Olga Gilyazova

In the modern medical philosophy there are two basic models in the light of which the reflections on the essence of health and disease/illness are developed – biomedical and humanistic – differentiated as, respectively, an objective (and objectifying) point of view from the third-person perspective and a subjective point of view from the first-person perspective; a professional point of view and a patient’s one; curing a disease and healing one’s suffering; scientism and humanism; science and art (skill); the logos of technique and the ethos of care. The purpose of the article is a philosophical reflection of the category of disease/illness in the context of biomedical and humanistic models of medicine. The impoverishment of modern medicine as a result of reliance on biomedical paradigm, rooted in the natural sciences, and the need for its rehumanization through the introduction of a humanistic paradigm, rooted in the humanities, are problematized. We reveal that the limitations of both models (bio-medical model – within the framework of a naturalist approach, and humanistic model – within the framework of the phenomenology of medicine and narrative medicine) lie in understanding and conceptualizing of disease/illness. While having established that both models have more things in common than contradictions, we conclude that for the purposes of the development and enrichment of modern medicine it will be more effective to approach both models from the perspective of their mutual complementa-rity rather than through the prism of their antagonism (when their differences are exaggerated and opposed). In conclusion, as a recommendation for future researches in this area, we propose considering the experience of disease/illness from the point of view of the second-person perspective, which is neglected by both models of medicine. /Целью статьи является философская рефлексия категории болезни через призму особенностей биомедицинской и гуманистической моделей медицины, дифференцируемых как, соответственно, объективная точка зрения от третьего лица и субъективная точка зрения от первого лица; взгляд профессионала и взгляд пациента; лечение болезни и исцеление страдания; сциентизм и гуманизм; наука и искусство; логос техники и этос заботы. Проблематизируется обеднение современной медицины в результате опоры на биомедицинскую (естественнонаучную) парадигму и необходимость ее регуманизации за счет внедрения гуманистической парадигмы. Выявляется ограниченность обеих моделей (биомедицины – в рамках натуралистического подхода, гуманистической модели – в рамках феноменологии медицины и нарративной медицины) в осмыслении и концептуализации болезни. Устанавливая, что у обеих моделей больше точек соприкосновения, чем противоречий, приходим к выводу, что для развития и обогащения современной медицины будет плодотворнее подходить к обеим моделям не с позиции их антагонизма (когда их различия преувеличиваются и противопоставляются), а с позиции их взаимодополняемости. В заключении в качестве рекомендации для будущих исследований в этой области предлагаем рассмотрение опыта болезни с точки зрения второго лица, пренебрегаемого обеими моделями медицины.

The purpose of the article is to raise the issue of the significance, advantages and disadvantages of universal competencies and the conceptual validity of their set / framework for competence-based education (including Russian higher education). The factors that actualize universal competencies in the conditions of the modern digital world and the knowledge economy are identified. The significance of this actualization for education is comprehended: expanding the boundaries of the competence-based approach; increasing the availability of competencies that have been the province of the few; transferring of the process of mastering these competencies from familiar environments (family, work) to schools and universities; avoiding the opposition of training and upbringing, education and socialization.
The main problematic points of this conception are considered: the vagueness and incompleteness of their conceptualization; the complexity of their measurement and assessment; the risk of mixing personality qualities and competencies, which is fraught with an overestimation of their upbringing potential; the ambiguity of changing their status in education: from means to ends; the possibility of their inclusion in the context of indoctrination. The authors reveal the ambivalent nature of the Russian framework, reflected in its disproportionate structure: its ability to respond promptly to the challenges of a dynamic world turns into in its dependence on the economic and political agenda.
The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the issue is investigated through the prism of the fundamental contradiction of competence-based education — between the focus on a predictable guaranteed successful result and the effort to take into account the unpredictability of the modern world. It is determined the conceptual validity of the Russian framework of universal competencies embodying an attempt to overcome such contradiction. As a result, it is demonstrated that the dialectically interrelated advantages and problematic aspects of the conception and framework of universal competencies give them an ambiguous but progressive significance for Russian higher education. [Цель статьи — поставить вопрос о значении, достоинствах и недостатках универсальных компетенций, а также о специфике и концептуальной обоснованности их фреймворка для компетентностного образования, прежде всего, российского высшего образования. Выявлены факторы, которые в условиях современного цифрового мира и экономики знаний актуализируют универсальные компетенции. В статье осмысляется значение данной актуализации для образования: раздвижение границ компетентностного подхода; повышение доступности компетенций, которые ранее были достоянием немногих; перенос процесса усвоения этих компетенций из привычных сред (семьи, работы) в школы и вузы; преодоление противопоставления обучения и воспитания, образования и социализации.
Установлены основные проблемные моменты концепции универсальных компетенций: нечеткость и неполнота их концептуализации; сложность их измерения и оценки; риск смешения личностных качеств и компетенций, что чревато завышением их воспитательного потенциала; неоднозначность изменения их статуса в образовании: от средств к целям; вероятность их включения в контекст идеологической обработки. Авторами раскрывается амбивалентный характер российского фреймворка универсальных компетенций, отражающийся в его диспропорциональном устройстве: его способность оперативно реагировать на вызовы динамичного мира оборачивается его зависимостью от экономической и политической повестки дня.
Научная новизна состоит в том, что исследуемая проблематика впервые рассматривается через призму основополагающего противоречия компетентностного образования: между направленностью на предсказуемый гарантированный успешный результат и стремлением учесть непредсказуемость современного мира. Определяется концептуальная обоснованность российского фреймворка как попытки преодоления этого противоречия. В результате авторы демонстрируют, что диалектически взаимосвязанные преимущества и проблемные аспекты концепции и фреймворка универсальных компетенций придают им неоднозначное, но прогрессивное значение для российского высшего образования.]

Осмысляются категории здоровья и болезни в проблемном поле философских теорий, вызревших в рамках биомедицинской и гуманистической моделей медицины. Вскрываются философские противоречия, которые, подпитывая дебаты между натурализмом и нормативизмом, препятствуют выработке биомедициной единого удовлетворительного понимания данных категорий. Анализируются теоретические и практические последствия таких особенностей биомедицинской модели, как патоцентризм, отождествление здоровья с полным благополучием, дихотомическое противопоставление здоровья и болезни при отсутствии четкого критерия для их разграничения. Исследуется роль гуманистических подходов в регуманизации медицины. Подчеркивается их заслуга в продвижении более сбалансированного взгляда на здоровье и болезнь, внимательного к принципиальной хрупкости и уязвимости человеческой природы. / The categories of health and disease/illness are conceptualized from the perspective of the philosophy of
medicine. Philosophical contradictions are revealed, which, fueling the debate between naturalism and normativism, prevent biomedicine from developing a single satisfactory understanding of these catego-ries. The theoretical and practical consequences of such biomedicine features as pathocentrism, identifica-tion of health with complete well-being, dichotomy of health and disease in the absence of a clear criterion for their differentiation are analyzed. The role of humanistic approaches to the medicine rehumanization is investigated with a focus on their balanced view of health and disease/illness, attentive to the fundamental vulnerability of human nature.

In their studies of the distinguishing features of competence-based education that has gained importance in the context of the Bologna Process, scholars tend to emphasize either its benefits and possibilities or its limitations and disadvantages. I, however, am interested in interdependence of these pros and cons. The article takes a close look at dialectically interrelated pros and cons both of competence-based education and the concept of universal competences (as the Russian alternative to terms ‘generic skills,’ ‘soft skills,’ ‘key competences’). I focus on those of them that are prone to discussion and, as such, can be interesting and rewarding for further discourse in this subject area. To accomplish these objectives, I use the following methods: Comparative analysis as well as dialectic and diachronic approaches. This study has shown that in competence-based education, the innovative status should be assigned to the place of competences among the educational priorities rather than to competences as such. As a result, the competences that used to be mastered by the few have become universal. The downside of the process is that the increasing diversity of student cohorts unleashes two opposite responses: Teachers are not satisfied with students’ education levels, which are too low to achieve the predefined competences, while students complain about the unwillingness of universities to adapt their education programs to their level. I have pointed out that competence-based education, while creating conditions for learning outside formal educational settings, is a foothold for lifelong learning and learning society; however, this advantage (captured in the concept of universal competences) encounters a limitation involving the conflict between the self-development promotion and concern for others. I have found that competence-based education, in general, and the concept of universal competences, in particular, reproduce and remap Dewey’s pedagogy, bridging the gap between education and socialization, teaching and upbringing, the thought and the action, theory and practice. However, while implying unrestricted development of a student’s potential (as provided for by their constructivist nature), they lock a student into the confines of the ideal graduate profile, thus narrowing down the opportunities for generating the student’s alternative identities, which are essential in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. I have found that the bureaucratic form of implementation of the competence approach in educational realities promotes its perception as the technology of power in terms of Foucault’s concept. In addition, the competence approach, following the human capital theory in its focus on individual factors of success, contributes to a simplified view of the existence of the direct and simple correlation between the level of development (through education) of competences (first and foremost, universal) and the level of personal and social wellbeing. At the end of the article, I conclude that the dialectical combination of competence-based education pros and cons is based on its ideological ethos converting the Desired (by society) into the Required (for a student) and causing its duality (serving both humanitarian goals of education and political, neoliberal goals).

The article addresses the relationship between open and closed texts. The aim of the
study is to analyze the specifics of relationship between the open and closed text in the general context of communication between the author and the reader. While supporting mainly U. Eco’s concept in our article, we furnish it with the analysis to four approaches of openness/closedness, which we have singled out. Openness/closedness is conceptualized in several ways; firstly, as an ontological perspective reflecting the opposition between communication parameters, specifically the text-as-process and the text-as-outcome; secondly, as interpretation procedures that are commonly applied to the articulation of all texts, regardless of their form and content; thirdly, as the ontological and technological potential of works’ physical unfinishedness that invites the recipient to engage in a co-authorship (e.g., ‘the work-in-movement’ and hypertext); and fourthly, as the ability of a text to provoke multiple or unambiguous interpretations. We also demonstrate that the way of text’s functioning is determined not only by the addressee's attitude to it, but text itself, in return, stimulates this attitude, predisposing to it by its specificity (as informative or artistic, kitsch or art, hypertext or linear text, digital or analog). However, as we explain in the conclusion, the dialectic of openness/closedness can affect the distinctness of these dichotomies: The text can use its openness manipulatively, which turns it into a closed text.

Tracing the foundations of school (as schooling) from the ancient era, we can notice that schools were originally conceived as a place of leisure (skholé), understood as a way of life, free from the requirements of satisfying vital needs. But in the contemporary era, school(ing) aims to prepare students for the demands of the labour market. The first view belongs to the “World of play,” the second view – to the “World of work.” This terminology is introduced by us as a development of the ideas of such famous game scholars as J. Huizinga, R. Caillois, B. Suits, M. Csikszentmihalyi, J. McGonigal, B. Burke, P. McDonald, M. J. Roberts, J. T. Wright, and M. V. López. The concepts of the “World of work” (as an involuntary, compulsory activity required for survival and maintaining a standard of living) and “World of play” (as a freely chosen, voluntary activity, which is self-appealing) constitute the theoretical and methodological basis of our article. The goal of the paper is to analyze the implementation of the game approach in education within the framework of the “World of play” and “World of work.” To achieve this goal, we provide a brief historical overview of changes in attitudes to play/work, as well as changes in the play activity itself under the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We have established that the binary division and contraposition of work and play can be traced back to antiquity. Although it seems less relevant in contemporary society, it still retains its significance. The point is not in the activity itself, but in our attitude to it. After all, what is conceptualized as work or play are different aspects of the same activity. We determine that it is the school that uses the phenomenological (and not the actual) nature of this binary division. There are two main ways of understanding the game approach to education: 1) Work-oriented, in which games are instrumentalized into an educationally useful activity that contributes to the destruction of the ‘spirit’ of a game as a self-sufficient activity; 2) game-oriented (a project by M. Prensky and his followers), in which school(ing) itself turns into a game, which is fraught with levelling the socializing function of schooling – preparing students for life that is mainly a world of work and care. In both ways, schooling builds up the learning process, strengthening one of the opposites in this binary opposition. There is a substitution of the essence of the game approach, which is used to ‘colorize’ the educational process that is perceived as something boring and unpleasant. Following Aristotle, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Jacques Rancière, Maximiliano Valerio López, we believe that schooling should eliminate this opposition rather than deepen it, presenting education not as a forced activity and not as fun or entertainment, but as diligent productive leisure, interesting in itself. This is the true meaning of the game approach. We come to understand that both ways, in their extreme versions, are due to a change in the paradigm of perception of the school’s role: From a public good to a social service, which needs a process of ‘marketization’ (like ‘banking education’ by Paulo Freire). In conclusion, we emphasize the need for schools to maintain a balance between the two orientations – the “World of work” and the “World of play.”

The aim of the article is to consider the specific character of youth policy in contemporary Russia by retrospectively analyzing its establishment, its laws and regulations, its theories (types and models) conceptualized depending on youth perception patterns (as a problem or resource), the place and role of youth (as a subject or object). The action-activity-based approach, rooted in the ideas of leading sociologists P. Bourdieu, A. Giddens, P. Sztompka, serves as methodological framework. Results: The dependence of the youth policy on the president's agenda, its secondariness, its non-publicity and uninformativity, governmental-paternalistic focus, abundant fictions and simulations, archaism, marketing logic, etc. have been revealed. These features are attributable to substitution of youth policy for its specific format - state (government) youth policy. As corrective measures, it is proposed to make the youth subjectness principle real (through the development of civil society institutions). Conclusion: Considering that the identified problems stem from the dissonance between the youth subjectness principle declared in the scientific-theoretical discourse and regulatory environment and the absence of political will and conditions for actualizing this principle, the hope for fundamental transformation of the Russian youth policy is premature.

One of the most significant events in the Russian system of higher education was the withdrawal from the Bologna Process, which raises the question of its way forward. The purpose of the article: To comprehend the dilemma "Soviet traditions-Bologna innovations" that has become relevant in connection with the exclusion of Russia from the Bologna Process. This dilemma is considered through the prism of the interrelated dichotomies identified by the authors (and constituting the scientific novelty of the article): Between the "deductive" (from the general to the particular, from theory to practice) logic of learning inherent in the German (Humboldtian) model (which became the basis of the Russian pre-revolutionary and Soviet education systems) and "inductive" (from the particular to the general, from practice to theory) logic of learning adopted in the Anglo-Saxon model of higher education (which became the basis of the Bologna process); between mono- and multi-level systems of higher education; between tradition and innovation; between the perception of education as a socially significant weal and as a service. In the course of the analysis, we come to the understanding that there is no such a model of education that could claim the status of a universal one. This understanding allows the authors to develop some recommendations: To provide universities with the opportunity to use the model that best suits them: the Soviet (or its fundamental principle – Humboldtian) model – for science-oriented universities, the Bologna model – for practice-oriented universities, or to let them adopt a hybrid model that combines the advantages of both models; to distribute responsibility for the quality of training between students, universities and employers; to institutionalize lifelong education (in the context of which higher education appears to be an important, but not the final stage of education). / Одним из наиболее значительных событий в российской системе высшего
образования стал выход из Болонского процесса, что вызывает вопрос о ее дальнейшем пути развития. Цель статьи: осмыслить ставшую актуальной в связи с исключением России из Болонского процесса дилемму «советские традиции – болонские инновации». Данная дилемма рассматривается через призму выявленных авторами (что составляет научную новизну статьи) взаимосвязанных дихотомий: между «дедуктивной логикой» обучения (от общего к частному, от теории к практике), присущей германской (гумбольдтовской) модели (ставшей основой российской дореволюционной и советской систем образования) и «индуктивной логикой» обучения (от частного к общему, от практики к теории), принятой в англосаксонской модели высшего образования (ставшей основой Болонского процесса); между моно- и полиуровневыми системами высшего образования; между традиционностью и инновационностью; между восприятием
образования как социально значимого блага и как услуги. В ходе анализа вызревает понимание, что не существует такой модели образования, которая могла бы претендовать на статус универсальной. Это понимание позволяет авторам выработать некоторые рекомендации: предоставить возможность вузам использовать потенциал той модели, которая в наибольшей степени им соответствует: советской (или ее первоосновы – гумбольдтовской) модели – вузам, ориентированным на науку, болонской модели – практико-ориентированным вузам, или же позволить им принять гибридную модель, сочетающую достоинства обеих моделей; распределить ответственность за качество подготовки кадров между студентом, вузом и работодателем; институционализировать непрерывное образование (в контексте которого высшее образование предстает хоть и важным, но не окончательным этапом образования).

В современном высшем образовании ставится акцент на развитии тех навыков и ком-петенций (называемых мягкими, общими, ключевыми, в России – универсальными), которые, обладая надпрофессиональным, надпредметным, переносимым характером, являются ценными во всех областях деятельности. В данной статье авторы рассмотрели явные и неявные, контекстуальные и внеконтекстуаль-ные организационные формы формирования универсальных компетенций через призму бихевиористского и конструктивистского подходов и пришли к выводу, что не стоит противопоставлять эти формы на основании большей или меньшей их эффективности. Фокус на достижение эффективности приводит к противоречию: ожидание четкой и прямой корреляции между образовательными стратегиями и полученными образовательными результатами (в виде компетенций) лежит в устаревшей (бихеовиористской по сути) субъектобъектной парадигме обучения, от которой компетентностный подход стремится уйти. Однако именно введение универсальных компетенций позволяет снять это противоречие, так как они являются источником и следствием данного отхода от субъект-объектной парадигмы. / In modern higher education, the emphasis is on the development of those skills and competences (called soft, generic, key, in Russia – universal), which, having a supra-professional, supra-subject, transmittable character, are valuable in all fields of activity. In this article, the authors attempted to consider explicit and implicit, contextual and non-contextual organizational forms of the formation of universal competencies through the prism of behaviorist and constructivist approaches and came to the conclusion that these forms should not be contrasted on the basis of their greater or lesser effectiveness. The focus on achieving effectiveness leads to a contradiction: The expectation of a direct correlation between educational strategies and educational results (competencies) lies in an outdated (behaviorist in essence) subject-object learning paradigm, from which the competence-based ap-proach tends to escape. However, it is the introduction of universal competencies that makes it possible to remove this contradiction, since they are the source and consequence of this departure from the subject-object paradigm

В статье через призму историко-философского анализа рассматривается значение soft skills для трех основных целей высшего образования – гуманистической, утилитарной и гражданской. Устанавливается, что soft skills, способствуя взаимному усилению этих целей, помогают компетентностному подходу преодолевать напряженность между ними. Демонстрируется, что благодаря soft skills актуализируется вопрос не-однозначности данных целей. Обосновывается, что именно soft skills, становясь новым претендентом на роль интегратора, обеспечивающего  целостность и сбалансированность интеллектуального, ценностного и экзистенционального развития студента, по-зволяют, с одной стороны, переносить особенности классического университетского образования (гуманистичность, гражданственность и универсальность) в профильные (специализированные) вузы, а, с другой стороны, защищают университеты от превращения в «большие техникумы» (чем чреваты их массовизация и профессионализация).
/The meaning of soft skills for the three objectives of higher education – humanistic, civic and utilitarian – is discussed in terms of historical and philosophical analysis. It is found that soft skills facilitate mutual strengthening of the objectives and help the competence approach in overcoming the tensions between them. It is demonstrated that the issue of ambivalence of these values is updated due to soft skills. It is proved that particularly soft skills become a new challenger for the integrator role providing integrality and balance of the intellectual, integral and existential development of the student and make it possible to transfer the specifics of the classical higher education (humanism, civics and universality) to the profile (specialized) higher schools on the one hand, and prevent universities from turning into “large colleges” (that massovization and professionalization may involve), on the other hand.

В статье представлен философский анализ позиций биоконсерваторов и
трансгуманистов, проведена дифференциация этих позиций с точки зрения различения «терапии» (восстановление состояния человека до приемлемой нормы) и «улучшения» (превышение нормы). Демонстрируется неоднозначность этого различения, которое требует введения единой нормы человеческой природы, что чревато евгенистическим противопоставлением людей путем их разделения на высших и низших, нормальных и девиантов. Определяются возможные последствия трансгуманизма (в основном экстремистской версии): возрождение евгеники; дискриминация не(до)улучшенных людей; превращение права на (само)улучшение в обязанность; отказ от трудоемкой работы над собой в пользу легких путей, формирующих зависимость от искусственных средств; открытость для внешнего контроля и управления; технологизация и объективация человека; типизация людей согласно их функции в обществе; редуцирование «злых» социально-политических проблем до биолого-технологической стороны. Делается вывод о том, что трансгуманизм является проявлением никогда не насыщаемой жажды совершенствования. / The article presents the results of the philosophical analysis of the views of bioconservatives
and transhumanists. It aims to differentiate these views from the perspective of distinguishing between “therapy” (restoring a person's state to some acceptable norm) and “enhancement” (exceeding the norm). The author of the article demonstrates the ambiguity of this distinction that requires the introduction of some unified norm of human nature, which is fraught with the eugenic opposition of people through dividing them into superior and inferior human beings, normal and deviant ones. The article makes an attempt to carry out an analysis of the possible consequences of transhumanism (mainly its extremist version), such as the revival of eugenics; the discrimination of un(under)improved people; the transformation of the right to (self-)improvement into a duty; the rejection of the labor-intensive task of self-cultivation in favor of easy ways that make people dependent on some artificial means; the exposure to external control and management; the technologization and objectification of man; the typification of people according to their function in society; the reduction of wicked sociopolitical problems to the biological and technological aspect. The author comes to the conclusion that transhumanism is a manifestation of the never-satisfied thirst for improvement.

The purpose of this article is to examine the tension that exists between the main purposes of higher education, humanistic and utilitarian, through the competency-based approach. The main conclusions of the theoretical study, based on structural-functional and system-genetic approaches, are that this tension can be removed through introducing universal competences (the Russian alternative to key competences, soft skills), that due to their specificity, they can perform utilitarian, humanistic, integrating and balancing functions of learning. Also, upbringing and self-upbringing (intellectual, value-based and existential development, respectively) in the universalizing matrix of culture reproduction; they can transfer features of classical university education (the humanistic focus and universalism) into a specialized institute education, facilitating their convergence. However, the competence approach-based perspective of two central purposes of education, while overcoming the artificial dichotomy between them, still remains instrumental rather than autotelic. / El propósito de este artículo es examinar la tensión que existe entre los propósitos principales de la educación superior, humanista y utilitario, mediante el enfoque por competencias. Las principales conclusiones del estudio teórico, basado en los enfoques estructural-funcional y sistémico-genético, son que esta tensión se resuelve introduciendo las competencias universales (el análogo ruso de las competencias clave, las soft skills), que debido a su especificidad, pueden desempeñar funciones utilitarias, humanísticas, integradoras y equilibradoras del aprendizaje. La educación y la autoeducación (desarrollo intelectual, valórico y existencial respectivamente) en la matriz universalizadora de la reproducción de la cultura, pueden transferir rasgos de la educación universitaria clásica (humanismo y universalismo) a la educación especializada de los institutos, contribuyendo a su convergencia. Sin embargo, la visión, desde el enfoque de competencia, de los dos propósitos principales ...

The purpose of this article is to examine the tension that exists between the main purposes of higher education, humanistic and utilitarian, through the competency-based approach. The main conclusions of the theoretical study, based on structural-functional and system-genetic approaches, are that this tension can be removed through introducing universal competences (the Russian alternative to key competences, soft skills), that due to their specificity, they can perform utilitarian, humanistic, integrating and balancing functions of learning. Also, upbringing and self-upbringing (intellectual, value-based and existential development, respectively) in the universalizing matrix of culture reproduction; they can transfer features of classical university education (the humanistic focus and universalism) into a specialized institute education, facilitating their convergence. However, the competence approach-based perspective of two central purposes of education, while overcoming the artificial dichotomy between them, still remains instrumental rather than autotelic.




Resumen El propósito de este artículo es examinar la tensión que existe entre los propósitos principales de la educación superior, humanista y utilitario, mediante el enfoque por competencias. Las principales conclusiones del estudio teórico, basado en los enfoques estructural-funcional y sistémico-genético, son que esta tensión se resuelve introduciendo las competencias universales (el análogo ruso de las competencias clave, las soft skills), que debido a su especificidad, pueden desempeñar funciones utilitarias, humanísticas, integradoras y equilibradoras del aprendizaje. La educación y la autoeducación (desarrollo intelectual, valórico y existencial respectivamente) en la matriz universalizadora de la reproducción de la cultura, pueden transferir rasgos de la educación universitaria clásica (humanismo y universalismo) a la educación especializada de los institutos, contribuyendo a su convergencia. Sin embargo, la visión, desde el enfoque de competencia, de los dos propósitos principales de la educación, superan la dicotomía artificial entre ellos, y sigue siendo en esencia instrumental y no autotélico.

In the Russian Federation there is a situation of insufficient public confidence in the system of local government and often this is because we are not always successful experiments with different ways of organizing the system of local government at the present time. Enough to take for example the town of Asbest, Sverdlovsk region. Asbest in recent years has twice changed the system of elections to the representative body of local self-government, and twice changed the system of local government. These experiments over such a short time, not only disorientate population and distance it from exercising its voting rights, but also to a certain extent destabilize political situation, reducing the level of confidence in the selected "representatives of the people", and most importantly – devaluing the very essence of the electoral system and electoral law. It is not surprising that in these circumstances there is public demand for personal liability of representatives of local...

In modern higher education, the emphasis is on the development of those skills and competences (called soft, generic, key, in Russia – universal), which, having a supra-professional, supra-subject, transmittable
character, are valuable in all fields of activity. In this article, the authors attempted to consider explicit and implicit, contextual and non-contextual organizational forms of the formation of universal competencies through the prism of behaviorist and constructivist approaches and came to the conclusion that these forms should not be contrasted on the basis of their greater or lesser effectiveness. The focus on achieving effectiveness leads to a contradiction: The expectation of a direct correlation between educational strategies and educational results (competencies) lies in an outdated (behaviorist in essence) subject-object learning paradigm, from which the competence-based approach tends to escape. However, it is the introduction of universal competencies that makes it possible to remove this contradiction, since they are the source and consequence of this departure from the subject-object paradigm.

Problem and goal. Amid the currently advancing (technological, social, techno-social) trends, prominent attention is drawn to skills and competences, which are universal for all spheres of activity – soft skills, key competences. They are known as universal competences in Russian higher education.
The aim of the article is to pinpoint universal competences (UCs) and to analyze their specific features in the context of competence-based education.
Materials and methods. The authors use methods of etymological, conceptual and comparative analysis combined with dialectical and diachronic approaches and discursive reflection. The study was based on competence-based education-related documents and projects of EU, OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank as well as on monographs and articles of top experts and research groups.
Results. During the study, the term of universal competences was differentiated from the associated terms (soft skills, key competencies, generic competencies, and 21st century skills); the role of universal competences was identified as a balancer in higher education for equilibrating its two missions: Preparing students for successful career and helping them become well-rounded personalities. It has been found that
the terminological confusion and the lack of consensus on many aspects of competence-based education have an ambivalent character.
The idea of universal competences was identified as a Russian version of a tool (and the outcome) of the integration of two opposite intentions of the national educational policy: Blending in the mainstream of the competence-based approach and retaining its uniqueness. A contribution was made to expanding the conception of universalism as the foundation for competence-based education, including the one in Russia.
Conclusion. We acknowledge that the concept of universal competences can make competence-based education more balanced in Russian environment or, on the contrary, it can aggravate its inherent imbalance.

The right to receive medical care is a constitutionally assigned right that is guaranteed to every citizen of the Russian Federation. However, with the realization of this right, there are often difficulties arising from problems in the modern Russian healthcare system. Optimization of this area is designed to solve these problems, however, often only exacerbates them.Право на получение медицинской помощи – конституционно закрепленное право, которое гарантируется каждому гражданину Российской Федерации. Однако, с реализацией этого права нередко возникают сложности, обусловленные проблемами в современной российской системе здравоохранения. Оптимизация данной сферы призвана решить эти проблемы, однако, нередко только усугубляет их

The focus of this research is on the problem of paradoxical and ambiguous development of soft skills in the context of modern education. In present-day scientific discourse, soft skills are addressed from two perspectives representing the competency-based approach relying on the theory of human capital and the humanistic approach rooted in the concept of Bildung. The performed analysis suggests that the main difference between these positions can be found in their educational goals: to develop the student's soft skills for the sake of treating the student either as a means or as an end (by Kant's ethics). Modern educational theory and practice are characterized by the first approach: Universities are aimed at satisfying the needs of the labor market (in keeping with the knowledge-driven economy pressing for development of soft skills). The comparative analysis of the revealed viewpoints demonstrates limitations of the competency-based approach and suggests the importance of its humanization. The latter can be achieved, among other things, through refocusing from the human capital theory to the human capability approach.

In their studies of the distinguishing features of competence-based education that has gained importance in the context of the Bologna Process, scholars tend to emphasize either its benefits and possibilities or its limitations and disadvantages. I, however, am interested in interdependence of these pros and cons. The article takes a close look at dialectically interrelated pros and cons both of competence-based education and the concept of universal competences (as the Russian alternative to terms ‘generic skills,’ ‘soft skills,’ ‘key competences’). I focus on those of them that are prone to discussion and, as such, can be interesting and rewarding for further discourse in this subject area. To accomplish these objectives, I use the following methods: Comparative analysis as well as dialectic and diachronic approaches. This study has shown that in competence-based education, the innovative status should be assigned to the place of competences among the educational priorities rather than to competences as such. As a result, the competences that used to be mastered by the few have become universal. The downside of the process is that the increasing diversity of student cohorts unleashes two opposite responses: Teachers are not satisfied with students’ education levels, which are too low to achieve the predefined competences, while students complain about the unwillingness of universities to adapt their education programs to their level. I have pointed out that competence-based education, while creating conditions for learning outside formal educational settings, is a foothold for lifelong learning and learning society; however, this advantage (captured in the concept of universal competences) encounters a limitation involving the conflict between the self-development promotion and concern for others. I have found that competence-based education, in general, and the concept of universal competences, in particular, reproduce and remap Dewey’s pedagogy, bridging the gap between education and socialization, teaching and upbringing, the thought and the action, theory and practice. However, while implying unrestricted development of a student’s potential (as provided for by their constructivist nature), they lock a student into the confines of the ideal graduate profile, thus narrowing down the opportunities for generating the student’s alternative identities, which are essential in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. I have found that the bureaucratic form of implementation of the competence approach in educational realities promotes its perception as the technology of power in terms of Foucault’s concept. In addition, the competence approach, following the human capital theory in its focus on individual factors of success, contributes to a simplified view of the existence of the direct and simple correlation between the level of development (through education) of competences (first and foremost, universal) and the level of personal and social wellbeing. At the end of the article, I conclude that the dialectical combination of competence-based education pros and cons is based on its ideological ethos converting the Desired (by society) into the Required (for a student) and causing its duality (serving both humanitarian goals of education and political, neoliberal goals).

Гилязова Ольга Сергеевна, Замощанская Анна Николаевна Концепция смерти в философии В. Янкелевича: смерть по эту сторону смерти Статья посвящена исследованию философии смерти В. Янкелевича, представленной им как система танатософии, структурированная по отношению к трем формам времени и трем точкам зрения (Я, Ты, Он). В рамках данной работы предпочтительное внимание уделяется первому этапу смерти "по эту сторону смерти", что определяет необходимость обращения к проблематике способов познания смерти, ее сущности, смысла жизни и смерти, соотношения знания и власти над смертью. В ходе анализа специфики смерти рассмотрена проблема "права на смерть", однозначное решение которой В. Янкелевичем авторам исследования представляется односторонним. Адрес статьи: www.gramota.net/materials/9/2020/1/33.html

The article is devoted to the problem of the correlation of games and gamification as cultural and historical phenomena in the context of education. For this purpose, the authors consider games and gamification through the prism of a phenomenological approach. The idea of two modalities of activity: “Work” (the sphere of duty, coercion, and necessity) and “Play” (the sphere of desire, freedom, voluntariness), developed by the authors from the ideas of social phenomenology about lifeworld and multiple realities, forms a methodological basis the study. This allows to differentiate games from each other, from other conditional realities (art worlds and media), as well as from actual reality, and from gamification. Using the example of video (digital) games, live Action Role-Playing Games (real-life games) and Alternate Reality Games (mixed-reality games), the authors gave a general picture of the specifics and educational capabilities of games as special conditional realities. This study has shown that video games, due to their ontological closedness, form the basis for development of serious games, and Alternate Reality Games, thanks to their ontological openness, form the basis for gamification. Based on the study results, the authors substantiate the thesis that it is the difference between “Work” and “Play” that makes it possible to distinguish games from gamification: While a game is built on the opposition of these modalities (which limits the transformation of educational activity into a game: It hinders the socializing function of the school and contributes to the loss of the game of its autotelic ethos), gamification is aimed at its elimination by harmonizing the utilitarian and hedonistic elements of the learning process. This determines the more universal nature of gamification (if not reduced to the “points/badges/leaderboards” model) in education compared with game practices (especially for adult students).

The article aims to analyze the place and significance of happiness in educational discourse. The analysis reveals ambivalence of happiness education, following positive education patterns. The ambivalence stems from the fact that happiness is narrowed down to the first component of the following dichotomies: subjective/objective, active/passive, individual/social. As we explain in our article, such clipped happiness education may involve the following consequences: necessitating ‘therapeutic education’ for students; neglecting matters of social justice; imposing ideas of happiness on a child through ideological indoctrination. Yet, we can conclude that the dual potential of positive education methods makes it possible to offset the above and other adverse consequences of the promoted idea of happiness.

Tracing the foundations of school (as schooling) from the ancient era, we can notice that schools were originally conceived as a place of leisure (skholé), understood as a way of life, free from the requirements of satisfying vital needs. But in the contemporary era, school(ing) aims to prepare students for the demands of the labour market. The first view belongs to the “World of play,” the second view – to the “World of work.” This terminology is introduced by us as a development of the ideas of such famous game scholars as J. Huizinga, R. Caillois, B. Suits, M. Csikszentmihalyi, J. McGonigal, B. Burke, P. McDonald, M. J. Roberts, J. T. Wright, and M. V. López.
The concepts of the “World of work” (as an involuntary, compulsory activity required for survival and maintaining a standard of living) and “World of play” (as a freely chosen, voluntary activity, which is self-appealing) constitute the theoretical and methodological basis of our article.
The goal of the paper is to analyze the implementation of the game approach in education within the framework of the “World of play” and “World of work.”
To achieve this goal, we provide a brief historical overview of changes in attitudes to play/work, as well as changes in the play activity itself under the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We have established that the binary division and contraposition of work and play can be traced back to antiquity. Although it seems less relevant in contemporary society, it still retains its significance. The point is not in the activity itself, but in our attitude to it. After all, what is conceptualized as work or play are different aspects of the same activity.
We determine that it is the school that uses the phenomenological (and not the actual) nature of this binary division. There are two main ways of understanding the game approach to education: 1) Work-oriented, in which games are instrumentalized into an educationally useful activity that contributes to the destruction of the ‘spirit’ of a game as a self-sufficient activity; 2) game-oriented (a project by M. Prensky and his followers), in which school(ing) itself turns into a game, which is fraught with levelling the socializing function of schooling – preparing students for life that is mainly a world of work and care. In both ways, schooling builds up the learning process, strengthening one of the opposites in this binary opposition.
There is a substitution of the essence of the game approach, which is used to ‘colorize’ the educational process that is perceived as something boring and unpleasant. Following Aristotle, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Jacques Rancière, Maximiliano Valerio López, we believe that schooling should eliminate this opposition rather than deepen it, presenting education not as a forced activity and not as fun or entertainment, but as diligent productive leisure, interesting in itself. This is the true meaning of the game approach.
We come to understand that both ways, in their extreme versions, are due to a change in the paradigm of perception of the school’s role: From a public good to a social service, which needs a process of ‘marketization’ (like ‘banking education’ by Paulo Freire). In conclusion, we emphasize the need for schools to maintain a balance between the two orientations – the “World of work” and the “World of play.”

The article addresses the relationship between open and closed texts. The aim of the
study is to analyze the specifics of relationship between the open and closed text in the general context of communication between the author and the reader. While supporting mainly U. Eco’s concept in our article, we furnish it with the analysis to four approaches of openness/closedness, which we have singled out. Openness/closedness is conceptualized in several ways; firstly, as an ontological perspective reflecting the opposition between communication parameters, specifically the text-as-process and the text-as-outcome; secondly, as interpretation procedures that are commonly applied to the articulation of all texts, regardless of their form and content; thirdly, as the ontological and technological potential of works’ physical unfinishedness that invites the recipient to engage in a co-authorship (e.g., ‘the work-in-movement’ and hypertext); and fourthly, as the ability of a text to provoke multiple or unambiguous interpretations. We also demonstrate that the way of text’s functioning is determined not only by the addressee's attitude to it, but text itself, in return, stimulates this attitude, predisposing to it by its specificity (as informative or artistic, kitsch or art, hypertext or linear text, digital or analog). However, as we explain in the conclusion, the dialectic of openness/closedness can affect the distinctness of these dichotomies: The text can use its openness manipulatively, which turns it into a closed text.

The article presents a terminological analysis of the notion of text in the context of semiotic and communication paradigms to define its boundaries and to disengage it from non-textual semiosis. The objectives were achieved through the application of general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, description), the semioanalysis following Yu. M. Lotman’s methods and also structuralist and, to a certain degree, post-structuralist approaches. While performing the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that the concept of infinite textualization of the actual reality, which is promoted by a number of post-structuralists, tends to neglect both the complex dialectical relationship and the opposition between the text and actual reality. The article defines the ontological status of a text as a specific conditional reality. Then, differences and similarities between the text, other conditional realities, and the actual reality can be more clearly identified, which is quite importan...

This article highlights and discusses potential opportunities, limitations and problems related to using games and game technologies (such as gamification) in education. For the purpose of the study, games are seen ontologically as conditional realities. The world-of-work and world-of-play concept, which stems from the ideas of social phenomenology about lifeworld and multiple realities, forms a methodological basis for the analysis and differentiation between game and non-game activities, thus underlying the scientific novelty of our study. The following conclusions were inferred: By turning learning into a game we may prompt students to perceive the world-of-work (duties, responsibilities) as the world-of-play (desires, freedom); then, either the school will lose its socializing role in preparing students for life, which is a world of work and commitments rather than a world of game, or students will become bored with the game that will lose its appeal (or suggest manipulations). ...

The article addresses the relationship between open and closed texts. The aim of the
study is to analyze the specifics of relationship between the open and closed text in the general context of communication between the author and the reader. While supporting mainly U. Eco’s concept in our article, we furnish it with the analysis to four approaches of openness/closedness, which we have singled out. Openness/closedness is conceptualized in several ways; firstly, as an ontological perspective reflecting the opposition between communication parameters, specifically the text-as-process and the text-as-outcome; secondly, as interpretation procedures that are commonly applied to the articulation of all texts, regardless of their form and content; thirdly, as the ontological and technological potential of works’ physical unfinishedness that invites the recipient to engage in a co-authorship (e.g., ‘the work-in-movement’ and hypertext); and fourthly, as the ability of a text to provoke multiple or unambiguous interpretations. We also demonstrate that the way of text’s functioning is determined not only by the addressee's attitude to it, but text itself, in return, stimulates this attitude, predisposing to it by its specificity (as informative or artistic, kitsch or art, hypertext or linear text, digital or analog). However, as we explain in the conclusion, the dialectic of openness/closedness can affect the distinctness of these dichotomies: The text can use its openness manipulatively, which turns it into a closed text.

In this paper, we rely on research of specific features of social media’s
Internet audience conducted by VCIOM, BrandAnalytics, RBC and other expert
and informational communities and consider the social media’s role, opportunities
and limitations in building a dialogue between the population and authorities’
representatives. To this end, we assess the level of activity and productivity of
authorities representatives’ presence and the existence of feedback from the public
on social media like VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook and Instagram. The
paper’s theoretical and methodology foundation is the secondary analysis of domestic
and Western publications studying specific features of social media as a platform
for civil journalism of a new type. Also, we apply comparative analysis of sociological
research methods of socio-digital activity. Officials’ reliance on opinion polls that
are inefficient (unlike content analysis) in terms of monitoring the socio-digital
activity leads to their underestimating the popularity level of social media (VKontakte,
Odnoklassniki) “loved by the people” and preferring foreign ones (Facebook and
Instagram) or offline communications. This causes officials’ insufficiently quick
reaction to acute problems and public needs and, consequently, distribution of fake
information (especially under crisis and panic conditions). Medialogy automated
mass media monitoring (content-based) system proved to be a good tool of political
forecasting to neutralize these phenomena. In this paper, we research the prospects
of its application and make a conclusion on the need of its broader deployment in
the practice of public opinion monitoring by regional and municipal authorities

The  transformations  that  have  taken  place  in education  have  led  to  the  emergence  of  a  new educational  framework  under  whichmodern higher    education    institutions    are    actively adapting. The activity of educational organizations was rethought and teachers’ work acquired  new  features.  Today  institutions  of higher    education    must    build    educational activities  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  able  to  satisfy changing  needs  of  the  state  and  society. Therefore,  in  higher  education  educational activities should be built at a high level. Thus, to achieve  it,  it  is  significant  to  ensure  decent management of it.  The  purpose  of the  article  is to  revealgeneral  features  of  management activities in a higher educational institution and, on their basis, to develop a model for managing them. The model of management of educational activities  in  higher  education  proposed  by  the authors is focused on new approaches to quality as  the  main  component  of  quality  management being  a  system  object. The  work  achieved  the goal  of  uncovering  the  general  features  of managerial  activity  in  a  higher  educational institution  and,  based  on  them,  developed  a model  for  managing  educational  activities.  The model  of  educational  activity  management  in higher  education  that  we  have  developed  is focused  on  new  approaches  to  quality  as  the main component of education management, it is a system object. The model, as the study showed, helps  to  improve  the  process  of  managing educational activities, to bring it to a new level. According  to  the  study,  the  authors  concluded that  the  model  showed  its  effectiveness  and contributed to educational management improvement.

The article aims to analyze the place and significance of happiness in educational discourse. The analysis reveals ambivalence of happiness education, following
positive education patterns. The ambivalence stems from the fact that happiness is narrowed down to the first component of the following dichotomies: Subjective/objective, active/passive, individual/social. As we explain in our article, such clipped happiness education may involve the following consequences: Necessitating ‘therapeutic education’ for students; neglecting matters of social justice; imposing ideas of happiness on a child through ideological indoctrination. Yet, we can conclude that the dual potential of positive education methods makes it possible to offset the above and other adverse consequences of the promoted idea of happiness.

Tracing the foundations of school (as schooling) from the ancient era, we can notice that schools were originally conceived as a place of leisure (skholé), understood as a way of life, free from the requirements of satisfying vital needs. But in the contemporary era, school(ing) aims to prepare students for the demands of the labour market. The first view belongs to the “World of play,” the second view – to the “World of work.” This terminology is introduced by us as a development of the ideas of such famous game scholars as J. Huizinga, R. Caillois, B. Suits, M. Csikszentmihalyi, J. McGonigal, B. Burke, P. McDonald, M. J. Roberts, J. T. Wright, and M. V. López.
The concepts of the “World of work” (as an involuntary, compulsory activity required for survival and maintaining a standard of living) and “World of play” (as a freely chosen, voluntary activity, which is self-appealing) constitute the theoretical and methodological basis of our article.
The goal of the paper is to analyze the implementation of the game approach in education within the framework of the “World of play” and “World of work.”
To achieve this goal, we provide a brief historical overview of changes in attitudes to play/work, as well as changes in the play activity itself under the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We have established that the binary division and contraposition of work and play can be traced back to antiquity. Although it seems less relevant in contemporary society, it still retains its significance. The point is not in the activity itself, but in our attitude to it. After all, what is conceptualized as work or play are different aspects of the same activity.
We determine that it is the school that uses the phenomenological (and not the actual) nature of this binary division. There are two main ways of understanding the game approach to education: 1) Work-oriented, in which games are instrumentalized into an educationally useful activity that contributes to the destruction of the ‘spirit’ of a game as a self-sufficient activity; 2) game-oriented (a project by M. Prensky and his followers), in which school(ing) itself turns into a game, which is fraught with levelling the socializing function of schooling – preparing students for life that is mainly a world of work and care. In both ways, schooling builds up the learning process, strengthening one of the opposites in this binary opposition.
There is a substitution of the essence of the game approach, which is used to ‘colorize’ the educational process that is perceived as something boring and unpleasant. Following Aristotle, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Jacques Rancière, Maximiliano Valerio López, we believe that schooling should eliminate this opposition rather than deepen it, presenting education not as a forced activity and not as fun or entertainment, but as diligent productive leisure, interesting in itself. This is the true meaning of the game approach.
We come to understand that both ways, in their extreme versions, are due to a change in the paradigm of perception of the school’s role: From a public good to a social service, which needs a process of ‘marketization’ (like ‘banking education’ by Paulo Freire). In conclusion, we emphasize the need for schools to maintain a balance between the two orientations – the “World of work” and the “World of play.”

The analysis of a dramatic work is generally characterized by two approaches, which are frequently counter-posed to each other: The approach based on theatre studies tends to narrow down a dramatic text to a script, while the approach based on literary studies tends to see the above text without regard to its theatrical implementation. In our essay, we assume that these two approaches are intertwined: A dramatic work is meant for theatrical performance, which makes it different from other forms of literature. The theatrical nature of dramatic works leaves an imprint on their literary characteristics. We offer a new way of looking at the relationship between the performance text and the dramatic text from the ontological, semiotic, and communicative perspective.

Resumo No estudo da produção dramática destacam-se duas abordagens principais, muitas vezes opostas uma da outra: a teatral, na qual o texto literário do drama de fato é reduzido a um roteiro, e a literária, na qual se procura estudar o texto de forma independente de sua vinculação teatral. Em nosso ensaio, partimos do pressuposto de que essas duas abordagens estão conectadas: o trabalho dramático se destina à produção teatral, e esse fato o diferencia de outros gêneros da literatura. A natureza teatral do drama deixa marcas nas suas características literárias. A novidade no artigo é a consideração da relação entre o texto teatral da encenação e o texto literário do drama, nas perspectivas ontológica, semiótica e comunicativa.

Цель статьи – внести теоретический вклад в размышление о специфике «новых медиа» в формирующейся киберкультуре с диалектической точки зрения, которая позволяет избежать крайностей как технодетерминистских и «кибероптимистских» дискурсов, согласно которым именно технологии формируют общество и культуру, так и социоконструктивистских дискурсов, в соответствии с которыми общество формирует технологию. Тема статьи актуализируется в условиях пандемии COVID-19, когда статус цифровой коммуникации меняется с удобства на необходимость. В качестве теоретической базы используется концепция информационных революций российского ученого А.И. Ракитова. Исследование базируется на идеях Карлоса Сколари (с учетом идей С. МакМиллана, Л. Мановича, М.Б.Н. Хансена, К. Хэйлз и других современных философов и медиатеоретиков), который анализирует новые формы коммуникации, возникающие в результате культурной конвергенции медиа и языков через концепции цифровизации, гипертекстуальности, мультимедиальности, ретикулярности, интерактивности. Делается вывод о том, что среди данных пяти основных особенностей новых медиа ведущей (помимо цифровизации, которая порождает остальные черты) является интерактивность как совмещение пользователем ролей Участника и Наблюдателя, благодаря чему увеличивается возможность его прямого участия не только в кибермире, но и реальном мире, что знаменует становление такого феномена, как «цифровая активность» (имеющая не только положительные, но и отрицательные стороны).
The paper aims to theoretically contribute to speculation on the specifics of new media in the emerging cyberculture from the dialectical perspective, which helps avoid extremism both in technodeterminist and cyberoptimist discourses that imply that it is technology that society and culture are centred around, and in socioconstructivist discourse that suggests that it is society that forms technology. The topic turns even more relevant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic – when digital communication changes its status from a convenient instrument to a necessity. As for the theoretical basis, the authors follow the concept of informational revolutions, developed by Russian
scientist A.I. Rakitov, and the concept of C.A. Scolari (complementing them with the theories of M.B.N. Hansen, K. Hayles, L. Manovich, S. McMillan, and other contemporary philosophers and media theorists), who analyses new communication forms that appear as a result of the cultural convergence of the media and language through the concepts of digitalisation, hypertextuality, multimedia, reticularity, and interactivity. The authors conclude that interactivity where a user acts both as a Participant and an Observant and thus extends his/her direct involvement in the cyberworld and the real world is the leading one of these five main specifics of new media (except digitalisation, as it gives rise to all the others). This manifests the emergence of the phenomenon of digital activity, which has both advantages and downsides.