Asian Studies Expert A. A. Semenov: Turkomstaris and Sredazkomstaris Periods (1921–1928)

The research featured the biography of Alexander A. Semenov (1873–1959), an outstanding expert in Asian Studies, who made a great contribution to Soviet and global oriental scholarship. The paper focuses on his work at the Turkestan Committee for Museums and Protection of Antiquities, Art, and Nature (Turkomstaris) and the Central Asian Committee for Museums and Protection of Antiquities, Art, and Nature (Sredazkomstaris) in 1921–1928. The research involved articles published by A. A. Semyonov in 1926 and 1928 in the Proceedings of the Central Asian Committee, as well as valuable data from publications made by Professor A. M. Mironov and Chairman of Sredazkomstaris D. I. Nechkin. A. A. Semyonov owed his education to the outstanding teaching staff of Lazarev Institute: V. F. Miller, N. N. Kharuzin, F. E. Korsh, and M. O. Attai. His scientific worldview was shaped under the influence of orientalist V. V. Barthold.

The Scientific Connotation and Practical Implications of the Marxist Concept of Happiness

Happiness is an unchanging topic, and the question of human happiness is the most important concern of Marxist philosophy, and the achievement of the common happiness of all human beings is the starting point and the anchor point of Marx and Engels’ scientific worldview and methodology. Then, it is of great academic value and practical significance to correctly understand the theoretical connotation and spiritual essence of Marxist concept of happiness.

New science of art of Hans Sedlmayr

This article provides a brief systemic analysis of the key concepts of the so-called new science of art developed by the Austrian art historian Hans Sedlmayr. The result of Seldmayr’s pursuits are reflected in creation of his own philosophy of art and culture based on a particular worldview. The cognition of the whole, along with individual and unique, underlies this science. Understanding is the goal of scientific knowledge for Sedlmayr. It suggests not only abstract knowledge, but peculiar existential experience as well. Sedlmayr interprets the understanding of artwork as its contemplation, which in turn, is identical to its actualization or presence. In Seldlmayr’s art of science, epistemologies and ontologies merge into each other. He interprets artworks simultaneously as the event and as the social organism, which overcomes the linearity of time and fragmentation of plurality. This artificial complex system, built on the paradoxical identity of the single and plenty, is both finite and infinite. Sedlmayr’s views encompass classical and nonclassical approach towards cognition of the whole. He relies on the principles of monism, seeking to reduce all concepts to a single basis, single point of singularity that designates the synthesis of all the moments of the whole and can be expressed by a single category. The main category, which resembles the center of the opposites, is the “midpoint” (Mitte). The aforementioned ideas are consistent and logical only in such scientific worldview that identifies ontology and epistemology, which implies the unity of contemplation and phenomenon of the artwork. Therefore, in Sedlmayr's constructions, actualization or revival of the artwork is identical with its comprehension. The systemic approach towards the artwork reflected in the theoretical works of Sedlmayr extends the boundaries of art science and converges with philosophy.

Disinformation in Poland: Thematic classification based on content analysis of fake news from 2019

The paper presents a qualitative study of fake news on Polish-language internet media that seeks to arrive at their thematic classification in order to identify areas particularly vulnerable to disinformation in Poland. Fake news examples from 2019 were selected using popular Polish fact-checking sites (N = 192) and subjected to textual analysis and coding procedure to establish the thematic categories and specific topics most often encountered in this type of disinformation, with the following thematic categories identified in the process: political and economic; social; gossip/rumour; extreme; pseudo-scientific; worldview; historical; and commercial. The study culminates in a critical interpretation of results and discussion of the phenomenon in its Polish and international contexts. Among discussed conclusions is the dominance of content related to the government, Catholic Church, and LGBT issues in the Polish context, as well as the longevity of health-based fake news, especially anti-vaccination content, that points to the global impact of fake news and calls for action to prevent its spread.

(Dis)Enchanted Ufology

This article examines how adherents within the self-styled scientific side of the UFO subculture implicitly challenge the assumed dichotomy between a rationalized disenchanted modern scientific worldview, and a non-rational religious other. After providing background on the origin of the UFO subculture, ufology, and more explicitly religious forms of ufology, the article turns to the largest scientific ufological organization, MUFON, and the way in which participants within that organization engage and delineate social boundaries between religion, science, secularism, and spirituality. I argue that an enchanted ufology lurks just under the surface of this secular, scientific, rational disenchantment.

THE STRUGGLE OF WORLDVIEWS IN THE FORMULATION OF LEGAL NORMS ON MEASURES OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND PROCEDURAL ENFORCEMENT

The article reveals the main contradictions that arise between the scientific worldview and the worldview of the legislator on measures of administrative coercion. Emphasis is placed on the fact that in the development of regulations that contain administrative law, often ignore the achievements of the science of administrative law and process and use the achievements of related sciences, in particular, the theory of state and law, theory of public administration, theory of procedural law, etc. On the one side, this indicates the openness of knowledge of administrative law, because it uses the experience of other sciences, and, on the other – the chaos of scientific knowledge about administrative law phenomena, as well as the further process of unbalancing the existing doctrine of administrative law. On the example of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the National Police” the inconsistency of the norms of the administrative legislation with the provisions of the doctrine of administrative law on measures of administrative coercion is revealed. Also, on the example of the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, the influence on the process of formation of norms of administrative law on measures of administrative coercion of the provisions of the theory of civil procedural law is revealed. It is proved that the measures of procedural coercion are heterogeneous in terms of target orientation and consequences of application. Some of them are aimed at providing evidence in the case, some – to ensure court proceedings, and some of them – to punish the person who violated the requirements of procedural law. Instead, administrative procedural legislation, regulating measures of procedural coercion, ignores the theory of administrative law and process and borrows the experience of civil procedural and economic procedural regulation. It is emphasized that the unification of procedural legislation, which is taking place today in Ukraine, destroys the system of science of administrative law and process. It is concluded that the rules of administrative law, which enshrine measures of administrative coercion and measures of procedural coercion, indicate a significant gap between the theory of law and rule-making, which threatens the continued existence and development of the theory of administrative law and process.

Interdisciplinarity and conceptualization in the educational process at the Department of “Hoisting-and-transport, track and construction machines” of Petersburg State Transport University

Objective: The issue of improving the educational process of training design engineers for mechanical engineering is considered on the basis of the “World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st cen- tury: Approaches and Practical Measures”, which recommended the use of interdisciplinarity and trans- disciplinarity, the conceptualization of design is also touched upon. Improving the quality of training of specialists requires turning to modern methods of building the educational process. The need to take into account the complex relationships in which design objects exist leads to the need to introduce interdis- ciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. Methods: Interdisciplinarity complements the content of in- dividual disciplines based on a unified methodology. Transdisciplinarity consists in the assessment of a particular phenomenon outside the framework of any particular scientific discipline, which contributes to the completeness of the world perception. Results: The proposed approaches to education contribute to the consolidation of the acquired knowledge or, as they say in the professional environment, increase the “retained knowledge”, widen students’ scientific worldview. Practical importance: The approaches considered are used in the educational process at the Department of Hoisting-and-Transport, Track and Construction Machines of Petersburg State Transport University. The following disciplines are already based on interdisciplinarity: “Basicss of Scientific Research” and “Design of Hoisting-and-Transport, Construction, Road Means and Equipment”. Methodologically, they are organized in such a way that the basicss of scientific research are considered in the context of designing, and designing – in the context of scientific research. With a transdisciplinary approach, the tasks of conceptualizing machine design objects and the design methodology itself are solved

Philosophical and Legal Foundations of the Scientific Worldview of A. L. Blok

Introduction. Next year marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Alexander L’vovich Blok (1852–1909), a talented scientist and statesman, professor and dean of the Law Faculty of the Imperial University of Warsaw, a philosopher, a man of “Aristotelian erudition”, and the father of the Russian poet Alexander Blok. His name is associated with the birth of the scientific school of sociological and political positivism in the Russian science of state law. However, there are no special studies devoted to the evolution of the ideas of sociological positivism in Russia. In this regard, the appeal of the work of one of the founders of this school, who brought up a whole galaxy of talented scientists (Taranovsky, F. V., Spek- torsky, E. V., Reisner, M. A.), is of undoubted scientific interest. Theoretical Basis and Methods. An attempt is made to reconstruct both the philosophical and legal foundations of the scientific worldview of A. L. Blok. When writing this work, a broad methodological base was used, characteristic of the history of the teachings on law and the state. The combination of metaphysical and dialectical approaches with the use of a methodological arsenal of socio-political and natural-legal doctrines made it possible to study and systematise the conceptual provisions of the scientific heritage of A. L. Blok. Results. The article traces the evolution of the scientist’s state-legal views in the context of the development of the science of state law in Russia. The study of the works published by A. L. Blok pays testimony to the independence of his ideas, his critical attitude to the pre- vailing Western European theories, and the originality of the methodological approaches developed by him to the study of state-legal phenomena. Discussion and Conclusion. The search and reconstruction of the main scientific work of the scientist-”Fundamental questions of politics”, on which he worked all his life, “like Plato on ‘Politics’ or Goethe on ‘Faust’, remains an unresolved task of historical and historical – legal science” [Spectorsky, E. V., 1911, p. 65], as well as the systematisation of the key ideas of the scientific school created by him.

Yakiv Holovatskyi’s Creative Contacts with Figures of Slavonic Countries in the Context of Intercultural Relations in the First Half of the XIXth Century

The article examines in detail the personal and creative contacts of Yakiv Holovatskyi with scholars and cultural-and-public figures of the West Slavonic and South Slavonic nations from the inception of the Ruthenian Triad circle in the 1830s to the early 1850s. The analysis of the problem’s historiography has shown that, despite the territorial fragmentation of Ukrainian lands (the increased control by the Austrian Empire and strict restrictions by the Russian Empire), the Ukrainians of the first half of the XIXth century managed to consolidate their forces and create strong interrelations for the implementation of common Slavonic ideas and the establishment of each nation as a separate independent state unit. The study focuses on the participation of Yakiv Holovatskyi in the socio-cultural processes of the first half of the XIXth century, which led to the development of Ukrainian society in Halychyna and its European integration. A particular attention is paid to aspects of scientific worldview formation of Yakiv Holovatskyi as a folklorist. There is also mentioned the influence of Polish field researchers and ethnographers on his interest in the folklore and ethnographic sphere, which became a priority part of all scientific activity of the Halychyna figure under study and marked the release of the four-volume edition Folk Songs of Halychyna Ruthenia and Hungarian Ruthenia. The article’s authoress reveals Yakiv Holovatskyi’s contacts with figures from the Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian countries. Thus, the results of Holovatskyi’s cooperation with the Slavonic world are presented and the importance of intercultural relations for the further scientific and artistic development of Ukraine as a nation is emphasized. On the basis of archival materials, the article supplements the list of works carried out by Yakiv Holovatskyi through collaboration with West Slavonic and South Slavonic nations, who treated the scholar as an equal and valued his knowledge in the field of Slavonic studies, history, ethnography, and folklore of the Ukrainian Ciscarpathians. It is proved that throughout his creative career, Yakiv Holovatskyi was a priority link in cultural and scientific relations among the Eastern, Southern and Western Slavs.