Open lecture by the Director of the Research Institute Guangdong University at IvSU

On February 25, 2021, an open lecture on "Political education, or "philosophy-as-a-way-of-life" was held in the conference hall of the 6th academic building of IvSU. Guest lecturer – Oleg Bazaluk, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Director of the Research Institute of Sino-European Studies at Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technologies (China, Maoming).

The moderator of the event was the leading researcher of the scientific and educational center "Complex Noospheric Research", Head of the Department of Philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor Dmitry Smirnov. The lecture was attended by students and postgraduates of IvSU, studying the disciplines of the philosophical cycle, as well as teachers of the Department of Philosophy.

The online meeting included several independent topics. Welcoming the participants, O. Bazaluk touched upon the current topic "sprachraumа" of the scientific community - the language (categorical) space in which the researcher lives and creates. If earlier Sprachraum articulated the specifics of the intellectual space of a particular philosophical tradition, the modern global Sprachraum requires categorical synchronization of the terms and concepts used. O. Bazaluk stressed that the heuristic potential of noospheric research carried out by Ivanovo School of Philosophy of Consciousness and Noosphere, being synchronized with a single American and European language space, is able to enrich modern philosophy with original ideas.

The main part of the online meeting was devoted to the problem of "political education" in historical and philosophical retrospect. The emphasis was placed on two models of practical philosophizing — Plato and Heidegger. The main idea of Plato's political education was revealed through the famous allegory of the cave, which demonstrates that transcendence and the physical world are interconnected in such a way that transcendence forms physical reality, and eidos have a real formative power. According to Plato, philosophers differed from humans (demos) in that their significant presence was determined by the scale of transformations in the transcendence and the physical world. If people obeyed polity and lived according to the laws of the physical world, then philosophers were the source of a rebellious state of discontent. The main drawback of the Platonic method is that the effectiveness of transcendence-and-return depends entirely on the quality of the mental understanding of transcendence, i.e., on the intermediaries between transcendence and physical reality. In other words, the Platonic way highlights the importance of philosophers, and not of philosophy itself. O. Bazaluk connected the return of "philosophy-as-a-way-of-life" to the original Platonic meanings with the discourse proposed by Heidegger, who proved that the idea of philosophy is not a man-made product "created" by philosophers. Philosophy itself conveys a restless and rebellious state of discontent in what is going on.

The lecture lasted about two hours and covered many aspects of political education and philosophical knowledge. At the end of the event, participants were able to ask questions and exchange views.

A live broadcast recording is available for everyone.