The study of cadets’ educational activities motives at Civil Aviation University

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the motives of students educational activities in the field of general professional training and in the study of a university mathematics course. The methodology of A.A. Rean and V.A. Yakunin considered in the work, containing sixteen motives, was used to study the opinion of cadets in its classical version in relation to the entire training at the chosen university, and the same motives were suggested for the cadets to consider in relation to the study of the course of higher mathematics. Mathematics plays an important role in the training of technical professionals; it is a basic discipline that ensures the success of training in general engineering and special disciplines. At the same time, mathematics studied at school differs significantly from mathematics taught at a university, the amount of mathematical information offered is much larger, the content level of the concepts introduced is much more complex. Cadets at civil aviation university who have started studying mathematics at the university have a definite opinion by the end of the first semester. The results of cadets opinions analyses may allow the teacher to have an adequate idea of the motives of cadets educational activities in relation to obtaining mathematical knowledge. The priority motives obtained are discussed from the standpoint of solving pedagogical problems of teaching mathematics.

Emotional State GEMÜTLICHKEIT in Cross-cultural Perspective: Corpus-based Approach

The article is devoted to the cross-cultural study of the concept GEMÜTLICHKEIT representing ethnospecific emotional state relevant for the German-speaking community. To achieve the aim the language specific of the name of this concept – lexeme Gemütlichkeit – was revealed with the help of etymological, definitional, and contextual analysis, as well as the search for the interlingual equivalents, the usage of cross-cultural data and the data of representational language corpus. It has been proved that the concept GEMÜTLICHKEIT together with the concepts SICHERHEIT, ZUVERLÄSSIGKEIT and GEBORGENHEIT forms a unique “safety-cosiness quartet” of the German-speaking communities value system, i.e., the fragment of the world picture which together with the concept ORDNUNG is opposed to the existential fear – ANGST. A semantic profile of the word query Gemütlichkeit was built on the basis of the language corpus data. The profile “peaks” are the key features of the concept GEMÜTLICHKEIT. These features form the basis of the relevant definition of the lexeme Gemütlichkeit. The development of the definition was aimed not only at closing the gap in reference literature that needs a clear and complete definition of the concept GEMÜTLICHKEIT, but also at forming an adequate idea of this emotional state in the minds of the representatives of non-Germanspeaking communities.

The Prevalence of the Ideas of Nationalism Among Young People (The Case of Young People of Yekaterinburg, Russia)

The ideas of nationalism in the practical discourse of the media and the speeches of politicians are often negative; the ideas of the superiority of some nationalities over others and the spread of conflicts are emphasized. From the point of view of scientific discourse, nationalism is perceived both as a negative and as a positive phenomenon for maintaining the stability and the fundamental strength of the state. The importance of studying the prevalence of the ideas of nationalism is associated with working with young people who often act as a “risk group,” that is, those who, failing to understand the depth of the process, are prone to sympathize and even participate in nationalist events and organizations. To identify the prevalence of nationalist orientations, a sociological survey was conducted in the form of an enquiry (N = 638) among various categories of young people (students in schools, colleges, technical schools, and universities). It is shown that among the young people there is no adequate idea of nationalism, which is often disguised as patriotism. A university student can most adequately assess the existence of nationalist orientations in publications on social networks, in the media, in the speeches of political leaders, therefore, schoolchildren and students of secondary vocational education are most susceptible to the development and distribution of nationalist ideas. A special group — a risk group — includes students in a difficult financial situation. Keywords: nationalism, patriotism, prevention of nationalism, youth, sociological research

Eternal Life and the Body According to Spinoza

In this chapter, Matheron presents some brief thoughts on Proposition 39 of Part V of the Ethics, which states that a body capable of many things has a mind whose greater part is eternal. The key to unlocking this seemingly unusual claim is to understand what happens in the body when the mind understands. This leads Matheron to reconstruct the demonstrations that accompany the preceding propositions in Part V as well as to a discussion of adequate and inadequate ideas in Spinoza. Though we might not be immediately aware of it, to have an adequate idea of something external us is to have the adequate idea of a certain order that is established between affections in our body whose structure matches the one that inheres in the thing in question. This leads Matheron to a discussion of the ‘third kind of knowledge’ and its relation to the Spinozist concept of eternity, all of which clarify the initial starting point: the acquisition of new and more adequate knowledge always entails a clearer understanding of our body’s capacities that are already included in the eternal idea that we are.

GROSS VALUE ADDED AS THE MAIN INDICATOR PRODUCTIVITY OF ENTERPRISES

Topicality. Traditionally, output and profit are used as the main indicators of enterprise productivity, but they have significant shortcomings. All this determines the relevance of the search for new indicators that will provide an adequate idea of the productivity of enterprises and a single conceptual basis for assessing the results of economic activity at the micro, mega and macro levels. Aim and tasks. To analyze the existing indicators for assessing the productivity of enterprises, to identify their main short comings. Consider the experience of the Republic of Belarus in the use of gross value added as an indicator of productivity of enterprises. Justify the use of gross value added as a conceptual basis for assessing the results of economic activity at the micro, mega and macro levels. Identify the main indicators for assessing the productivity of enterprises on the basis of gross value added. Research results. As the main indicators of the enterprise, use "output" and "profit". The first indicator consists of gross value added and intermediate consumption and therefore it depends on the performance of other enterprises. In this case, the external contribution can be decisive and therefore the indicator "output" does not give an adequate idea of the productivity of enterprises. Another key indicator of enterprise activity is profit. With a focus on it, wages, social security financing and employee training are the costs of the enterprise and the smaller they are, the greater the company's profits. But in modern conditions to ensure sustainable economic development of the individual enterprise and the country as a whole, it is important to consider that employees are carriers of intellectual capital. The loss or reduction of this capital can lead to more significant losses than the loss of physical and financial capital. Under such conditions, it is advisable to change the benchmark, namely the use of gross value added as the main indicator of productivity of the enterprise. It is on the basis of this indicator that the main result of economic activity of the country (gross domestic product) and regions (gross regional product) is determined. Gross value added is a very important indicator in terms of meeting the needs of all stakeholders in the performance of the enterprise: employees, business owners, the state. The indicator "gross value added" is the main indicator of the enterprise in terms of the interests of society as a whole, and the indicator "profit" - the main in terms of the interests of business owners. The presence of these two indicators reflects the contradiction between the interests of society and business owners. Conclusion. Gross value added has a greater analytical value than the indicators "output" and "profit", because, firstly, it gives a more adequate picture of the results of enterprises, secondly, it determines the potential for capital accumulation and thirdly provides a single conceptual basis for evaluation of economic performance at the micro, mega and macro levels.

A Passionate Path Towards the Supreme Good in the Theological-Political Treatise

The Theological-Political Treatise investigates whether the moral teachings contained in the Bible can lead to the Supreme Good. Spinoza seems to introduce the possibility of attaining the Supreme Good (phrased in terms of ‘salvation’) without relying on the innate adequate idea of God but rather on obedience. Section 3.2 investigates how passions can be used to support obedience. Section 3.3 discusses the differences between intellectual salvation and salvation through obedience. Section 3.4 argues that Spinoza defends an instrumentalist account of obedience, according to which someone can be truly virtuous insofar as his practice creates the conditions for the development of the mind’s power of thinking. Section 3.5 implements this instrumentalist reading to explain the sense in which the practice of life taught by Biblical prophets can be considered a genuine means of progressing towards the Supreme Good. Section 3.6 explains why this instrumentalist reading is preferable to various alternative readings.

Spinoza’s Theory of Scientia Intuitiva

The Ethics distinguishes three kinds of cognition (cognitio): (1) opinion or imagination (opinion vel imaginatio); (2) reason (ratio), and (3) intuitive knowledge (scientia intuitiva). This chapter explains Spinoza’s theory of the highest and most desirable kind of cognition, scientia intuitiva, and, in doing so, it answers three puzzling but fundamental questions about it. First, what are the “essences” of attributes and of things on which scientia intuitiva is said to depend? Second, given that all cognition requires an “adequate” idea of an attribute of God, in Spinoza’s view, how does scientia intuitiva differ from the other two kinds of cognition? Third, can everything be known by scientia intuitiva, in Spinoza’s view, or are some truths beyond its reach?

Spinoza’s Necessitarianism

Spinoza is unquestionably a determinist, but it has often been disputed whether he is also a full-fledged necessitarian—that is, whether he consistently holds that everything is logically or metaphysically necessary, so that the world could not possibly have been different in any way from what it actually is. This chapter argues for three theses. First, nothing Spinoza says commits him to the denial of necessitarianism. Second, several things he says do commit him to necessitarianism. Third, a commitment to necessitarianism explains (a) how he can maintain that modes of different attributes are parallel to one another without any causal interaction between them and (b) how he can maintain that every intrinsically adequate idea corresponds to its object. Together, these theses constitute a very strong case that Spinoza is a necessitarian.

The Indiscernibility of Identicals and the Transitivity of Identity in Spinoza’s Logic of the Attributes

Puzzlingly, Spinoza appears to reject two principles that are central to our understanding of numerical identity: the Indiscernibility of Identicals and the Transitivity of Identity. For each principle, this chapter does three things. First, it explains where and how Spinoza appears to reject it. Second, it examines and argues against two proposals for resolving the puzzle that results from the apparent rejection: one proposal that appeals to Michael Della Rocca’s conception of “intensional properties” and one that denies, as Colin Marshall does, that Spinoza really means numerical identity by his phrase “one and the same” (“una, eademque”). Third, it offers and defends an original proposal for resolving the puzzle that appeals to two Spinozistic doctrines that it calls “Strong Ontological Pluralism of Attributes” and the “Adequate-Idea Conception of Truth.”

Parallelism and the Idea of God in Spinoza's System

In this paper, I begin by showing that for Spinoza, it is unclear how the human mind can have a true idea of God. I first provide an explanation of Spinoza’s theory of parallelism of the mind and the body, followed by showing how this doctrine seems to undermine the mind’s ability to have an adequate idea of God. From there, I show that the idea of God presents a problem for Spinoza’s theory of the parallelism of the attributes in general. To resolve the tension, I argue that Spinoza’s theory of parallelism does not entail a one-to-one correspondence between the modes of different attributes. From here, I show that the human mind can have an adequate idea of God, because the mind can have an idea of its own formal essences and the idea of a formal essence is itself an idea of God.