CC BY
13DOI: 10.18522/2070-1403-2018-69-4-193-199
ПЕДАГОГИКА
(шифр научной специальности: 13.00.00)
УДК 37
Elena N. Morozova
Tobolsk pedagogical institute of D.I. Mendeleev Tobolsk, Russian Federation elena.morozova.76@mail. ru
ACTUALIZATION OF CREATIVE SPIRITUAL POTENTIAL IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION
[Е.Н. Морозова Актуализация творческого духовного потенциала в контексте гуманитарного образования]
It is considered the concept of spirituality that can be viewed as an ultimate complex of standards which opposes the society not as a given but as a set course and an imperative, however, spiritual stan -dards and values inflicted by society and culture are a result of filtration. This article examines the creative spiritual potential which shows the true meaning of a person based on mind and willpower possibili -ties of endless development also. Actualization of potential must be realized by means of using all the colossal educational resources and above all the potential of the humanitarian subjects. Therefore the aim of education, being the most prioritized field of culture, is to develop a spirited intelligence which can be achieved by developing creative activity that leads to intuition and, consequently, to spirituality. Axiolog -ical value of the humanitarian education consists not only of availability of overwhelming number of texts but also of the potential of forming the ability to perceive value which is developed into adoption and internalization and therefore the desire to transfuse. In this case we can say about realization of the essence of spiritual potential in the context of humanitarian education consisting in "the necessity to begin with yourself and to dissolve in the world; to provide the necessary foundation that enables to analyze and synthesize the inner spiritual part of the person".
Key words: cultural, creative, humanitarian, spirituality, education.
Loss of commitment to high ideals in everyday life has complicated recognition of the meaning of human values. On the one hand, people today exhibit a great desire for freedom and independence, on the other hand - need for protection from social cataclysms. This probably constructs an essential part of spiritual crisis - potentiality of spiritual downfall of a person and society turns into an actual possibility. In order to recognize spirituality as one of the most important universal human values one needs to throw light upon the essence of the notion of "spirituality" and designate its position in the system of values.
What does the concept of "spirituality" imply? We have to turn to philosophy in search of the answer. Spirituality as a problem of a human's existence in all its distinctive singularity, ethic purity and creative efficiency was first examined and comprehended in the domain of philosophy. Traditionally philosophers considered spiritual and creative activity of a person to be closely linked to his day-to-day activities which creates unique traits of the natural and social world. Only spiritual strength (or spirituality) can help a human person withstand materialistic forces which can sometimes contain the most exalted creative impulses. The more spiritual energy is concentrated in the subject, the more elevated his spiritual order is -the more chances he has to overcome natural restraint and rise above himself, i.e. above the marginal circumstances of the materialistic world. In summary we can conclude that it's the spirituality that makes an outstanding person by nourishing mind, enhancing emotions, awakening conscience, strengthening will etc.
Spirituality is the term denominating inward condition of human existence which manifests itself in feelings, thoughts, words and actions. It is the manifestation of creativity in human daily activities. Subject matter of spirituality is of historical nature, characterized by the extent to which people master different aspects of culture: philosophy, science, art, religion. Spirituality of a person, people, society reflects the most important characteristics of the period's culture - deliberate urge to do good, create beauty and find the truth.
Spirituality is a unique human tendency to maintain one's own personality, right to self-actualization and critical assessment of one's own thoughts, feelings and actions regardless of generally accepted moral and legal norms, political paradigms etc. Spirituality makes for the meaning of life which allows the person to develop the elevated characteristics that make him the author of the order within himself and the outside world.
In the history of philosophy Socrates was the first to heed the problems of a person, spirit and spirituality which marked the turn in philosophy and brought its attention to studying the spiritual domain of person and society. The problem of spirituality was studied most actively and deeply in XIX-XX centuries. German classical philosophers I. Kant, I.G. Fichte, G.F. Hegel, L. Feuerbach pointed out that the basis of spirituality is mind, thinking and the essence of spirit is freedom; science, art, religion and morality are the integral parts of the concept of spirituality and a specific human's spirituality belongs to a specific thinking subject, spe-
cific body and soul. Adepts of existentialism and philosophy of life A. Schopenhauer, K. Jaspers, F. Nietzsche, G. Simmel, H. Bergson, O. Spengler, L. Shestov, A. Camus, M. Merleau-Ponty, E. Jünger, E. Mounier and others regarded the phenomenon of spirit and spirituality mainly as a subjective and affective problem. Existentialism adepts showed and proved that spirituality cannot be viewed apart from freedom. Moreover, freedom, considered to be the "long journey to perfection" [4, p. 683], is immanent to spirituality.
The philosophy of life reveals the existential antecedence of spirit and spirituality, inseparability of spirit from life, will and freedom: "Spirit is life which is embedded in life" [5, p. 116-128]. Philosophical anthropology (M. Scheler, H. Plessner, A. Gehlen) viewed person and his spirituality as "individuality directed at itself'. "Spirit bears personal character. Personality is the only form of existence of spirit. Creative self-actualization of spirit is possible only through personality" [7, p. 183]. Philosophical anthropology combines axiological and scientific approach in exploration of the problem. Freudism, neofreidism and postmodernism study spirituality from the position of the unconscious (personal and collective) which manifests itself in form of ego and superego and is a product of evolution from fear to conscience and does not have established position in the structure of personality. This approach to the problem of spirituality is shared by S. Freud, K. Jung, A. Adler, E. Fromm, K. Horney and others.
Russian religious philosophy views the ontology of spirituality through the prism of Divine Absolute and pays special attention to the problem of purpose and mission of a person, while sticking to the idea of antecedence of morality: "The problem of man is the main problem of philosophy. Perception of a human existence is a separate reality which is not aligned with other realities. Person is not a fractional part of the world, he encloses the complete secret and the solution of the world. The fact that the person, being the object of cognition, is at the same time the cognizer - is of gnoseological as well as anthropological importance. Human is a being discontented with himself and capable of rising above himself' [3] Works on spirit and spirituality by V.S. Solovyev, N.A. Berdyaev, N.O. Losskiy, S.N. Bulgakov, A.S. Khomyakov, E.N. Trubetskoy, S. Frank, I.A. Ilyin, L.P. Karsavin, V.V. Rosanov, V.V. Zenkovskiy, P.A. Sorokin, F.A. Stepun, N.P. Poltoratskiy and others are of particular significance.
Also referring to reasonings of V.I. Slobodchikov and E.I. Isaev on common cultural view of spirituality: "Spirituality can be viewed as an ultimate complex of standards which opposes the society not as a given but as a set course and an im-
perative, however, spiritual standards and values inflicted by society and culture are a result of filtration and it would be wrong to view spirituality solely as the content of the superior paragons of the human culture in the form of social and historical standards and values. Individual spirit cannot be revealed explicitly through subject content of the most valued paragons of culture of general nature. We are certain of its presence but what it is and how it is possible remains obscure". [6, p. 335]. Further reasoning about correlation of spirit and individual system of a person lead the authors to think that when the person becomes aware of his relations to God, spirituality becomes his way of life.
This interpretation of spirituality conforms to the point of N. Berdyaev: "We cannot formulate the notion of spirit but we can capture its attributes <...> They are freedom, meaning, creative activity, integrity, love, values, resort to the over-world and accord with it". [2, p. 32]. It is creative activity, integrity and love that are viewed as the essential features of spirituality which provide a person with the means of connecting and uniting with the divine.
All people have the desire to create but only few become creators in the spiritual context. The person who desires to create an outstanding piece needs a source of inspiration. It can be any natural phenomenon or a finished work of another person which capture the will of the Creator. Creating a divine piece of art requires connection with the God, capability to feel the divine. Perhaps many of the contemporary poets, artists and painters offer trite, mediocre and often horrible work because they are unable to fathom the secret of the true creativity. Probably this is also the reason that the orthodox science is not as successful as it could be had it acknowledged not only the material, visible part of the world. It appears, as long as we teach on the basis of materialistic world perception, we are inevitably dooming ourselves and those we teach to unilateral and therefore inadequate existence, motivated solely by materialistic gains and barring the path of spiritual development. Although the word "spirit" is used in secular context, it does not denominate the divine but is mostly used to denote moral quality of a person such as courage, fortitude, dedication etc. And yet originally the word belongs to religious terminology. By resorting to the original meaning of the word "spirit" we are compelled to address the notion of faith. In all fairness we are obliged to admit that the etymology of this word is connected with the faith in divine powers.
Evolution of creative element stems from a divine source through soaring spirit which is inherently a vertical, i.e. spirit is the agent which connects divine energy and creativity. Therefore only the creative works inspired by the divine can be considered genuine, vivifying and truly valuable. The works which can be considered part of universal human values are a result of this creative process. However deserving to understand the divine works, not speaking of taking part in creating them, is possible upon condition of understanding the core of this causal relationship. Realization of its essence occurs during the process of the development of intuition which supplants instinct through progressing intelligence. Without intuition the intelligence itself, being a derived emotion, cannot control instinct and can be headed in the direction opposite to divine, i.e. used for the evil. Controlled emotions allow for adequate perception of the current events. The ability to adequately perceive the existing life is a manifestation of intuition. Intuition, as opposed to instinct with regard to intelligence, is an attribute of spirituality. "Intuition is drawn to spirit, -Bergson says, - human being is not just a part of the animal kingdom, it is something fundamentally different, he is capable of reflection and intuition, creativity which contain the hope and provision of progress. This means that we are passing from the realm of natural history into the particularly human realm of culture" [1: 39]. Therefore the aim of education, being the most prioritized field of culture, is to develop a spirited intelligence which can be achieved by developing creative activity that leads to intuition and, consequently, to spirituality. Educational process is compelled to be proportionate to creative process carried out not only on the level but necessarily taking over the vertical that leads to the divine energy. If one can learn to ascend then it is indispensable to teach ascension using all the colossal educational resources and above all the potential of the humanitarian subjects.
It would be appropriate to recall the words of M.M. Bakhtin who referred to humanitarian sciences as the sciences about spirit. To realize the spiritual purpose one needs to persistently work on shaping the semantic element and choosing the relevant technologies aimed at best axiological efficiency. It is appropriate to rate axiological value in the context of unfolding spiritual content which is destined to stimulate creative activity of the creator and the percipient. Subsequently the form itself must be the expression of the active axiological attitude of both participants of the creative process, therefore creating and properly completing the content.
Axiological value of the humanitarian education consists not only of availability of overwhelming number of texts but also of the potential of forming the ability to perceive value which is developed into adoption and internalization and therefore the desire to transfuse. Hence the solution to the problem of creating motivation in education to not only impart the knowledge, as the proper information medium, but also the knowledge derived from realizing its value for the cognizer. Special responsibility lies with the bearer of the humanitarian knowledge who has to perform the selection of content. That said "overintellectualization" is only avoided by choosing texts rich in universal human values, i.e. doing good etc. with an emphasis on creative aspect. Thus the meaning of the saying "do not do good - there will be no evil" becomes clear because "doing" good without the creative element, the divine element, will not necessarily be helpful, or doing good to one person might as well harm another to the same extent. There is good reason why the humanitarian teachers are called "engineers of human souls". While asserting the necessity of personal fulfillment we must provide the creative basis for said fulfillment otherwise the person might dwindle without having benefitted himself and the society deprived of the most important source of mental energy - creative work.
In this regard it is reasonable to acknowledge incalculable didactic potential of the humanitarian sciences which must be aimed purposefully at upscale training of creative humanitarians, i.e. true creators, and not just "doers" of the human souls. High quality professional training suggests availability of professional competences, among which we should emphasize interpretation of texts (literary, scientific, publicistic, scriptures) as the examples of culture and their aggregate as a topical field of culture. Y.M. Lotman considered the aggregate of texts to be the basis of generating of meanings and thus formed a concept of culture as the entity of text. We are more interested in text as a defined system which abides by the law of limitless incrementation of choice options. The choice of the educatee, i.e. generation of new meanings, depends on the quality of the creative process which involves the reader, and the level of his creative activity to certain extent correlated with the level of his spirituality. In turn the spiritual level of the perceiver allows him to realize his creative potential in the process of generation of moral notions. New meanings arising as the result of a moral choice have the capacity to motivate development of creative effort which has exalting effect on the perceiver.
Therefore correlation of creative effort and spirituality accompanied by processes of interio- and exteriorization provide permanent nature of the cognitive process which promotes the development of spirituality of the cognizer through development of thinking, intelligence and ultimately intuition as the attribute of spirituality based on actualization of its creative potential.
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10 июля 2018 г.
