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8Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 12 (2013 6) 1867-1878
УДК 17.022.1
Modernity: Transformation of System of Values and its Anthropological Aspects
Sergey A. Azarenko*
Ural Federal University named after B.N. Yeltsin 51 Lenina, Ekaterinburg, 620083 Russia
Received 21.08.2013, received in revised form 02.10.2013, accepted 27.11.2013
This text explores the system of values modernity. Modernity is usually expressed through the metaphor of the Information Age, stressing the dominant position in the society of information and communicative streams. A human in general is a joint being and therefore he initially belongs to communication. Compatibility as measurement of ontology of communication is a place offormation of joint practice of people, united by repeated and regular bodily interactions, in which the message is created, contributing to join people in a community with certain ideas and values. But existence of the modern man is problematized largely because of its absorption in information streams, that are intensified be electronic technologies. People can not do without telecommunications, mobile communications, etc., so that a man is included in the set of replacing each other streams ofinformation, that have not only diverse, but also generally contradictory and conflict contents. Immersion in full of contradictions information field generates such phenomena and problems as "clip thinking" to the detriment of complete semantic thinking; domination game, not the real, actual forms of the relations. Relationships between men and women are changing, getting the forms that threaten the existence of a family. And, at last, in such unsteady information space of simulation and virtuality it becomes in general difficult to speak about authenticity or not authenticity of borders of our existence.
Keywords: communication, system of values, social practices and technology, bodily interactions, community.
Condition of spirituality in the modern world
Modernity is usually expressed through the metaphor of the Information Age, stressing the dominant position in the society of information and communicative streams. A human in general is a joint being and therefore he initially belongs to communication. Compatibility as measurement of ontology of communication is a place of formation of joint practice of people, united by repeated and regular bodily interactions, in
which the message is created, contributing to join people in a community with certain ideas and values. It is impossible to imagine people outside the commune and communication, outside of society and relations. But existence of the modern man is problematized largely because of its absorption in information streams, that are intensified be electronic technologies. People can not do without telecommunications, mobile communications, etc., so that a man is included in the set of replacing each other streams of
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* Corresponding author E-mail address: sergey_azarenko@mail.ru
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information, that have not only diverse, but also generally contradictory and conflict contents.
Immersion in full of contradictions information field generates such phenomena and problems as "clip thinking" to the detriment of complete semantic thinking; domination game, not the real, actual forms of the relations. Relationships between men and women are changing, getting the forms that threaten the existence of a family. And, at last, in such unsteady information space of simulation and virtuality it becomes in general difficult to speak about authenticity or not authenticity of borders of our existence.
In this context it is worth to mention such phenomenon of modernity as a world economic crisis. Most of the researchers are looking for the reasons for the imperfection of the financial and economic mechanisms, but it seems that reasons to cause it lie deeper - in the field of anthropology of management and, finally, in the spiritual area.
So, we live in the information age, we can not do without modern ways of communication, as well as our children - without communicating by the Internet at the expense of live communication. This is the situation of everyday life, but it has a deeper process, namely: a process of narrowing of space and time of our existence, deformation of the semantic horizon of a man, bringing down of his complete perception to clip thinking.
Thanks to modern technical facilities people can interact, reducing the distance, and because of the specific operation of these facilities, communication always occurs in limited, "reduced" time, i.e. in the form of short messaging. No wonder that the information field is dominated by such form of communication as a slogan - a key element of any ads and commercials. Thus there is a contraction, restriction of time and space of our world, which has not external, but the essential character. Actually, this type of "network" communication has already started to
deform spiritual world of a man, reducing it to a state of "fragmented consciousness." And some forms of information products are claiming almost at an ontological value. In this way, advertising today serves not only as a way of moving goods, but assumes the function of a cultural norm that defines life.
The modern information field starts to define behavior of people in society and in particular of youth. Clip communication actually works on the distruction of cultural tradition, which based on complete meanings and the root relations, keeping and broadcasting them during a long time. The saturation of the communication, full of modern technical means, generates effect of "a communication rumble" that considerably complicates human life. How to survive in that it seems dense communication, but in reality is "communication noise" when they talk together, but can not hear each other? People do not see that live in the world of simulation and virtuality, which dominated the "truncated" senses and bodies. Nevertheless the need for complete meanings is inexhaustible, because they give the chance to feel full value of staying in the world and therefore modern people don't cease to be interested in spiritual practices and look for rescue within themselves.
The social aspect of sense consists in its initial pre-message to communication, given not only by the language and semantic-communicative system of society: myths, symbols, narratives, discourses, texts and intertexts, - but, as we believe, action, practices and techniques. The sense is premised by society, and it is constituted in a network of those relations to which it imperatively precedes. Practices and techniques in society are present not asstructures, but as recursive processes, promoting translation of significant cultural meanings for society. Meaning is always compatible by definition. Compatibility already implies a clear separation of meaning,
in which community is born. Russian thinkers expressed it through the idea of the primacy of catholicity. Disturbance of meaning is equal to a violation of social relations.
In modern society, as opposed to the root meanings, rhizomatic meanings and forms of relationship began to prevail. Rhizome, according to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, -the structure that exists without a root, as a tumbleweed in the free space of the desert. Modern man has to live in a situation which Bauman calls "from pilgrim to tourist." Instead of moving into the region of the spiritual, when, making efforts, people moved to the holy places, to submit to a spiritual transformation, now they go there mainly for superficial impressions, for admiration, becoming collectors of pleasures. From here - a prevalence of not original relations, that demand from people not spiritual efforts, but game efforts.
Game promotes realization of bodily energy of people, and also favors to development of social forms of accommodation, but at the same time we have to deal with (not without the help of telecommunications) passion to computer games, immersion in virtual space game- hoax, in which playing of another is effective and normal. Nowadays game continues to do the traditional social functions, but more and more taking the form of hoax,simulation or game presentation. A modern man lives in conditions of society of performance. Performance becomes world outlook, and society - socially organized visibility. The desire of show penetrates all human activities, turning them into the game.
In society the game atmosphere is created, and it becomes more and more preferable occupation. Especially brightly it is shown in network communication. A lot of websites offer game communication, suggest to make friends, but not real, virtual. At the same time with distribution of game communication where each
person, disappearing under "nickname" can choose to himself any role, real social and gender roles are deformated, and with them - habitual semantic oppositions male/female, active/ passive, etc. The majority of men and women are united today, according to Bauman more due to deception, instead of a social order, advertising, not indoctrination. People are involved in a game where sensual pleasures have the vast importance.
Women more and more claim the professional calling and partnerships in business, and in the areas of sexual. Giddens notes that the fact of sexual equality in a society promoted the domination of eroticism. The relations between the man and the woman began to seem in the light of a sensuality, instead of love and a family. In love the man responds on feelings of another in all fullness of life in which he os capable to be better. But love requires human efforts. Pragmatic people today often do not want to spend their strength or time. Meanwhile, eroticism is only a superficial grasp of the person. This circumstance has danger of transformation of existential territory of the first importance, which serves, on the one hand, to social reproduction, and, with another, to reproduction of a human as actually a human. It is a question of destruction a family
Crisis of a family is noted around the world. Illegitimate children who were the "shameful" phenomenon earlier, make now a half of all born children. Today the mankind passes to other demographic mode of existence: from continuously increasing in population to maintenance of its constant number; to redistribution of the relations between various age categories (increase in number of elderly people) with a growth of average life expectancy. (According to forecasts average life expectancy in Russia will grow till eighty years.)
Changes in social communications in a wide range of social communications and
interactions led to generation of simulyatsionny and virtual space. If earlier sign and symbolical structures of daily and spiritual communication reflected reality, marking a field of actions in social reality, now sign structures, which lose communication with reality, prevail. It is on the one hand. And on the other hand, process of social reproduction assumes copying or repetition, without which reproduction would be impossible.
Besides, our separate existence in compatibility is found on border with another, where we as heirs appear within ontology of "trace". In fact, take place in compatibility of communication (especially in the network society) can not in its fullness, but only as a "trace", as Derrida rightly believed. People exploring the trace, reproduce it, and thus create the next trace and so on, and so they involuntarily are in the power of repetition or in the power of the simulacrum as a copy of a copy. But repetition is at the same time an attempt to order our world, allocating it with sense, and aspiration to reproduce it. And we as beings producing and reproducing meanings, get in the power of this repeatability.
But is it possible to give up the repetition and start "from scratch"? Sociality, using electronic technologies, stimulates mechanisms of copying and copying of copying even more, that is strengthens simulyatsionny processes. Simulacra are built in symbolical space of a sociality, serving its reproduction. It turns out that it is impossible to do without repetition and, therefore, without simulyatsionny process. This circumstance puts us in quite ambiguous situation when we should guess how we exist: really or only imitating any relation. We have ti observe such communicative streams and such social codes which are closed on themselves. Circulation of empty communication, imitation of these or those connections and relations is everywhere increased. Bright example
of this reproduction is the advertizing form of messages.
What is the danger of this phenomenon? For a long time we had to be in a sign-and-symbolic mode, where the opposition real / unreal or surreal was clearly presented now the communication is based on the opposition virtual / actual, where contact with reality is lost and the relationship becomes a surrogate.
In this situation the pronlem of control becomes inportant. Habermas emphasizes that the increasing complexity of the social system requires constant strengthening of the role of control. We believe that the current world crisis, which for the most part regarded as an economic, actually refers to the "failure" of the control system. In this regard, the "crisis" now is not a temporary phenomenon, after which everything will return to its previous state. Modern "crisis" actually means a border of transition of society in other reality, other condition. The model of the social development which initiated by liberal economy and has generated consumer society, stop working. Actually she relied on the narrowed idea of the person, reducing it to material requirements. Significant in the person was considered only thar allowed to sell to him next goods for consumption with success. "Crisis" indicates that this model of development is settled and completed. It should be understood that the process of changing of development paths is the responsibility of control, which requires the government self-reform.
Using modern technology more and more complicates and accelerates social processes that lead to social differentiation, that lead to problematical character of formation of new structures of interaction. Strategic installation on an innovation causes to life - as reciprocal (and protective) reactions (and for reasons of economy of forces and time) - the appeal to former traditional forms of relations (for example,
ritual). And in a course appear both pseudo-traditional (neopagan), and traditional forms. In this connection, the question arises of how to relate to the traditions as a form past, what abour their Renaissance? Heidegger showed that all of us are pas, but which is withdrawn from the future. Traditional forms can not be returned in its entirety, but should probably be applied to the conditions of social existence.
We see, for example, that spiritual practices are reborn in the psycho practices, and in many cases serve as a means of "therapeutic" effect on modern people, that are taken by the inhuman flows and rhythms of life, disseminating the person and spending his forces. People appeared to be taken by illnesses - both of bodies and of souls. Below we will give expanded understanding of an illness, which, in our opinion, is quite applicable for the description as physical ans as social pathology.
Really, the illness is firstly a spirit illness, instead of bodily. Since the most ancient times they spoke about it, and we find this thought in descriptions of the different spiritual practices. In Christianity saints wrote about it. Prp. Serafim Sarovsky spoke: "Health is a gift of God, but not always this gift is useful, as any suffering, illness has the power to cleanse us from spiritual defilement, expiate sins, humble and soften our soul, force to change their mind, realise our weakness and remember God. So illnesses are needed by us and our children."
Swami Sivananda, which based on the ancient tradition of yoga, says, that all chronic, long-lasting and functional illnesses and disorders inevitably arise from violations occurring in the mechanism of work of organs: An illness is a result of violations of the laws of nature. Nature wants everyone to be strong and healthy. If you are weak, it indicates that your organs or different cells of your body do their function properly". The only correct way of
treatment is that proceeds from the prime cause of a disease and directs all forces to restoration of normal work of all system. "Nature does all the work itself. Medications only help nature in her recovery, regeneration work"1.
The primary causes of the illness, according to Sivananda, may be the bad thoughts, and if this causes ruin, all illnesses of body disappear. Mental illnesses are often caused by excitation. It is necessary to avoid excitation because when the body is in excitation, things are perceived distortedly, and prana (energy), begins to flow throughout the body by fits and starts. Therefore, concludes Sivananda, due to illnesses of spirit are emerging illnesses of the body. Hence his attitude to the healing power of mantra, which are, to put it briefly, a symbolic way of self-regulation of the human body, similar to the prayer in the Christian tradition.
Topologically speaking, illnesses or abnormality occur in a state of transition from own to another. Transition is a state of limit or break the previous state. The illnesses is staying apart from a body, which undergoes an exaggerated impact of Another . To stay in itself, our body pretending to be ill,, simulating and articulating certain "my and his other" states. But to pretend means to create something in the event of transition or redistribution! The body is in pain-stress with the Another (being with Another is painful, as it is Another ), but there is an illness when some Another is exaggerated with my own, suppressing the body or energy channels. And then the human thoughts often leave a human, becoming delirious. Influenced by Another thoughts may come out from the borders of a body.
Spiritual practices at all times promote the improvement of people's, as they carried the ability to restructure systematically perceptions and states of body, promoting it from negative to positive states, but rather promoting it to a
balanced "oneself with Another" state. Now psychotechniques in many respects began to carry out this function. They influence a state of "compatibility" in a body well. Compatibility of a body represents a mobile configuration of its components of elements. If there is a stop, stagnation, a clip, pain is generated as a symptom of a disease. Pain is a manifestation of "immobility", energy stagnation in some places of bodily compatibility, elements of which can coexist only in mutual motion to each other, as realization and implementation of the energy of a body.
Understanding of energy in various spiritual practices reveals a certain similarity. Energy concept goes back to Aristotle. According to Aristotle, energy is actualization of potency of exists. This is the process itself, movement, activity of actualization, and not the result. Christian theology maintains Aristotle understanding of energy. Compare, for example, as St.. John of Damascus wrote: "The energy is active movement. Active is called that move on their own accord". However, S. Horuzhy said: "Energy is the first pulse and the actual movement of the initiative, and the creature always has a whole set of diverse and divergent energies"2.
According to the classical dichotomy of human composition, there are different physical and mental energies. To a similar concept, says Horuzhy, and also on the basis of asceticism comes an Indian thought. Here's how to determine dharma in the philosophy of classical yoga: "Dharma or qualitative definition, is nothing more than the ability [literally, "energy" - approx. Trans.] of carrier-substrate, given the limited scope. " Dharma at the same time is energy and qualitative certainty. By thought of Horuzhy, convergence of concept of dharma with the idea of "separate energy" in hesychast austerity course is natural, because they both came from the
experience of intense scrutiny, study of spiritual practice of human.
In 90 years in our country books Castaneda were especially popular. This coincided with a moment in the life of society, when there was a need for a person with an active way of behavior, destroying the boundaries of "the usual." In the book "Journey to Ixtlan" constancy is condemned, the rigid schedule in behavior, that does the person the inert and at the same time, vulnerable at meets with extraordinary and unexpected events and forces. The book tells about ways of training and development of ability to "unexpected behavior". Good "hunter" precisely knows the schedule of the victim, but he doesn't submit to any schedule, and it is his advantage. The victim for which it hunts, is enslaved by the strong schedule of the way of its life, hat does its behavior predictable. Hunter is free, fluid and unpredictable. In the book there is an idea that behaviors of the most of people as usual, predictable, and this means that they will always be someone's victims. The point of the training is to stop yourself being a victim and become a "hunter". You must practice the behavior that breaks any stereotypes.
Despite the effectiveness of this practice, its content and the spiritual meaning doubtful. Leaving aside its analysis (which requires a separate study), we point only to need of refering to other, non-aggressive practices. It is a spiritual and physical practice of yoga, Buddhism, Orthodox Hesychasm,that are also aimed to the rejection of preassigned behaviors and at the sametome help build a harmonious relationship with the world. To slip out of the traps of communication we need not repeat the path of the victim, but did not become a hunter. Spiritual and physical practices in question allow to harmonize relations with the world because they are not built on benefits, bur in principles of life in the present with an open heart.
These spiritual practices, belonging to different cultural traditions, have bodily techniques and tools to work with the energies, promoting overcoming of stagnant processes in a body. By means of these practices in bodily compatibility the mechanism of self-organization of energy starts working. Directing attention to body sites with developments of stagnation and making certain actions, we release dejectednesses "ourselves with Another" (that is we help to direct correctly moving elements of compatibility). In yoga, for example, various complexes of asanas and the principles of breath and its delay are developed. There are techniques of silence, for example, in Christianity - in a prayer of silence of life - in -in a prayer of silence of life together with God. It assumes return to space of initial silence, silence and harmony.
Silence returns the human to a bodyness at that very moment when he starts speaking or creating something from silence. Silence assumes known effort as it is necessary to overcome distracting thoughts, but silence erects to a gleam. When a human becomes silent, God begans to be shone in consciousness of a human. In silence (hesychia) there is also a meeting of a man with himself. Achieving this state improves everyday life, strengthens man, helps him managing with the challenges of modern life.
There are are also known techniques of laughter in some traditional cultures. At present time they are reborn. For example, there is a well-known technique of yoga-laughter by Indian physician Madan Katari, or technique laughter Osho. Laughter turns on action of a body, revives him, relieves stress, stimulates the circulation of the internal organs, releasing "sandwiched" energy. But laughter is twofold, has a double meaning, and therefore it is important that it has to serve the balanced configuration of compatibility. Laughter helps overcoming the suffering, that is
"a spreading of a body" and serves as its life-enhancing rebuilding.
Certainly, psychotechniques can't replace spiritual practices, because the last allow a person to be himself fully - and it means not only to follow implementation of himself, but also to disconnect borders of his existence. However psychotechniques have a good influence on a human body. In certain cases modern psychotechniques place emphasis on personal growth, being guided by individualist idea of a man. However, in our opinion, such idea of a man is utopian in the world, where a man is initially a being that lives in interaction with others.
The Arab parable speaks about the father, that, being on a mortal bed, brings together three sons to share between them the wealth of all his life in the form of seventeen camels. He bequeaths to the eldest son a half of camels, to the average son - a third part, and to the youngest - a ninth part. The father dies, and sons can't solve a problem, in what way they should divide camels as their number is odd and it doesn't share in half. They ask scientists for advice, but those can't help them. Once they meet an old wise man and ask him for help. He says that finds it difficult to solve their problem, but he has one camel and he is ready to give them it. Thanks to it they have eighteen camels. The eldest son receives a half, that is nine camels, the average son receives the third part, that is six camels, and the youngest receives the ninth part, that is two camels. But as a result, when they put together numbers of camels, they receive seventeen, as well as the father bequeathed. There was only one camel of the old wise man on which he went away. This parable says that the solution is possible only in the presence of a wise man - another, in common, instead of alone. This is a topos of the teacher, the psychologist or the trainer.
From spirituality to politics
The world of a sociality is reproduced thanks to social practices. Social practices are various, it is impossible to select one as a leader. However each practice has any special purpose and a special place in society among others practices. For example, spiritual practice promotes internal transformation of a human, without what formation of the personality is impossible. In spiritual practice there is a formation of the complete person - in unity of a body, soul and spirit. All spiritual practices, including philosophy (according to P. Ado) find the main reason of suffering in human passions. All spiritual practices anyway contain technique of mobilization of energy and its discharge, intellectual concentration and requirement of ascesis - rejection of sensual excesses. Spiritual practices are not just a system of knowledge, but exactly a practice.
Key point of our concept is that in any social practice there is a message, which promotes joining people in the community with certain notions and values. From this statement it is clear that the main process of this practice, in our opinion, is communication. Communication, according to Deleuze, actually, is a prerequisite of modern philosophical thought and philosophical studies, which consists in generating concept. For the ancient philosophy this prerequisite was a contemplation and for the philosophy of the New Age ot is a reflection.
Communication isinteractions of people, mediated by signs, symbols and texts. This is a significant and symbolic structures that "holds" and let pass meaningful content, including values, between humans in communication. But the transfer of value can occur not only through the medium of sign structures, but also through the physical relationship.
Different cultural traditions have a representation of a "spiritual body". In Russian
philosophy the concept of "spiritual body" has a consistent and meaningful development. A. Losev wrote: "Apart from the particulars and trying to identify the main idea of the philosophy of Solovyov, it is, perhaps, the idea of spiritual corporeality. From this idea we can withdraw all other basic ideas of Solovyov, the most outstanding are the idea of Unity and the Incarnation, the idea of transformation of a body and a spirit and the idea of the Church as the Body of Christ"3.
Florensky, explaining the process of generation of culture, also said about a body and proposed the concept of organoprojection. Actually he showed a birth of a "spiritual" body of culture. The cultural and historical concept of Florensky, created within orthodox paradigmatics, implies the negation of culture as a single in time and space process, with a denial of evolution and progress of culture. Existence of separate cultures, according to Florensky, is subordinated to a rhythm of replacing each other types of culture— medieval and renaissance. The first type is characterized as organic, objective, focused and self-assembly and the second is characterized as dissociation, subjectivity, an abstractness and superficiality. Florensky carries his own outlook to the XIV-XV centuries of the Russian Middle Ages. He considers that the second principle of thermodynamics is the basic law of the world - the law of entropy taken as the law of Chaos in all areas of a universe. World confronts Logos - the beginning of ectropion -the opposite of entropy change in the direction of ordering, greater organization and complexity. The culture is a conscious fight against world equalizing: the culture is generated by isolation, that is a delay of equalizing process of the Universe, and increase of a difference of life, contrary to equality - death.
Culture of the European Renaissance, according to Florensky finished its existence to the beginning of the XXth century. From the first
years of the new century in European culture there are shown signs of another type of culture. The concept of bodyness and compatibility in philosophy of L. Karsavin reveals the interrelation of subjects of the world and lets to understand the equivalence of cultures and epochs.
The West European cultural tradition - in the broadest sense of the word - knows four systems of values: Greek, Christian, new temporary (liberal) and modern which is still being formed in the conditions of resolute rapprochement of cultures under the influence of new information technologies. Generation of social space is mediated by existence certain practices and bodily techniques. Specific corporal techniques always correspond to practices. Role of practices is production and reproduction of the social world, role of techniques are special ways of possession of a body. Each cultural epoch of European civilization has its own dominated practices and forms of bodily techniques.
In Antiquity among the soldiers there were spread such physical techniques as gymnastics, dietetics and asceticism. Communities of soldiers cultivated values of solidarity, responsibility and valor. In medieval Christianity the leader spiritual practice with bodily techniques of abstention and prayer and values - belief, hope and love. In modern times, due to the growth of crafts and trade, the life of Europeans moved mostly in the cities. Here goes the formation of industrial body of society with certain social practices and techniques. Leading values were also changing -now they are liberty, equality and fraternity. Nowadays there is a mixture of various practices and, therefore, of different techniques, therefore wecan observe the simultaneous coexistence of different processes: a reproduction of values of previous eras and a partial rejection of them.
Intoday'ssocietypoliticalandcommunicative pragmatics comes to the forefront. Social spacetime behaves as a mobile field of interactions
of many social agents,belonging to different practices and techniques. Between these agents there is process of political struggle and the game on the "social scene". The behavior of such system is absolutely non-linear, and therefore unpredictable. In this competitive game political interests have more weight than the ethics of communication.
Competition also enters into the sphere of human relations. This practice of building ofinteraction has its own specific techniques, often built on deceit and some tricks. For example, the technique of shifting. This technique is used in business negotiations, in sales, and it is based on the principle of contrast and replacement of one supply by another. Firstly they offer the client bad terms of a transaction, undesirable and unprofitable, and then - they formulate a proposal that the sellers actually were preparing to make. The second proposal in comparison with the first looks much more attractive, and the client agrees, not paying attention to the fact that its price is also too high. This trick uses human psychology: everything is learned in comparison!
Another technique negotiations is crunch. This technique is used in the course of trading. It is built on the psychological pressure on a seller to make him lower the price even without the counter-offer. A buyer make a seller understand that a price and terms of the transaction does not suit him, but a buyer himself doesn't make an offer about a price or terms of transaction. He is waiting for concessions, encouraging a seller. For this purpose a buyer uses a minimum two types of devices: leads an argument in favor of the opinion, that the price is too high, or he is trying to confuse the seller by his emotional reaction to the price or terms of transaction, cause uncertainty and ultimately make knuckle under.
"The negotiation wave" is another example of hard, "on the edge", techniques of discussion. Its purpose is to bring the client to a state of
psychological stress, in which he loses control and agrees with unprofitable terms. This action is based on a sharp change of regime of negotiations from approval to disapproval of actions and proposals by client. All these techniques are methods of struggle, that based on inherently dishonest, concealing real motives of actions and methods.
Because of a lack of ethics and moral in society, schools began to make lessons on secular ethics. But in the age of pragmatism the presented ethical systems turned out to be built only on the principles of rational-practical choice. Philosophical bases of this ethic can be found, for example, in the works of Aristotle. In the opinion of Aristotle, virtue is in the middle between two evils: excess and deficiency. Generosity, according to its concept, is a medium, a balance between squander and avarice. On secular ethics lessons children are invited to become selfish and reasonable, rationally choosing the "golden mean". To some extent, the presence of common sense is really useful. But it is unclear why they forget that our culture (as well as European) was formed in the area of Christian civilization and has always been based on its values and laws. In fact, they take into account only three ethical pragmatics: the traditional, scientific-rational and politically-business. The Christian ethics component is ignored. As a result there is a dissipation of values of belief, hope and love. Arguments of hard rationality prevail over the reasons of a heart. There is an impression that there is generated a type of completely heartless business people, as if the success of acting depends only on rationality and pragmatism.
Nowadays, in practice of difficult social communication, as some scientists believe, the new idealized triad of synthesizing values starts being formed, namely: Understanding, Trust and the Piece, addressed to Another. Crisis of civilization and the paradox of value relationships
require a radical rethinking of both individual and ancestral systems for the future. At the individual level on of such systems now is the "sense", that requires an understanding of any otherness, on the ancestral it is "Universality" which is able to become a basis of universal standards of people's behavior, excluding distinction between "us" and "them", "allies" and "enemies."
The idea of a social body of a man have started being split. Particulary, according to Baudrillard, modernity has to deal with four concepts of a body. The basic notion of the body in medicine is the "corpse" - it is limit representation of a human body in the medical community. For religion the basic concept of a body is an "animal' with his instincts and "flesh" desires. In classical political economy an ideal representation of a body, according to Baudrillard, is a "robot". It is a perfect model of functional "release" of a body as labor, a projection of a man of absolutely sexless and rational productivity. In a system of political economy of a sign, in Public Relations a basic concept of a body is "dummy". In the concept of dummy there is a reflection of conception of man that is no longer only a labor, but a "sign" value of model of consumption. Dummy is not a subject, for example, of sexual desires, but a symbol of sexuality as a consumer quality of a man, a model and a way of consumption. A corpse, an animal, a car and a dummy - these are the negative ideal types of a body, which are developed and depicted in systems replacing each other.
However, not in everything it is possible to agree with the offered typology of the concept of "social body" of a man. Probably, physicians need rather a concept of "ill", not "dead" body. "An ill body', that requires improvement. The idea of the body as an "animal" is not produced by the Church. These ideas can be rather attributed to youth, which has often youth groups, that are living according the laws of " pack", with such values as hierarchy, violence, expansion, protection of a
territory. Social relations in such groups are based on principles of personal dependence instead of universal standards of behavior. The church, on the contrary, returns people to inherent values of belief, hope and love.
In conditions of involvement of different cultures into communication there is a question, if this interaction should be based on situational values and rules, reflecting political struggle and opposition, and how traditional cultural, concretely Christian values have to fit into this interaction? Can we explain, for example, young people, that the value of money is transient and generally fatal? After all, the money has historically emerged as a useful tool of exchange and, therefore, also have some cost and value.
Nowadays money actually became the only form of expression of intensity of desire. In money the youth sees firstly a mean of achievement. But desires by the nature are infinite. The desire generates bigger desire which finally enslaves people, depriving them of freedom. And it, in our opinion, can be explained, by showing a distinction between imaginary and real values.
Thus it is necessary to distinguish pleasure and satisfaction. The pleasure is connected with realization of physiological functions of an organism, and satisfaction is a category relating to the plan of mental human life. The satisfaction arises when a man realizes that have made something significant, that he can be proud, made it for others, that is he made a gift. As they speak in the East, the sense of human happiness is to find the way and to go on it. When a man is passionate about some thing, he forgest about everything else. In this sense wisdom says: live here and now, but remember the purpose, a lodestar, and live in love. In the East they say: a day spent without a smile and love was in vain. This feeling should be present in a heart and actts of a man.
Indeed, human life takes place in time, between the past and the future (life and death). This "between" translates itself through the present and real. To be really in the present means to stay in such existential measurements, as, for example, love, game, work, power, belief and death. In these measurements a man person is taken to his limits and fractures, faiths and distrust, suffering and joy, in pain and pleasure, really living here and now. The meaning of life is achievable when we really are living in the present. Spiritual practices lead us to a comprehended life. They are based on belief and practice of creation oneself.
In the social sciences, from the nineteenth century, it is accepted to distinguish community and society. The notion of community is connected with idea of natural, traditional communication between people. Society characterizes relatedness of people on interests. Nowadays we can observe, that traditional ties are more and more replaced by public interests. Processes of individualization, pluralization and globalization in general have questioned the reproduction of traditional communities and their values. Today is possible to speak about groups of "accomplices", the unity of that is based on short-term bonds and values, produced by the group itself. Member of groups of "associates" can choose which model of relationships and what values they will follow: traditional or group. This situation of the duality problematizes human existence, forcing him to make afforts to built relationships with Another. Social groups differ on character of the purposes: there are destructive groups and there are creative, directed on positive result. Many Internet communities are an example of groups of the second type. And network community initially is based as not having hierarchy and the managing center, and therefore each of its members has an equal voice. Internet
communities have already proved that they are is capable to resist to "center" and the power of capable to purposeful actions, and, in difference goverment. Recent events on Bolotnaya Square from a crowd, can represent real social force, that showed it eloquently.
1 Swami Sivananda. Home yoga. Facilitated course of physical training for modern men and women. Kiev, 2003. P.62
2 Horuzhy S. To Phenomenology of austerity. Moscow: Publishing humanities, 1998. P.350.
3 Losev Russian Philosophy / / Losev. passion for dialectics. Literary Reflections of a philosopher. Moscow: Soviet Writer, 1990. P.91.
Современность: трансформация системы ценностей и ее антропологические аспекты
С.А. Азаренко
Уральский федеральный университет им. Б.Н. Ельцина, Россия 620083, Екатеринбург, пр. Ленина, 51
В статье исследуется современная система ценностей. Современность принято выражать через метафору информационной эпохи, подчеркивая главенствующее положение в социуме информации и коммуникативных потоков. Человек вообще существо совместное и потому изначально принадлежит коммуникации. Совместность как измерение онтологии коммуникации есть место формирования совместной практики людей, объединяемых повторяемыми и регулярными телесными взаимодействиями, при которых создается со-общение, способствующее при-общению людей к со-обществу с определенными представлениями и ценностями. Но существование современного человека проблематизируется во многом именно из-за его погруженности в информационные потоки, которые интенсифицируются электронными технологиями. Люди уже не могут обходиться без телекоммуникаций, мобильной связи и т.п. вещей, вследствие чего человек оказывается включенным во множество сменяющих друг друга потоков информации, несущих не просто разнородное, но и, по большей части, противоречивое и конфликтное по смыслу содержание. Погруженность в перенасыщенное противоречиями информационное поле порождает такие феномены и проблемы, как «клиповое мышление» в ущерб целостному смысловому мышлению; доминирование игровых, а не действительных (деятельностных) форм отношений. Изменяются отношения между мужчиной и женщиной, приобретая формы, которые ставят под угрозу существование семьи. И, наконец, в таком зыбком информационном пространстве симуляции и виртуальности становится вообще затруднительно говорить о подлинности или неподлинности границ нашего бытия.
Ключевые термины: коммуникация, система ценностей, социальные практики и техники, телесные взаимодействия, совместность.
