Issue materials

Abstract. The article observes concepts of “Law”, “Custom”, “Usage”, and “Fuero” in the “Siete Partidas” of Alphonse X the Wise, a king of the Castile-Leon Kingdom from 1252 to 1284. In the first part, the author gives an overview of the legislative situation in the Castile-Leon Kingdom just before the reign of Alphonse X. He stresses that the king would justify the tremendous territorial gains made by his father, Fernando III, and Alphonse himself. Thus, the composition of one of the largest law codes in Europe was a part of his costly and full project. The second part of the article contains some explanations about the concept of “custom” in the Alphonsine legislation. The author analyses procedures of apparition of the custom, its being, and cancellation. The author gives particular place in his theory to the Roman Law, or, more precisely, to the Ius commune. Finally, the third part of the article contains translation into Russian of two first chapters of Partidas.

Keywords: Alphonse X the Wise; Castile; Partidas; law; custom; usage.

Abstract. The article reveals content of the modern crisis of the conciliatory political systems and the growth of populism caused by it. According to author’s opinion, the crisis of the conciliatory political systems is determined by the following factors: the elitist character of the modern democracy; traditional political parties’ loss of the interest’s representation function; transformation of the social structure, in particular, the appearance of precariat and other social groups with unprotected rights. The author sees these processes in the context of the recent dominance of such type of rationality as neoliberalism. He shows how neoliberal politics contributed to the destruction of the foundations of liberal democracy, and the formation of a populist scenario of protecting the rights of citizens. He characterizes the main features of this scenario: anti-elitism, ethnic nationalism, and political egocentrism. The author argues that the disadvantage of such strategy is shifting the focus from the universal concept of protecting human rights to the particularistic concept of protecting the rights of “people”; restriction of the rights of social groups that do not correspond to the concept of “people”; democratic extremism and authoritarianism. In the author’s opinion, and in connection with the growth of the populist threat, it is necessary to find ways to reconcile the interests of all social groups in modern society.
Keywords: rconciliatory political system; liberal democracy; neoliberalism; populism; human rights; “people”; “people's rights”; anti-elitism; ethnic nationalism; political egocentrism; democratic extremism; authoritarianism.

Abstract. The article is devoted to the issue of relevance of applying the category of trust to the analysis of Internet communications, and to the analysis of the integration in online communities in social networks, in particular. Nowadays, the issue of trust or distrust towards online communities and integration in Russia becomes the factor that sharply splits society and pushes the state to tighten control over the Internet; the issue of trust as an internal factor of the online communities becomes relevant not only theoretically but also politically. The authors attempt to understand the processes of horizontal integration in online communities that quite differ from the genesis of real communities arising in vertically integrated social structures, or adapt to a vertically oriented social environment. We use “grounded theory” approach to analyze the dynamics of mobilization-type online communities in the social networks Vkontakte and Facebook. Weak significance of the interpersonal trust factor in the functioning and development of the observed communities is revealed. The contradiction between this fact and the established ideas of trust as the basis of social interaction and a key component of the social capital can be explained by clarifying the specifics of interaction in online communities. This specific can be described through following features. Firstly, there is institutional trust “at the entrance” to the group, based on the user's loyalty to the values, rules, and norms of the group. Secondly, there is the lack of a hierarchical structure that reduces the role sets and role expectations to minimum. Finally, it is the prevalence of the “weakest” type of links comparing with “strong” and “weak” ones, implying the absence of personal links, and preventing the expansion of the “culture of distrust” into online reality. Horizontal integration is not typical for all kinds of online communities. Nevertheless, the growth of online communications in the world, and inRussia, in particular, allows us to predict the growing influence of the “trust culture”of “online sociality” as an alternative to the culture of distrust inherent in hierarchical societies.
Keywords: trust; institutional and interpersonal trust; online communities; horizontal and vertical integration.

Abstract. The article raises the problem of sharp turning points in the Soviet urban discourse that occurred with the moment of Stalin's strengthening in power and after his death. The analyzed urban material was limited by three perspectives: (1) the city's creator (architect and authority), (2) urban space (architectural culture), and (3) the official discourse. The article substantiates the point of view according to which, and despite the radically different formal languages of the avant-garde, the Stalinist style, and late Soviet modernism one can see behind them a single “content”, namely, the phenomenon of the Soviet city. The changes concerned only the discourse (in our case, urban planning, and architectural one); the main paradigm of the culture did not change: it was remaining uncompromisingly modern. The article follows the tradition of the critical analysis of modernity – developed both by the members of the Frankfurt School and by postmodernists – but expands the concept of European modernity into Soviet culture. The Soviet metanarrative was based on the belief in the possibility (and necessity) of comprehensive and rational constructing of the reality. It had the character of a total and uncompromising project. And it is the uncompromising nature of Soviet modernity that dooms it to failure. To trace this process, the article explores the relationship between modernity and utopia – both uncompromising and rejecting the legitimacy of the past in favour of a rational plan. Any attempt to realize utopia means changes in the initial, ideal, theoretical plan, and official Soviet culture – fundamentally uncompromising – carefully concealed that fact (lie and violence become an institution). However, the official discourse and the real image of the Soviet city diverged more and more. The only way for the rapprochement of life and official culture could be an abrupt shift in the dominant discourse playing at the same time the central mobilization role (the pathos of a radical new beginning, according to W. Welsch).
Keywords: modernity; utopia; revolution; Soviet city; Soviet culture; avant-garde; Stalinist architecture; late Soviet modernism.

Abstract. The rise to taking over state power after elections of 2014 by majoritarian forces in India has since witnessed weakening of institutions of governance. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has returned to power with an enhanced parliamentary majority in the 2019 elections. The rise of hindutva (Hindu-ness), the Hindu nationalist political philosophy of the formations comprising the BJP and the Sangh parivaar (organizational family of the Sangh) or affiliates of the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has reshaped the discourse on the “idea of India”. Under the extensive reframing in majoritarian nationalist terms of Indian political verities, it is conceivable that the Indian military, widely regarded as a professional, apolitical and secular force, will also be impacted. There has been little academic scrutiny of the possible influence of majoritarianism on the Indian military. The paper examines impact of the onset of majoritarianism democracy on India’s military by taking a close look at the movement in civil-military relations under the BJP government. There is a shift in civil-military relations from objective civilian control, that enhances professionalism and keeps the military apolitical, to subjective civilian control, wherein the military is co-opted through subscribing to the ideologybased security perspective of the ruling party. This shift poses for the military a risk of losing their a political ethic. Erosion of the apolitical ethic of the military will open up the military’s secular ethic to modification. The conclusions are both relevant for policy and theory. The relevance for policy lies in the need for the Indian state and the military to preserve professionalism by persisting with the objective civilian control model. The theoretical relevance is in discerning limits to the concept of obedience of the military to the civilian political rulers. Where there is a threat from a political ideology or its penetration into the military’s intellectual domain with the potential to dilute the military’s professionalism, the military needs to pushback for the sake of national security.
Keywords: Indian military; military sociology; Hindutva; military professionalism; civilmilitary relations; Indian politics.

Abstract. The philosophical aspect of the problem of creating a “strong” artificial intelligence as an emulation of digital technologies by the creative capabilities of the human mind is considered in the context of cognitive models of peacemaking represented in the mythology of Hellenistic gnosis, which in many respects formed the discursive basis of Christianity as the worldview paradigm of the industrial, and then the information society. The general agenda here is seen as the key task for the creative generation of new reality to identify and adapt transcendental meanings through the interpretation of human consciousness as an existential model of Creation and the definition of the language of communication with the metaprogram of the semantic continuum as a dramatic process of self-knowledge and self-organization: the formation of universal imperative maxims (programs) that transform semantic patterns and archetypes of the unconscious in symbols and texts, axiological attitudes, sociocultural and technological architecture. The interdisciplinary approach substantiates the conclusion that the possibility of creating a “strong” artificial intelligence opens up in the format of identifying the information “matrix” of sense formation isomorphic to intelligent systems in the synergy of the development of philosophy, psychology, theory of consciousness, quantum physics, computer science, cognitive science, and mathematics. This is the most actualized definition of the possibility (and need) to update, logically express, and lay in the equation of the machine program the complex concept of transcendence, key to sense formation, self-organization, and creativity.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; Gnosticism; information; semantic formation; communication; computer modeling; transcendence; categorical imperative; creativity; self-knowledge; digital reality.