Taming the untamable

Although our systems of thought have long accustomed us to differentiate sharply between the human world of ‘culture’ and the animal world of ‘nature’, both sides of this very influential dichotomy are entangled in complex and indissoluble ways. The civet cat and its very special perfume—civet—provide a perfect example of this ‘merging’. The idea of taming the untamable, expressed in paintings of civet cats and textual sources, has been especially fruitful and became a promising preoccupation especially for artists like Joris Hoefnagel to enrich their work with an intellectual hybridity. The article shows how—in painting, perfume, and writing—nature and culture complemented one another, rather than standing in opposition. Owing to the animal’s odour, its mysterious nature, and debates about its (un)tamability, the image of the civet cat served as a focal point through which early modern Europeans wrestled with and redefined the realms of human and animal, of art and science, and of culture and nature.

Dualism and Buddhism. Parallels and Points of Convergence with Neuroscience

The article is devoted to one of the most relevant problems of modern philosophy, the philosophy of consciousness in light of the latest discoveries of neurobiology. The most poorly studied aspects; the problem of free will, the problem of consciousness of the animal world and the problem of psychophysical parallelism are considered in this article. Some ethical and ideological issues related to the problems are also considered. The classic dispute about the nature of consciousness by E.V. Ilyenkov and D.I. Dubrovsky, which ended essentially in a stalemate precisely because of the ignorance of the importance of the above issues, is considered as an example of why these questions are relevant. The article also views the paradox of free will and responsibility for one's actions, which inevitably arises with a materialistic understanding of the nature of consciousness. The article briefly analyzes the key ideas for this topic by a number of prominent neuroscientists (Wilder Penfield, John Eccles, Oleg Kryshtal (Krishtal), Christoph Koch), devoted to the problem of the nature of consciousness in the time from the 1970s to the present, as well as the philosophical foundations of ideas about consciousness, formed in the European philosophy of modern times. The concept of dualism and its possible foundations, which are relevant at the present time, are examined separately, but the dualistic concept of consciousness proposed by Descartes is criticized as incompatible with the modern conclusions of neurobiology. Also, the evidence of world-renowned neuroscientists destroying the "human monopoly" on the possession of consciousness and indicating the presence of consciousness in the animal kingdom is presented. Ultimately, the philosophy of Buddhism is considered as one of the possible and most promising topics for studying in this direction. The strengths of the Buddhist concept of consciousness, which are hardly noticeable in this time, are summarized, thus giving an advantage over the ontological foundations of the concept of consciousness that prevailed in Europe in the modern era. In general, the convergence of traditional Buddhist views on the nature of consciousness with the latest achievements of neurobiology is noted.

KARELIAN MYTHOLOGICAL BELIEFS ABOUT ANIMALS AND BIRDS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF FOLK MEDICINE)

In the beliefs of the Karelians, animals and birds act as significant elements of religious and mythological rites and rituals. Many peoples have tales, myths, beliefs and ceremonies that testify of the close relationship of man and the animal world. Traditional medicine, in which animals and birds are endowed with special functions, is no exception. The purpose of the scientific article is to identify the mythological ideas of Karelians about animals and birds in Karelian folk medicine. The studied material was also reflected in the Karelian national classification of diseases, in which, among others, groups of diseases from birds, animals and insects are absolutely clearly distinguished. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the scientific works of domestic and Finnish ethnographers and linguists. The sources for the linguistic analysis are dialect dictionaries of some Baltic-Finnish languages and etymological dictionaries of the Finnish language. All collected lexical and ethnographic material is analyzed in conjunction with closely related Karelian languages, as well as with ethnolinguistic data from the Russian language. As a result of the study, it can be clearly traced that the Karelians identified groups of animals and birds in the fauna and avifauna that could “send” various diseases to humans. However, they could become a means of curing these ailments. In the nomination of diseases, the similarity of the symptoms of the disease to the appearance of animals and birds is significant, which indicates a close relationship of man with the animal world.

World-Around-Us Lesson in the Third Grade: “Diversity of the Animal World (Fauna)”

The article offers for consideration a variant of a lesson on the subject “The World-Around-Us”, which is held in the third grade based on the use of the educational and methodological set “Primary School of the XXI century”. The purpose of the lesson, which is part of the “Kingdoms of Nature” section, is to provide students with new knowledge about the diversity of the animal world. The high working capacity of junior schoolchildren during the entire period of the lesson is ensured by the use of various types of tasks that require constant mental activity, reasonable alternation of material of varying degrees of complexity, and the inclusion of elements of art pedagogy in the educational process. The use of art-pedagogical techniques allows the third graders to be informed as effectively as possible about the real results of their studies. Figuratively speaking, junior schoolchildren “put new knowledge in a portfolio and take it with them”, that is, they discover the expansion of their knowledge on the topic under study as a visual result of their activities in the lesson.

By an anniversary of the birth of Johann Peter Müller — 220 years

July 14, 2021 marks the 220th anniversary of an outstanding scientist and physician — Johann Peter Müller. It is thanks to his works that we know what the «endocrine gland» is, understand the taxonomy of the animal world and the essence of ontogenesis. Professor, researcher, wonderful teacher, director of the anatomical and physiological museum of the University of Berlin — he succeeded in any role in life. Mueller’s discoveries were recognized during his lifetime, textbooks were published under his leadership, and scientific articles were published. The value of the professor’s work is high to this day, which once again proves the colossal contribution of Johann Müller in the formation of world science.

Kilka uwag o antropocentryzmie i dydaktyzmie jako wykładnikach relacji homo–animal (na podstawie polskich i rosyjskich frazeologizmów z nazwami wybranych zwierząt gospodarskich)

The aim of the article is to show the relationship between the homo and animal spheres. The research material consists of Polish and Russian phraseological units in a broad sense (idioms, comparisons and proverbs) with zoonyms being the names of farm animals. The main emphasis was placed on the inherent – in faunal phraseology – and the closely related features of anthropocentrism and didacticism. Tracing the relationship between humans and animals clearly indicates the pejorativization of the linguistic image of fauna by a man. People like to use animal portraits to speak of the dark sides of their own world. Ascribing disabilities to representatives of fauna at the same time exposes the value of everything that is human. Parallel however, there is a phenomenon of hyperbolization of the negative portrait of a man who tries to subjugate living creatures from outside his species, guided by heartlessness, greed and selfishness. The lack of morality or culture cannot be considered animal traits, since higher feelings are characteristic of homo sapiens and constitute the foundation that distinguishes humans from the fauna world. Animals only fight for food, domination, and take care of the young. Their behavior is not due to ill will, lack of morals or culture. In the behavior of animals, their nature prevails and their innate instincts ensure their survival. Animals are not uncultivated and immoral, it is only a man who thinks of them in this way, involuntarily projecting his own world onto the animal world. There is a human interpretation of the world in animalistic phraseological units.

Zastupljenost i obrada antropomorfnih i zoomorfnih frazema u Rusko-hrvatskome frazeološkom rječniku (2019)

This paper presents the analysis of Russian animalistic phraseological units included in the Russian-Croatian Phraseological Dictionary (2019). In our research we focused on etalons that have the simile structure. Anthropomorphism and zoomorphism are two antipodes of the same reality within the language picture of the world – in our case it is the Russian language picture of the world. We believed that the anthropocentric perspective of the animal world was stronger than the ecocentric perspective, and that it has influenced the Russian language correspondingly, which has led us to the conclusion that there must be more Russian anthropomorphic similes than zoomomorphic similes. But the analysis that we have performed within the frames of the Russian-Croatian Phraseological Dictionary has not proven our hypothesis. The findings of this study suggest that there is an equal number of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic similes within the analyzed phraseological material.

Фразеологизми с орнитонимском саставницом у српском језику

The subject of this paper is phraseology with the name of the bird in its lexical structure (such as crn kao gavran, držati se kao pokisli vrabac, zaplesti se kao pile u kučine, podmetnuti kukavičje jaje etc.). These units were analyzed in order to present the language picture of the animal world of Serbian speakers. The research is based on linguocultural approach to language ‒ Zykova’s conceptual theory of phraseology and culture (Зыкова, 2015). Attention is mostly paid to the problem of motivation of the observed phraseologisms and the phraseological semantic processes. There are several different types of information that motivate the creation of phraseology with the name of the bird as their lexical component: the appearance of the bird, its sound and behavior, as well as its symbolic value.

The Specific Features of the Representation of German Characters in the Novel ‘The Ice House’ by I. I. Lazhechnikov

The article paper reveals the main specific features of the representation of German heroes in the novel ‘The Ice House’ by I. I. Lazhechnikov. It was found that the main means of creating images of these characters are portraying, the expressive artistic detail, and speech characteristics. Comparisons with representatives of the animal world that are present in the portrait descriptions of the Germans are subordinated to the purpose not only to point out the specific features of the external appearance of the latter, but also to emphasize the negative attitude of the narrator towards these characters. The main criterion for evaluating the German heroes is their attitude towards Russia and its native inhabitants. I. I. Lazhechnikov does not set himself the tasks of studying the specific features of the German mentality and traditions, but he shows and evaluates the characters only in the aureole of their behavior and actions.

Remotely Controlled Robot Swarms: A Structural Analysis and Model for Structural Optimization

In this paper, the authors analyse the structure of robot swarms. Drive, communication, and artificial intelligence technologies have reached a level where the inspiration of the animal world has become very useful for the development of systems of which people have dreamed for centuries. A short introduction describes the need for and expectations of autonomous robots and vehicles. A classification of swarm structures is based on animals such as bees or ants. Two main types of swarms are recognized: structural (master–slaves) and non-structural. The operator controls both of them remotely. The swarm structure has a great influence on the structure of single robots. A computer model with an object programming definition was worked out, and a simulation of the presented swarm structure is provided. The results are described in the paper. The algorithm codes analysed in this paper are included in an appendix.