Article
Article name Totalitarianism as Existential Phenomenon
Authors Darenskiy V.Y. Candidate of Philosophy, Associate Professor, darenskiy1972@mail.ru
Bibliographic description
Section POLITICAL SCIENCE
UDK 323.21 : 130.2
DOI
Article type
Annotation The problem of existential roots of totalitarianism in human culture is considered in this article. The paper gives analysis of philosophic and anthropologic dimension of the concept “totalitarianism” that makes it possible to discover hidden dimensions of human existence, cultural forms of being. It has been accentuated that totalitarianism captures the unflinching belief in a revolutionary necessity that grants the unleashed violence its frighteningly good conscience. The author considers the problem of prejudices in totalitarianism studies. Kinds of totalitarianism in modern history are revealed and classified; influences of Post-modern social and cultural conditions over contemporary “soft-totalitarianism” are defined. The author defines four basic prejudices of totalitarianism interpretations, which are: 1) about totalitarianism as only destructions phenomenon; 2) about totalitarianism as only new barbarian phenomenon; 3) about totalitarianism as only “mass” and collectivity phenomenon; and 4) about totalitarianism as only violence phenomenon. The author proposes his own interpretation of totalitarianism as existential phenomenon in a context of cultural studies, emphasing that his conception is based on rethinking of universal human experience, which is necessarily linked with a source of human freedom. The paper concludes with an outline of later developments in theory of totalitarianism in their departure from the earlier theoretical assumptions.
Key words totalitarianism, “soft-totalitarianism”, prejudices, modern history, violence, civilization
Article information
References 1. Averintsev S. S. Totalitarizm: lozhnyi otvet na real’nye voprosy // Rodina. 2002. № 10. S. 221–225. 2. Ballestrem K. G. Aporii totalitarizma // Voprosy filosofii. 1992. № 5. S. 16–28. 3. Eguneva M. V. Totalitarnoe myshlenie: dekonstruktsiya mental’nosti // Vestnik Orenburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2010. № 1(107). S. 3–7. 4. K’eza D. Etim mirom pravyat devyat’ chelovek. URL: http://vlasti.net/news/119185 (data obrashcheniya: 14.03.2014). 5. Nemenskii O. Esli by Gitler pobedil SSSR, sovremennaya Evropa schitala by ego velikim spasitelem. URL: http://www.regnum.ru/news/analitics (data obrashcheniya: 14.03.2014) 6. Pugachev V. P. Informatsionno-finansovyi totalitarizm: rossiiskii eksperiment po amerikanskomu stsenariyu // Vestnik MGU. Ser. 12. Politicheskie nauki. 1999. № 4. S. 3–32. 7. Rozanov V. Tsel’ chelovecheskoi zhizni / Anotologiya. Smysl zhizni / sost., obshch. red. N. K. Gavryushina. M.: Progress-Kul’tura, 1994. S. 19–64. 8. Todorov Tsv. Chelovek, poteryavshii Rodinu // Inostrannaya literatura. 1998. №6. S. 203–217. 9. Shakhnazarov G. X. Fiasko futurologii. M.: Politizdat, 1979. 352 s. 10. Maier H. Concepts for the comparison of dictatorships. “Totalitarianism” and “political religions” // Totalitarianism and political religions: Concepts for the comparison of dictatorships. N. Y., Routledge, 2005. P. 188–203.
Full articleTotalitarianism as Existential Phenomenon
0
24