Tolstoy: "the revolution of education" in a logical and socio-cultural aspec

Author(s):  S.V. Rezvanov, Dr., Prof., Don state technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

L.A. Rezvanova, candidate of Sciences, associate Professor, Don state technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Lrezvanova1@yandex.ru

E.V.Titova, candidate of Sciences, associate Professor, Don state technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Issue:  Volume 43, № 4

Rubric:  Human Being. Culture. Society

Annotation:  The article reveals the role of L. N. Tolstoy in world culture as an ideologist of enlightened aristocracy. The authors explore how Tolstoy comes to the idea of responsibility of an educated and wealthy person for the fate of Russia, its people, the vast majority of which – the peasantry. Such a person, from his point of view, is the subject of history. It is responsible for the enlightenment and well-being of other unenlightened people. The article reveals the specificity of Tolstoy's understanding of the nature-like essence of man and, accordingly, the nature-like pedagogy. Only this kind of pedagogy can resist the " bad " influence of society on the individual. However, according to the authors, despite the methodological naturalism Tolstoy does not share the idea of materialistic (mechanistic or naturalistic) method of classical European educational pedagogy. He is looking for a way of harmonious combination of naturalistic and humanitarian approaches, believing that man is primarily a spiritual being. The authors of the article characterize positively the fact that Tolstoy rightly believed that naturalness is organically consistent with the idea of human freedom and therefore opposite to mechanical determinism. He believed that only the highest matter, the "Spirit", as a determinant of human existence, had the right to a genuine existence. The article reveals that in the concept of L. Tolstoy, this "Divine spirit" embedded in the human body gives him the right to moral idealism in understanding the meaning of history. However, as reflected in the article, Tolstoy does not accept subjectively materialism in General, criticizes it in relation to the social psychology of a person, identified by Him with an abstract, alienated from society individual. At the same time, the author's position is that this criticism is directed not so much against materialism as methodology (and philosophy) as against pedagogical naturalism (mechanistic materialism) peculiar to European enlightenment. Tolstoy needs it for approval as an ideal of an enlightened practically-active personality as a subject of history, i.e. as a "historical educator".

Keywords:  Dialectics, logic, genesis, concept, reflection, idealism, materialism, paradigm, empiricist worldview.

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