The paper discusses the problem of solving human problems using computers. Analyzed are the advantages and disadvantages of declarative programming, including functional and logical programming, acting as an artificial intelligence tool. An alternative, model-theoretic approach to solving problems, called the semantic modeling, is described. The advantages of the proposed concept are analyzed, including the possibility of combining the axiomatic and model-theoretic approach to solving problems in a single approach, as well as the possibility of integrating on the basis of semantic modeling methods of continuous and discrete mathematics. The possibility of constructing a new, «explanatory artificial intelligence free from the drawbacks inherent in the traditional artificial intelligence, based on semantic modeling, is described.

The paper aims to look for the arguments against the tenet that the inference to the best explanation that connects the scientific realism and the success of scientific knowledge, and that is coined as the Main argument for the scientific realism, is circular for it contains the affirming the consequent fallacy (L. Laudan, B. Van Fraassen, etc.) A special case of the «Main argument» is considered - the inference to the existence of unobservables on the basis of the causal explanation of the phenomenon. Such an argument is the subject of the so-called Hitchcock Dilemma, which requires that for the inference to be sound it must be accompanied by an independent argument in favor of the existence of a «cause». The adoption of a special kind of ontology - in our case, it is one of the possible interpretations of D.Ross's rainforest realism, makes it possible to construct the required «independent argument». A pattern is not only defined by the projection relation, first of all, in order to play a functionally significant and successful role in explaining phenomena within a given area, but it also «must contain information about another pattern» (J. Ladyman), which is the exact the «independent condition» we are looking for to prove the soundness of the «Main argument».

The paper considers the role of analogy between a well-adapted organism and scientific theory in the discussion about the objectivity of knowledge. The criticism of existing approaches based on this analogy is offered. The analysis of the concept of adaptation shows that this concept cannot be used as a criterion for the objectivity of scientific theory, but also does not refute the objectivity of perception judgments. Thus, one can formulate a new concept of objectivity as a normative idea in the process of selection of theories, which are based on perception judgements.

The article examines the methodological aspects of the problem of the interdependence of language, world outlook and the picture of the world. The content of the concepts «worldview», «world picture», «culture», «language» in their mutual correlation is specified. The potential of some directions and schools of Russian linguistics in studying this problem is considered. The paper also identifies the research concepts of linguistic theories associated with understanding the relationship of language, thinking, and culture. The author advances a hypothesis on the methodological significance of the principle of complementarity for the study of these problems.

K. Gödel's incompleteness theorems are considered in relation to the formal Dedekind-Peano arithmetic. A falsifiability predicate is used to construct a formula that formally expresses its own nonfalsifiability. And unsolvability of that formula is proved. This proves the incompleteness of formal arithmetic, that is, the conclusion of the first theorem is confirmed. At the same time, with this representation of (un)provability, the main conclusion of the second theorem turns out to be false. It follows that the second theorem is independent of the first, which denies the generally accepted statement about the inseparable connection between Gödel's first and second incompleteness theorems.

Different revolutions and their chains (revolutionary waves), as a rule, are direct or indirect consequences of regional and global modernization processes. Sometimes they strengthen, speed up the modernization trends, but they can also block, strengthen or even launch the opposite trends of counter-modernization (countertrends). Five trends of modernization and the corresponding five counter-trends are considered: 1) bureaucratization and de-bureaucratization (rollback to patrimonial structures and practices); 2) secularization and desecularization (return of religion and church to the center of social, political and cultural life, rise of fundamentalism); 3) capitalist industrialization and de-industrialization (alternatively, suppression of capitalist and market institutions); 4) democratization and authoritarian rollbacks (dissolution or becoming a fiction of parliamentary, independent judicial institutions); 5) the rise of the creative avant-garde in culture or conservatism, the restoration of old styles and forms). Heuristic principles are formulated to analyze the reasons for including different revolutionary waves and revolutions in these trends with the vectors of modernization and counter-modernization.

The article analyzes the phenomenon of progressivism existing at the level of mass consciousness and in the form of ideas and even ideologies. This phenomenon displays a number of characteristic features: the belief in the irreversibility and lack of alternatives to scientific-technological progress; an abeyance of tradition; the primacy of opinion over justification, of novelty and originality over the desire for truth; the pretentiousness of language. The article justifies the existence of an alternative paradigm to progressivism, which can be called «new evolutionism». It is argued that «new evolutionism» is not just a set of well-founded ideas, but a partially verified social and personal practice.

The paper provides an analysis of changing views about the role of intellectuals in contemporary socio-philosophical discourse. The author makes a conclusion about the loss by intellectuals of the previous monopoly on shaping the public opinion and value orienations. The article criticizes the basic one-dimensional models of the participation of intellectuals in civil movements, and also presents the interpretation of civic participation of intellectuals as a model of a conflict coalition with social movements.

The article analyzes the processes of interaction between social institutions of academic science and higher education in contemporary Russia. The author used the method of case study, and the object of analysis are scientific and educational communities of regional scientific centers of Siberian Branch RAS (Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk). The main determining factor in the current conditions became a reform of the university education system and academic research institutions. In the context of the reform, when the main indicator of the success of the university is now its high positions in university rankings (Program «5-100», etc.), clearly marked an urgent need to accelerate the strengthening of the scientific potential of leading (federal and national research) universities. The universal way to satisfy it, as a rule, is the intensification of cooperation with academic institutions. The author concludes that it results in the phenomenon of forced integration, understood as a forceful incorporation of the academic research institutions into the leading universities, to boost the scientific potential of the latter. The author is critical of this trend, offering to find and use other, softer methods and forms of mutually beneficial integration.

The paper examines the features of the manifestation of social behavior in virtual space. The authors suggest three forms of the relations between man and cyber society, which are contrasted against each other: pro-social (interaction), asocial (independence, non-inclusion), antisocial (parasitic). A classification of forms of virtuality, presented in the modern world, is proposed. Their relationship with the social structure and possible ways of development are described. The article intends to show that modern social transformations caused by digitalization of society have ambivalent consequences. Depending on the position of the individual, modern technologies, which are only a means to achieving goals, can be used both for the harm and for the benefit of another person, society, state and culture. The person and his morality still remain the main criteria of coexistence.

The article reviews prerequisites that led to the emergence of contemporary western scientific approaches analysing the relationship between language, culture and cognition such as cultural cognition, applied ethno-linguistics, linguistic anthropology. It shows the transformation of philosophical conceptual approaches in the space of mutual influences between cognitive processes, language, and culture. The differences between disciplines are shown through the development of cognitive sciences in the USA and Europe. The conclusion is made about great heuristic possibilities of this science for studying cross-cultural communication of individuals and people.

The article deals with the governance potential of complex social and humanitarian programs that are developing as additional components of large scientific and technical projects. They promptly respond to emerging challenges and do not require long negotiations and agreements at the level of national or international legislation. The study of institutional structures and functions of new types of ethics makes it possible to understand how social knowledge and the humanities participate in normative and political discourses of governance that are structuring relationships of technoscience and society.

In modern society one may observe a shift of high-tech medicine towards a humanistic reflection of medical science and practice. The domain of medicine today is more sensitive to the «latent» questions of clinical practice. Problems concerning individualization and humanization of high-tech medicine are considered. Theoretical concepts developed in the framework of humanistic medicine focusing on the subjective experience of illness are analyzed.

The history of the country is a source of social experience, a certain system of coordinates, and the basis for an adequate response to modern problems. An appeal to the past can be useful in developing potential strategies for social development. Legislative documents of pre-revolutionary Russia appear to be a resource, an unbiased interpretation of which will contribute to the productive regulation of ethnic, religious and confessional issues and the further development of civil consent.

The author uses the example of alternating mono-national and multinational types of ethnic diversity management to consider the mechanism of consistent reproduction of westernization and auto-modernization. The first type appears as a result of copying European institutional models, and the second type emerges as a result of adaptation of western borrowings to Russian realities. Each phase of Russian modernization cycles turns out to be connected with the work of one of dominants: the first phase - with westernization, the second phase is transitory and the third phase is due to auto-modernization. A conclusion is made about the dependence of institutional models of ethnic diversity management on the inversion mechanisms of socio-cultural dynamics.

This article is concerned with one of the most long-standing and rooted problems of modern European society - the problem of relationship between Europeans and the Roma people. The author tries to consider the main paradigms within which the main stereotypes about gypsies, circulating in the European society, are forming. The author considers it necessary to reflect on the multidimensional nature of the «gipsy issue», going beyond the traditional approaches, due to their inefficiency.

The article is devoted to the study of traditional and new components of family relations that reproduce the ethnic characteristics of the Mongolian peoples. It contains the data of sociological surveys of families conducted in 2009 - 2010 by Mongolian scientists, as well as the data of the survey of the adult population and Mongolian youth - the residents of the capital Ulaanbaatar in 2014. The most significant factors influencing the ethnic identity of the adult and the younger generations are identified. It is shown that natural conditions, economic activity, urbanization processes, family structure, conditions and factors of ethnic identification influence the reproduction of ethno-cultural traditions, and opinions about current trends in family-marriage relations and the adoption of new values work not only for the development but also for the destruction of the family as the institution of reproduction of society.

The paper provides an analysis of institutional changes in rural local communities and identifies the determinants of institutional development of the modern village. It singles out the key factors that determine the trajectory of the institutional development of the agro-industrial complex: the state agrarian policy, a mixed economy, and the human capital of rural local communities. It notes an active ongoing process of modifying the economic, organizational, and production structure in agriculture. New subjects of social and economic relations: agricultural holdings, farms, agricultural cooperatives are developing, which has an impact on the evolution of transformation processes in rural local communities and in the rural economy. Changes in the composition of the subjects of socio-economic relations lead to the transformation of mechanisms affecting institutional changes in rural local communities. The general trajectory of self-organization processes of agricultural socio-economic systems in determined by the state.

The paper studies the logic of the development of the theory of post-socialist transit under the influence of the practice of transformations in various countries of the former «socialist camp», which showed the need for a more differentiated doctrine of analysis. It also treats the problem of the correlation of institutional and sociocultural transformation factors. While in modern studies of the reasons for path dependence, authors increasingly pay attention to cultural factors, a practical analysis of the development of post-socialist societies in the context of the most important institutional changes demonstrates surprising dynamics, which is rather a rational reactive response to momentary changes in institutional conditions. This gives grounds to assume that the institutions determine the choice of the trajectory of development (at the individual level - the change of adaptive, life strategies), and culture makes a stable «path».

The paper identifies and describes the paternalistic mindset among the rural population of Russia. The empirical base consists of research data in rural communities of the Novosibirsk region in the period from 2005 to 2014. The structure of expectations related to the activities of various power and economic institutions is analyzed, and the regularities that determine the change in this structure are revealed. The article shows the specific features of transformation of the paternalistic mindset in the conditions of social crisis and decline of trust in dominating political institutions.

Richard Rorty proposed to interpret philosophy as cultural politics, understanding it as the shift of philosophy vocabularies to the moral and political context, and considering philosophy primarily as a program of action, a social and linguistic practice. In the context of discussing the autonomy of the history of philosophy as a discipline, we believe that it can also function as a cultural policy, which allows in this aspect to talk about the new contemporary mode of existence of the history of philosophy. The paper discusses two cases that illustrate this understanding of the history of philosophy, namely when the specialists in ancient philosophy (M. Nussbaum and B. Cassin) used the cultural patterns of the past to create contemporary, relevant humanistic and social projects.

The paper analyzes views of ancient Greek philosophers concerning impassibility of God. It is demonstrated that impassibility of God has been maintained as one of his main attributes within philosophical theology of antiquity in spite of obvious differences between philosophical schools themselves. One may not reduce this view solely to the common critique of anthropomorphism of gods of mythology.

The paper is devoted to the problem of the correlation between Aristotle’s ethics and metaphysics. The author raises the following question: could Aristotle’s ethics be the first philosophy? First, the article reveals the reasons and grounds according to which the «first philosophy» is the first. Then the concept of ethics as the first philosophy is exposed through the philosophy of E. Levinas. According to this view, ethics is a lens through which all other philosophical questions must be considered, and therefore it is the first. The author identifies three criteria that Aristotle’s ethics must meet in order to be the first philosophy. Ethics (1) has to deal with the first principles and causes, (2) to give the universal knowledge and (3) to be valued above other disciplines. It is shown that ethics does not fully meet any of these criteria. At the same time, the author concludes that ethics can claim to be the title of the first philosophy, if by ethics we mean only the part that concerns the dianoetic virtues.

The article contains an analysis of the apologetics of Athenagoras of Athens, the author of the apology «Legatio Pro Christianis» and the treatise «On the Resurrection of the Body». It examines the form of texts, the audience and the functions of apologetics, the dogmatic views of Athenagoras. A conclusion is made that the apology was directed both at the pagan intellectual elite for which the presentation of the Christian doctrine is made, and at the Christians themselves. The followers of the faith of Christ received not only concrete examples for the verbal defense of themselves and their teachings, but the apologist also formed their identity, by building oppositions with the pagan world and its culture, as well as forming the dogmatics.

The paper shows that the philosophy of academics in the period of early Hellenism contained two opposite tendencies. The alienation of the individual from society, which manifested itself in the strengthening of moral and ethical rigorism and the development of the genre of consolation. This tendency was also seen in the reclusive and ascetic way of life of academics. The desire for political activity was manifested in the interest of academics in politics, as well as in their participation in state affairs. The first tendency was associated with the formation of Hellenistic monarchies. The second tendency was a consequence of the preservation of the Greek polis.

The paper compares the positions of Hobbes and Spinoza on whether the biblical god was directly involved in the creation of the Bible. It is known that Spinoza decisively rejected and Hobbes recognized the «God-givenness» of the Bible. At the same time, the comparison of the corresponding texts of these philosophers shows that there was a substantial continuity between them in their relation to the Bible and corresponding questions, including the question of God as its author.

The paper presents a review of the All-Russian Scientific Conference «Philosophy, Science, Humanism in the Era of Global Turbulence», which was held in Akademgorodok on September 13-15, 2018 and dedicated to the 25th anniversary of professional philosophical education at Novosibirsk State University.

The article provides a brief description of several conferences on analytic theology and analytic philosophy of religion, which took place earlier this year. It discusses ways of beneficial participation of philosophers in theological debates, and the promising perspectives of the collaboration of analytic philosophers and theologians.

The relationship between theory and reality in archeology is a classic example that illustrates the significance and diversity of the main problem of philosophy of science. From the epistemological point of view, the problem of the status of archaeological data is one of the examples of the problem of the theory-ladenness of observations within the corresponding naturalistic perspective. Trying to solve the problem of epistemic independence of the data, which corroborates the justification of the statements about the past, Peter Kosso offers a concept of «weighted coherence». Reflections on the book: Kosso P. Knowing the Past: Philosophical Issues of History and Archaeology. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books, 2001.

The critical scientific realism by I. Niiniluoto is one of the few concepts that speaks not only of scientific realism, but also of reality itself. Such an elements of the concept, like tropic realism - the minimal ontological realism (in the Putnam’s sense), stating that there is no single true description of reality, or the idea that the knowledge can be a subject of the analysis of false beliefs (by definition, truthlike beliefs do not have to be true) - are the best ways to illustrate how I. Niiniluoto understands the contemporary trend to imply vagueness into definitions of the main philosophical categories like “ontological object”, “truth value”, etc. Reflections on the book: Niiniluoto I. Critical Scientific Realism. Oxford University Press, 1999.