed to the mystical hypostasis of Socrates, which will complement his generally accepted image of a rational theorizing thinker and which is related to medicine, which the Athenian sage valued more than any science. Separately, the medical component of the dialectic of Socrates and Plato will be explored: in the first case, the dialogue acts as a kind of «logotherapy» (V. Frankl), in the second case as an installation for revealing and realizing the true being of a person to the fullest extent possible. Plato compared the philosophical «therapy of the soul» with medicine. The goal of Plato’s philosophy is to direct souls to Good, medicine directs man to good. Also, addresses to doctors and medicine in Plato’s dialogues will be given and considered, and Plato’s close connotation with medicine, which it sometimes (as in dialogue “Gorgia”), took as an example of art.

It is impossible not to mention the relevance of ancient Greek medical treatises and for modern philosophy and medicine — especially here is the work of Hippocrates «On air, water and terrain». It should always be remembered that not only did philosophy give medicine a lot, but the medicine itself was very useful for philosophy, and the value of this union must be remembered now, and, perhaps, and try to realize it.

Keywords: Ancient Greek philosophy and medicine, the dialogue of sciences, «care of oneself» (epimeleia), paideia, relationship between medicine and physics, ethics and dialectics

Andrey Darovskikh
CSc in Philosophy, State University of New York at Binghamton

Summary: The question to be addressed in this paper is the problem of ruling agency, which is responsible for human being’s formation during soul/body connection. Partly, this is a question of efficient cause in embryology of Nemesius. Putting forward the main point of this consideration, I argue that here, Nemesius exhibits a certain ambiguity of thought to have been blurred over by vagueness of the sources, which formed his intellectual background. At firth sight, it seems to be evident that, for Nemesius as a Christian thinker, efficacy should not be an issue for getting stuck. Small wonder that Nemesius indeed reserved just a little space in his treatise for telling about the tropos and aitia of unification. However, there is one passage in the text that makes us think a little more about this question. The content of Nemesius teaching about the nature of the soul and the body puts the problem that way that it is necessary to answer:

1) what is the cause for the descent of pre-existing soul?

2) How does its bringing into the body happen?

Keywords: Nemesius, embryology, soul-body connection, nature, providence

Ilya Guryanov
Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities, NRU HSE, Moscow

Summary: The issue is devoted to the embryological views of the most prominent thinker of Florentine Platonism, Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), with respect to his philosophical ideas. The formers would be analyzed in a pragmatic perspective on the genre of his treatises as well as in comparison with the most influential doctrines in the philosophy of nature in the Renaissance.

Keywords: Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance, philosophy of nature, embryology, animation, imagination

Anastasia Zolotukhina
CSc in Philosopohy, senior lecturer, Moscow State University

Summary: The paper treats the origin of Renaissance theory of dance in XV century Italy and its close connection to philosophy of Aristotle and then Plato. Due to Florentine Neoplatonism ‘platonic’ theory wins.

Keywords: Renaissance dance, XV century, Neoplatonism, theory of dance, treatises

Elisabeth Anikina
student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The article presents an analysis of the iconography of Michelangelo’s fresco «The Last Judgment», expressing the ideas of the artist’s neo-platonic worldview. Parallels are drawn with the art of the period of Hellenistic religious syncretism. The theory of Abi Warburg on migrating symbols is considered, with Nietzsche’s idea of the Apollonian and Dionysian principles and the idea of Vyach. Ivanov on Dionysianism as an ancient Christianity.

Keywords: Michelangelo, the Renaissance, the Neoplatonism, Christ, Apollo, the Sun, Dionysus, Warburg, Nietzsche, Ivanov, image, myth, religion, iconography, Hellenism, mystery, passions, migration

Lidia Kisliakova
MA student, St Petersburg State University

Summary: The book of love poems, written in the Cypriot dialect of Greek language in the mid-sixteenth century under the influence of Italian Renaissance poetry (codex IX.32 of the Marciana Library, Venice) is being questioned on the subject of possible connection of its poetics with Marsilio Ficino’s theory of love, death in love, and gain in love as presented in his commentary on Plato’s Symposium.

Keywords: Neoplatonism, Ficino, Cyprus, Renaissance, poetry, love, death, economics

Larissa Sokolova
DSc in Philosophy, professor, Professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The article examines Koyré’s conception about the scientific revolution of Galileo, in which importance of Platonism for emergence of mathematical physics was emphasized. Revealed theoretical sources of the conception and arguments against it from dialectical epistemology.

Keywords: Plato, A. Koyré, Galileo, epistemology, history of science, mathematics

Igor Goncharov
DSc in Philosophy, professor, head of department of political science and international relationships, Syktyvkar state university named after Pitirim Sorokin

Summary: The article deals with the concept of the entity and space in philosophy of nature and in New European metaphysical tradition. In Naturphilosophy “space” сorrelates with the such terms as “other” and “matter”. “Other” without the existence is impossible. In the Newtonian picture of the world we have a possibility of Infinite space. This proposal contrasts with the understanding of the nature of space in anсient tradition of philosophy of nature.

Keywords: philosophy of nature, metaphysics, space, matter, other, place, infinity

Evgeniy Malyshkin
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Summary: The paper indicates that in Leibniz works we can find a special way to resolve the third men argument. There is an analogy between this solution and the formula of the complete concept of essence. The notion of distributed knowledge is justified.

Keywords: third man argument, distributive knowledge

Iurina Ekaterina
postgraduate student, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: Euripides’s dramas and Plato’s dramas are seen as the literature of the philosophical poet and the philosophy of the poetic philosopher. We consider Euripides’s dramas having the common context to Plato’s dramas. On the one hand, we investigate a correlation of τὸ ὄνομα and τὰ πράγματα in the Cratylos, on the other hand, we examine the use of these philosophical concepts by Euripides in his own texts. We make stress only on the tragedy Ion and the satyr drama Cyclops.

Keywords: name, things, τὸ ὄνομα, τὰ πράγματα, literature, drama, Euripides

Irina Satina¹, Svetlana Kalugina^2
1 CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, N. N. Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University
² CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Voronezh State Institute of Arts

Summary: In the paper we present the experience of integration of philosophical text (Plato’s dialogue «Crito») into the context of theatre. We show the connection between dramatic performance and search for truth. We bring to light the peculiar sense of platonic dialogue within the interaction of author, performer and audience.

Keywords: theatre, dialogue, the Crito, search for truth, Socrates’ method

Regina Penner¹, Ekaterina Miliaeva^2
1CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk,²seniour lecturer, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk

Summary: In the theses authors present a comprehension of one of the practical methods of working with the primary sources of philosophical texts in the situation of a total reduction of work hours of the discipline «Philosophy» in university. In the process of slow reading of fragments from the Plato’s dialogue, «Socrates» and «Glaucons» come alive, their ideas penetrate the students’ thoughts, enriching and emancipating the consciousness of young people in the search for knowledge.

Keywords: reading, philosophical text, Plato, Socrates, teacher, student, dialogue, philosophical practice

Ekaterina Kryukova
CSc in Philosophy, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: Apuleius’ novel “Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass” is considered from the point of view of its structural organization around the elusory and diverse image of the author. The question from the arsenal of modern philosophy — “Who is speaking?” — is addressed to the work of the II century; it is allowed to identify the complex game of rhetorical topos and discursive layers which existed at the dawn of the genre.

Keywords: Apuleius, narrator, author, rhetoric, discourse

Alexander Sinitsyn
CSc in History, associate professor, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg; St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: At the turn of the 1980–1990s, during the Soviet “perestroika” and the new Russia in the making, the “Socrates-Plato topic” came to the fore. Was it because the heroic pathos of Socrates’ ethic philosophy seemed congruent with the proclaimed policy of building a “socialism with a human face”, “democratization” and “glasnost”? Or did the burning issue of the notorious Athenian democracy which made short shrift of an uneasy citizen seem topical? The report discusses the image of the “Barefoot Sage” created over a quarter of a century ago, in the waning days of the Soviet age, by the director V. F. Sokolov in his film “Socrates” (1991), which brings up “perpetual” subjects in the world art: those of the philosopher and power, the righteous lone hero and the impersonal mob, and of life, death and treachery.

Keywords: Socrates, Athens, V. F. Sokolov, G. A. Aredakov, cinema, demos, democracy, philosopher, power

Oxana Koval
CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: In all epochs, fiction appealed to the image of Socrates. From the beginning with Latin antiquity right up until the modernism, the character of Socrates received a variety of meaningful loading, depending on what exactly fell into the focus of writers’ attention: his heroic death, ethical principles, relationships, way of life, civic position. There is an attempt to trace the change of different points of view on the figure of the philosopher and to show the phenomenon of Socrates as a kind of mirror in which the main problems, trends and spiritual demands of the time are reflected.

Keywords: Socrates, fiction, philosophy, cultural epoch

Vsevolod Korolev
student, Russian Christian Academy for Humanities, St Petersburg

Summary: The temple without God is I, where the words are flowing: the words are dumped like kids for I has no hands. Each and all reflects different, each reflection is a question, the power drags us. Otherwise the spirit is stayless — the temple and God… The temple without God is I, God without a temple is You. Without each other we are like one without the Other.

Petr Neshitov
CSc in Philosopohy, associate professor

Summary: В связи с развитием телекоммуникационных технологий и перестройкой информационного пространства в последние два десятилетия стремительно развивается отрасль права, призванная регулировать обращение информации. И на национальном, и на международном уровне создается множество нормативных документов, общий смысл которых заключается в том, чтобы обеспечить свободное и безопасное движение полезной информации, пресекая злоупотребления. Перед вызовами новой информационной среды все технически оснащенные государства оказались примерно в одинаковом положении. Обзор и сравнительный анализ международной практики в сфере информационного нормотворчества представляет несомненный интерес (Касенова, гл. 1). Однако гражданам России следует сосредоточить первоочередное внимание на российском правовом пространстве. При этом для философствующих граждан особой привлекательностью обладает не столько сравнение юридических фактов, сколько исследование юридического мышления, их порождающего.

Основополагающим понятием информационного права является понятие информации. Это понятие и производные от него используются в Конституции, в законах «Об информации, информационных технологиях и о защите информации», «О средствах массовой информации», «О персональных данных», «О государственной тайне», «О противодействии терроризму», в Уголовном и Уголовно-процессуальном кодексах РФ, в нормативно-правовых актах и политико-правовых документах (программа «Информационное общество (2011-2020 годы)», «Доктрина информационной безопасности», «Стратегия развития информационного общества до 2030 года»).

В федеральном законе «Об информации, информационных технологиях и о защите информации» понятие информации определено так: «информация — сведения (сообщения, данные) независимо от формы их представления» (ст. 2, п. 1). Этим общим определением законодатель удовлетворился. В титульном законе и в остальных нормативно-правовых актах понятие информации входит в разные контексты, образует сложные понятия, приобретает новые оттенки смысла, так или иначе согласованные друг с другом. Однако, приобретая видимую солидность, на деле понятие информации обнаруживает свое несовершенство, если под совершенством юридического понятия иметь в виду, помимо прочего, однозначность толкования. В одних случаях информация рассматривается как признак особой технической инфраструктуры, в других — как эмпирические данные, в третьих — как нравственные ценности или политические идеи. По причине малой содержательности понятия «информация» его объем оказывается практически безграничным.

Пожалуй, наиболее уязвима для понятийного анализа Доктрина информационной безопасности РФ, утвержденная в декабре 2016 г. Ее авторы признают правовой основой российскую Конституцию (ст. 4), на передний план выдвигают потребности личности и общества, затем уже государства (ст. 2а), выступают за равноправное стратегическое партнерство в области информационной безопасности (ст. 8д). К сожалению, охранительный крен, слегка обозначившийся уже в ст. 2а, где в ряду потребностей защищенность предшествует развитию, по мере изложения Доктрины увеличивается и, не встречая препятствия в виде строгих понятийных определений, опрокидывает конституционную иерархию ценностей. В интересах борьбы с внешним информационно-техническим и информационно-психологическим воздействием государственные органы и службы расширяют свои контрольные функции за счет 23-ей, 24-ой, 28-ой и 29-ой статей Конституции. В частности, «нейтрализация информационно-психологического воздействия» (ст. 21д, 23к) подразумевает ограничение деятельности СМИ, религиозных, этнических, правозащитных организаций, а также отдельных групп граждан (ст. 12), тогда как рассуждениями об угрозе «размывания традиционных российских духовно-нравственных ценностей» (ст. 12) оправдывается «развитие национальной системы управления российским сегментом сети «Интернет»» (ст. 28д). Местами нарастание тревожной геополитической риторики негативно отражается на логической связности Доктрины, например, авторов не смущает дисгармония между тезисами о недостаточной эффективности научных исследований (ст. 18) и об усилении технической разведки в отношении российских научных организаций (ст. 11).

Слабые стороны российского информационного права можно объяснить невниманием юристов к вопросам гносеологии, которая позволила бы уяснить отношение понятия информации к понятиям истины, знания, заблуждения, лжи. В отсутствие прочного рационального основания информационное право приобретает софистические черты, столь пагубные для правоприменительной практики. Вероятно, позитивистски ориентированному мышлению российских юристов была бы полезна прививка платонизма как неустанной воли к истине: «Есть два рода благ: одни — человеческие, другие — божественные… Первое же и главенствующее из божественных благ — это разумение; второе — сопутствующее разуму здравое состояние души; из их смешения с мужеством возникает третье благо — справедливость; четвертое благо — мужество. Все эти блага по своей природе стоят впереди тех, и законодателю следует ставить их в таком же порядке» (Платон, I, 631 b-d).

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Доктрина информационной безопасности Российской Федерации // http://www.scrf.gov.ru/security/information/document5/ (дата обращения — 05 мая 2017 г.).

Касенова М. Б. Правовое регулирование трансграничного функционирования и использования интернета. Дис. … д. ю. н. М., 2016.

Конституция Российской Федерации // http://www.gov.ru/main/konst/konst11.html (дата обращения — 27 мая 2017 г.).

Платон. Законы // http://krotov.info/library/16_p/la/ton_39.htm (дата обращения — 27 мая 2017 г.).

Inna Romanenko
DSc in Philosophy, Professor, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St Petersburg; St. Petersburg State University, Institute of Psychology

Summary: The originality of the Plato’s educational system of is regarded as a unity of its ideal components: political, rational, ethical and esoteric. The result of the Plato’s educational activity is reduced to a dilemma clearly expressed in his work and predominantly determined the subsequent development of the new European (including Byzantine and Russian) traditions which is reduced to two educational principles updated by the author.

Keywords: educational paradigm, ascent, descent, learning, paideia, dialectics, Christian tradition

Mikhail Scherbakov
student, Belgorod National Research University

Summary:

Ivan Chernatkin¹, Larisa Tonoyan^2
1 MA, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy
² CSc in Philosophy, associate professor, St Petersburg State University, Institute of Philosophy

Summary: The report examines the logical works of well-known translator of Plato’s dialogues into Russian language by V. N. Karpov (1798–1867) and the influence of Platonism on the statement of a logical problem.

Keywords: V. N. Karpov, St.-Petersburg Theological Academy, philosophy of V. N. Karpov, the influence of Platonism on the philosophy of V. N. Karpov