Vol 2, No 2 (2022)

Viktor Yakovlevich Machnev passed away on the 21st of May 2022, a man whose creative and scientific biography is associated with Samara University, the Faculty of Sociology and the research community of Samara city. The purpose of the article is to present a portrait of a researcher, leader, enthusiastic person and a man of many accomplishments. There have been drawn the conclusions regarding the scholar’s wide recognition within the scientific environment and his success as part of teaching profession and academic career.

The article analyzes the plan of expression and the plan of content of the American film “USS Callister” (2017) using the structural-semantic method. Four levels of analysis of signs in cinema are considered: three types signs that make up the characterological trait of a personality, referring to a character understood as an individuality, which in turn is a symbolic expression of a myth. In the film text “USS Callister” the gnostic images of the Demiurge and Sophia are created by means of cinematography, and such gnostic ideas as the hierarchy of the worlds, the abhorrence to flesh, souls’ life in the material world under the reign of the evil demiurge and the salvation-destruction of the world by Sophia, have been implemented into the plot. The film also refutes the gnostic idea that the God of the Old Testament is the evil demiurge of the gnostic cosmos via semantic mimicry. The film visualizes the gnostic mythology about two Sophias, earthly and heavenly, whose reunion marks the destruction of the material world and the humiliation of the Demiurge. The protagonist of the film – a genius programmer Robert Daly, who has created еру the modding of “Boundlessness” on his PC, in which he has reconstructed the Callister starship. The crew has been created using the Daly co-workers’ DNA to create sentient digital clones of them. When Nanette Cole, a genius female programmer, who has been copied into the above-mentioned modding, she is able “to get in touch with” her “celestial incarnation”, execute a break plan and, as the result, the whole artificial world is destroyed together with the demiurge. The film recreates gnostic mythology for an audience thinking in terms of 20th century American culture, and more specifically in the famous sci-fi franchise Star Trek.

In the present research the Friedrich Dessauer’s monograph abstract “Human and Cosmos. The Essay” has been brought to the attention of the Russian-speaking readers for the first time ever. The above-mentioned academic paper as of 1948 is concerned with the space exploration: cosmos has been studied as the order within the physical, biological and spiritual worlds. Friedrich Dessauer is famous as a classical scholar of the philosophy of technology, the author of the “fourth kingdom” concept – the world of pre-established forms for technical problems. In the present work Dessauer is portrayed, in one respect, as a methodologist and a historian of science, demonstrating the principles and evolution of cognition in physics and biology on the system level. However, he has also been described as an anthropologist, interpreting a human being from the perspective of the experimental sciences as a means of physical, biological and spiritual worlds’ interconnection. Moreover, the scientist’s image has been presented in the form of an author of mental experiments, illustrating the science limits and possibilities. The published translation abstract comprises Chapter 3 “Human and Cosmos”, p. 67–126 of the editiones principes.

In this article, a comparative analysis of two stories regarding childhood has been carried out –
“Tyoma’s Childhood” by N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky and “Nikita’s Childhood” by A.N. Tolstoy. Analyzing the initial plot situations of the two stories, key episodes and denouements, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that A.N. Tolstoy has undertaken a kind of revision of the narrative of his predecessor, writing not just another version of “childhood”, but simply an anti-Garin literary work. The reasons for this revision have both biographical and creative roots: being personally acquainted with N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in his youth and influenced by him, later A.N. Tolstoy came to the conclusion of reconsidering his juvenile ideals, contrasting synthetism with Garin’s analyticism, and collapse and disharmony poetry – with the poetry of fullness of being and cheerful affirmation. The motives of fear, death, and comprehension of fatherhood are carefully examined. Furthermore, special attention is paid to the analysis of “vertical” episodes in each of the two stories that “stand out” against the background of the general “horizontal” narration (in case of N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, this is the episode of the protagonist coming down / descent into the old well, in A. Tolstoy – the protagonist’s “praying” in the traveling coach).

The authors of the article analyze the literary heritage of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, a writer who has worked in a variety of genres – from a fairy tale to story, from a story to drama. The writer’s dramaturgy characterizes by a relatively low percentage rate of coverage studies on the theoretical level, although it comprises a number of significant features that reflect the drama development at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries – the changes in the dramatic language may be pointed out in Garin’s texts. The article gives a brief description of N.G. Garin’s dramaturgy, and his play “Orchid” is analyzed in detail. The interest of researchers is focused on the organization of the author’s interaction with the reader / viewer and on the certain features of the drama poetics, which make it possible to compare Garin’s play with neo-dramatic aesthetics. Methodologically, the authors rely on the communicative theory and historical poetics. The empirical material is the text of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. As a source of factual material, five-volume collected works of the author, published by Goslitizdat Publishing House in 1957–1958, have been used. Among the scientific results of the work the authors point out systematic analysis of the play by Garin-Mikhailovsky, description of the author’s strategies for interacting with the reader / viewer, revealing the structure of central images and key scenes in a dramatic action. In accordance with its inner nature, the play “Orchid” is a kind of dramatized psychological research with a new type of dramatic protagonist, bearing the features of the epic drama with a special “literary quality”, which has been noted by the contemporary reviews relating to the Garin-Mikhailovsky times.

Professor of the Department of Sociology and Cultural Studies of Samara University Evgeniy Fomich Molevich reached 91 years on the 25th of April 2022. Anniversary events and publications regarding this famous scientist have shown that for the modern youth he remains an example and a “man of progress”. Nevertheless, the origins of his progressive thinking and the foundation of all his modern concepts of society development were laid in the distant 1960s and 1970s. This period of Molevich work as a philosopher is undeservedly overshadowed by the following discoveries of Molevich as a sociologist, although it is obvious that these are interrelated roles of this amazing person. This article examines the period of formation of Y.F. Molevich as an independent researcher. Moreover, additional attention is paid to his creative path as an employee of the Ural State University and the beginning of his working period at Samara University. The contribution of E.F. Molevich is examined and analyzed within the scope of his correcting interpretation of the philosophical law “negation of negation” and the concept development referring to the nature’s dialectical evolution. Both concepts will have been applied in the further established sociological theory.

In this article there have been analyzed different classification criteria of the modern economy. It has been established that the economy of the 21st century is characterized by a certain degree of digitalization. The influence of the digital technologies on the development of the economy is analyzed in accordance with the degree of digital technologies used in economic processes. The uneven nature of digitalization has been established at various levels: global, national and sectoral. As a result of the uneven nature development of the digital economy, two sectors of this economy have been pointed out. They may be identified as the “core” and “periphery” of the digital economy. It has been revealed that the differences between the core and the periphery of the digital economy are generally due to the elements’ specific character of the working environment (manufacturing situation). There have been determined the key differences within the scope of the basic elements referring to the manufacturing situation of the core and periphery: the amount of earnings, working conditions, working hours.