Self and Self-Representation in the Long Twentieth Century

Six issues are salient in discussions of the first person since 1900: immunity to error through misidentification; the possibility of survival without survival of one’s body; the elusiveness of the self; the role of the first person attitudes in the explanation of action; the first person component in mental concepts; and the role of the first person simulation in explaining the actions of others. Since 1900, there have been accounts both of the nature of the first person concept, and accounts of the nature of subjects of experience. This paper discusses the achievements and limitations of these accounts in addressing the preceding six issues. These issues are also assessed against a wider range of possibilities, both for the first person and for the subject to which it refers, than are considered in this literature.

Ideological and Political Preferences of the Russians: Changing of the Discourse

The author applies to the sociological data of the Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS to study the ideological and political preferences of the contemporary Russians and their ideas about value orientations in the 21st century. Stressing rather high level of depolitization of the state contemporary socio-political life to identify the citizens’ preferences the author used the method of associative reflection of the words and phrases that are mostly often using in contemporary Russia’s ideological discourse. So, the author outlined a circle of the concepts, that are significant for the contemporary Russia’s socio-political base and the state development. The author identified three basic dispositions, that are using by the respondents to evaluate politically loaded concepts and the ideologies, that are close to them. The first is almost complete neutrality to the most concepts proposed for assessment. The second one is predominantly positive assessment of the most of them. And thirdly it is clear division of concepts into positively and negatively assessed. The first two dispositions correspond towards 60% of all respondents, these are ideologically undecided respondents. The last disposition characterizes two roughly comparable value attitudes (the “traditionalistic” and the “liberal” ones) and include the respondents with clear ideological political attitudes (40% among all respondents). The author also analyses the main value orientations and social and demographical characteristics of the social groups with different ideological and political preferences. Its not-ed that the “Soviet” discourse is gradually shifting from the sphere of ideological confrontation into the sphere of morality. One can also see the idealization by the Russia’s public opinion of a “Soviet person” concept and attributing to it of the special qualities that, according to most respondents, are absent in the current Russians. The author notes that the project based on the ideas of justice and democracy is the most prospective variant of the future Russia’s value orientations. Such a project meets the expectations of many Russians, especially of young people, for changes that involve not only improving of the material living conditions, but also could minimize various inequalities and expand the opportunities for individual self-realization and political participation. Although the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences could rise a new wave of authoritarian sentiments based on the ideas of state greatness, the return totraditional values and the need for a “strong hand”. As the sociological data demonstrates these ideas are supported not only by the traditionalistically oriented citizens but also by about the third part of the ideologically undecided respondents.

Economic person of A. Smith

The paper presents a model of the A. Smith economic person and its analysis. The relevance of the study and the author’s interest in the topic is dictated by the desire to contribute in the development of a promising tool for studying the economic behavior of individuals of the economic person concept, as well as the absence, especially in Russia, of works devoted to examining A. Smith’s work from the angle of his teachings about economic person. The purpose of the work is to identify and show the features of A. Smith economic model. The main part of the study presents the basic principles that determine the approach of A. Smith to an economic person. In the section, the results of the study disclose the content of the A. Smith economic model. The characteristic is given to each of the elements developing this model. The specific features of A. Smith economic model are highlighted. The conclusions section provides a general description of A. Smith economic model. It emphasizes its qualitative difference from other, later models of an economic person, which stems from the dominance of an ethical and anthropic component, which implies the priority of the public good over individual gain. In the conclusion section, a result is drawn about the underestimated potential of A. Smith’s model about an economic person, which is a tool for describing and searching for a consensus of people interests employed in the field of industrial relations, outside whose development it is impossible to talk about enriching the nation both then and today.