Тhe Other As A Sacred Principle Of National Meanings

Abstract

One of the most characteristic problems of our time is the crisis of collective and personal identity, as a result of the development of which there is a loss of sacred landmarks, necessary for a person to comprehend his own reality. In this regard, it is necessary to form a theory of identity that asserts the balance of personal and collective meanings. Since national identity is the leading one in the modern world, this paper proposes a hypothesis of the formation of the integration principle of the nation, which is understood as the sacred perception of the Other at the personal and collective level. The western and eastern models of nation-building are considered. In the first case, the destruction of the system of collective meanings is indicated, due to the excessive sacralization of the personality. In the second case, personal meanings are desacralized through the dissolution of the individual in the processes of collective sense formation. At the same time, in each case, interpersonal alienation and the weakening of social ties are recorded. As the main result of this work, the formation of an alternative model of the nation is proposed, in which the Other is perceived as a sacred meaning-forming landmark. The results of the article can be used as a method in the study of the nation and national identity.

Keywords: Collective meanings, nation, other, personal meanings, sacred

Introduction

One of the most pressing topics of modern social philosophy is the problem of significant socio-cultural changes, expressed in the form of accelerating the intensity of intercultural communications and global unification of worldview positions and lifestyles. As a result, a general crisis state associated with the loss of traditional collective identities is recorded. In view of the impossibility of complete reduction of the social to the individual and the individual to the social, “a person's identity should be considered as a result of the interaction of the sphere of the individual and the social” (Dryaeva & Kanaev, 2020, p. 621). In this regard, in modern science there are statements about the crisis state of a person as a whole, since, according to one of the research directions, human nature “... is a product of culture or social conditions, and the other asserts that there is no such thing as a universal human nature” (Gorodovich, 2020, p. 61). Thus, it is legitimate to talk about the crisis of a person's perception of his own reality. The source of reality, according to Eliade (1994), is the sacred, towards the connection with which the innermost desire of a person is directed, "equivalent to his desire to find himself in objective reality <...>, to live in reality, in a real, and not in an illusory world" (p. 26). The sacred perception of identity consists of a balance of personal and collective meanings. The loss of such a balance in the picture of the world of a modern person arises in connection with the desacralization of the perception of reality. In this regard, it is necessary to form such a theory of identity, the integration principle of which is the sacred unity of personal and collective meanings.

Problem Statement

According to the theory, the provisions of which are used in this work, a person, in striving for the sacred, needs a system of orientational navigation, in connection with which the leading directions of the development of life meanings are built. Thus, Stegmaier (2008) argues that "Orientation as food and breathing is an elementary, necessary and unceasing vital need" (p. 2). According to the domestic researcher Smirnov (2017), “Otherwise, a person cannot act and live, except to constantly orient himself. The latter is ontologically rooted” (p. 187). In connection with the adoption of these provisions, the main task of the article is formulated, which consists in identifying the sacred landmarks that determine the development and semantic unity of the process of personal and collective identification.

Research Questions

The leading hypothesis of this work is the idea of ​​forming a single semantic development of national identification, since the political, cultural and religious meanings of the existence of a European person of the last two centuries have realized the quality of national ones. At the same time, in the conditions of intensive desacralization of the main meanings of life, it is the nation that is revealed as a religious community, forming around the sacred core, and European "... nationalisms derive concepts, concepts, images and references ... from the Christian religious tradition" (Zygmont, 2019, p. 163). In addition, the fixation among the population of the European Union, the USA, the Russian Federation "... the phenomenon of interpersonal political and psychological tension <...> of individual hostility and interpersonal sensitivity" (Dembitsky & Burova, 2020, p. 8), suggests the formation of a high level of mutual understanding between members of the nation as an indispensable condition for the process of nation-formation.

In this regard, the integration principle of a modern nation must be considered the formation of perception by members of the nation of each other as a significant Other, which is understood as a sacred landmark in the continuous process of personal and collectivist identification.

The provisions of the stated hypothesis find confirmation in the ideas of the philosophy of dialogue. Thus, according to Buber (1995), the upbringing of the perception of a person as a significant Other is capable of forming a special space “Between”, in which “I and You freely stand in interaction with each other” (p. 44). Also, Bakhtin (2000), describing the ways of relationship with the Other, used the concepts of "getting used to" and "feeling" necessary to convey a state in which "The values ​​of being of a qualitatively defined personality are inherent only to another" (p. 128).

Acceptance of the provisions of the approved hypothesis is possible both at the interpersonal level, which contributes to consolidation within the community, and at the international level, which can be a way to prevent the emergence of Nazism and xenophobia.

Purpose of the Study

In connection with the designation of possible spheres of theoretical and practical application of the provisions of this hypothesis, it becomes possible to formulate the purpose of this article, which consists in describing the altruistic orientation to the Other as an integration principle of the nation, which presupposes the sacred unity of national meanings.

The purpose of this work is to substantiate the need to form the perception of the Other as a sacred principle of the unity of national meanings using the methods of social constructivism, the phenomenological method, methods of polyparadigmatic reflection and intersubjectivism.

Research Methods

In this work, national identity is presented as a unity of collective and personal meanings. The interdisciplinarity of this approach implies the use of a complex methodology that includes various methods. Thus, the understanding of nation-formation as an identification process open to artificial re-construction presupposes the use of the method of social constructivism. To consider the liberal and collectivist models of nation-building, the method of comparative analysis is used. The method of phenomenology is used to identify the sacred basis of identity and understanding it as a balance of personal and collective meanings requires the use of the method of polyparadigmatic reflection. In addition, the solution of problems included in the methodological field of theology and philosophy was carried out using the method of correlation, since, according to Tillich (2000), who developed this method, “philosophy formulates those questions that are implicitly inherent in human existence, and theology formulates those answers that are implicit are inherent in divine self-manifestation under the influence of issues inherent in human existence” (p. 64). As a result, the method of intersubjectivism is used to present the altruistic perception of the Other as a sacred integration principle of modern nation-formation proposed in this work.

Findings

As a result of the study, the need for active national reforming is proved. Since national identity is a deep combination of personal and collective sacred meanings, the awareness of belonging to a nation is the guarantor of the formation of personal and collective identity. Discovered in the mainstream of anthropological and phenomenological studies, the desire of a person to acquire “the fullness of being” (Eliade, 1994, p. 16), presupposes building a personal life strategy depending on the chosen direction towards the sacred center. The system of sacred meanings of national identification is understood as navigation that guides the individual and the collective in acquiring sacred completeness.

However, the directions of sacred navigation differ depending on the formulation of the integration principle of the nation. Thus, in the Western model of nation-formation, a personal strategy is built, which presupposes the discovery of a sacred source in the center of the personality. This strategy, sacralizing the personality, offers an understanding of the personality as an independent individual, whose self-identification is perceived to be more and more independent of the collective identity. It is also noted that “Contemporary literature on identity prefers “psycho” over “social”, which limits our understanding of the role of identity processes in society in a broader sense” (Rogers, 2018, p. 284).

This tendency manifests itself in the form of profanation of collective meanings, which led to an increase in the level of hedonistic values, and, having individualistic roots, the desire to abandon the sacred boundaries of gender, race, ethnicity, etc., generates a strong feminist trend in the Euro-American political environment, which can lead to to desacralization of the European's cognitive picture of the world, since “feminism entails a rejection of deductive “enlightenment thinking” because it is based on a masculine cognitive style” (Olsson, 2018, p. 410).

The parallel strategy of nation-formation presupposes an appeal to the sacred, localized outside the individual, but closes the navigational boundaries on the sacralized community. Thus, the nation itself is perceived as a sacred landmark. The obvious disadvantage of this strategy is the desacralization of personal meanings and the partial dissolution of individuality in the development of collective meanings. The implementation of this project is typical of Eastern nationalisms. In particular, the formation of a unified Chinese nation is based on the idea developed by Sun Yatsen, who received the status of "Father of the Nation". According to this idea, national unity should bridge regional and religious divisions. The results of studies carried out in educational institutions in China in 2020 show that there really is a “positive relationship between ethnic identity and Chinese national identity for adolescents of different nationalities” (Guan et al., 2021, p. 1).

The development of this strategy, with a concentration on collective sense formation and parallel profanation of personal meanings, becomes a fertile ground for the formation of authoritarian state regimes. Thus, the social credit system adopted in China, in which the state gets the opportunity to regulate a person's private life, indicates the profanation of the personal, intimate sphere. The Japanese model of society 5.0, in which human life is carried out with the help of artificial intelligence, points to the processes of desacralization of human intelligence and its gradual replacement with artificial intelligence, which is “nothing more than a rule-based imitation of our life form, which will lure only those of us who buy into its illogical premises” (Baer, ​​2018, p. 17).

As a third example, we can point to the multitude of pseudo-national entities that adopt the name of the nation in view of the social and political prestige of this category.

These models of nation-building are not considered as a solution to the identification crisis, since the desacralization of collective meanings in the case of the Western model and the profanation of personal meaning formation in the case of the Eastern model do not represent a sacred semantic balance. In this regard, an alternative theory of sacral orientation is needed, combining the development of personal and collective meanings, which is realized in national interpersonal unity.

The idea developed in the Western philosophical tradition, in the Nietzsche-Foucault-Deleuze continuity, is taken as the basic basis for formulating an alternative principle of nation-formation. Thus, Deleuze (1986), in a work devoted to the philosophy of Foucault, writes: “Forces in a person constitute form only when they enter into relations with external forces” (p. 139). Further, Deleuze formulates a theory of the historical development of sacred orientation. So, according to Deleuze, the primary form taken as a source of sacred power is the Absolute or "Form God". This form is not conducive to personal and collective sense-making, locking the personality in direct connection with the Absolute. The next form, according to Deleuze (1986), reveals the source of the sacred in man himself: "The form of man." The implementation of this strategy contributes to the Western nation-formation and, at a certain stage, achieves a balance of personal and collective meanings. However, immersion in the depths of the personality, in search of a sacred source, did not bring the expected results. On the contrary, the desacralization of the collective meanings of the Western nation became the reason for the permeability of their borders. Thus, European researchers record,

... that a parallel world is being built within their states, based on different norms, values ​​and ways of life. And this world is capable of destroying the integrity of a nation from within, undermining its inherent value basis, leading to conflicts and violence. (Starodubrovskaya, 2021, p. 147)

The third form, according to Deleuze, is virtual orientation: "The form of the superman." Indeed, modern researchers record the departure of human everyday life into cyberspace, which makes it possible to carry out identification practices. Realizing everyday life on the net,

individuals, thus, do not manifest themselves as passive recipients of nationalist discourses, but make an active contribution to them, posting their photographs in folkloristic costumes or during training in the gym. In this way, they can either strengthen or resist dominant narratives and participate in the formation of nations. (Bouchard et al., 2020, p. 63)

However, the withdrawal of private life into cyberspace becomes the cause of social atomization, due to the lack of live communication between people.

Thus, the third form of sacred orientation in the chain: God - Man - Superman, should be replaced by the form "Another person", which should be understood as a person, but not his own, which is typical for the Western national strategy, but the personality of another person - with a personal position, and another nation from a collectivist position. The adoption of this strategy as an integration principle of nation-formation should contribute to the reorientation of sacred navigation from an egoistic route that destroys identity and excludes personal and collective identification from the sphere of objective reality to a spiritual altruistic orientation, which forms the basis of the moral component of the spiritual abilities of the individual (Ozhiganova, 2021).

Conclusion

So, the basis of life sense-making is the striving for the sacred as being, possessing ontological superiority. This aspiration is based on building sacred routes, assuming the presence of sacred landmarks, laid in two areas: personal and individual. Only the relationship of balance between these spheres provides the opportunity for personal self-identity and collective identity. Destabilizing processes in the spheres of culture, politics and sociality cause an identification crisis, the removal of which is possible only through the balanced development of personal and collective identification.

The identification processes of our time are carried out mainly through nation-formation, during which a system of personal and collective sacred orientation is built. However, taking into account the difference in the routes of sacral orientation, in the modern nation-formation there are two main strategies that can be tentatively titled as "western" and "eastern".

Western nation-formation builds a sacred route oriented towards the personality, in connection with which, at a certain stage, the processes of desacralization of collective meanings are triggered, which soon causes a general identification crisis. The eastern strategy of nation formation, on the contrary, reveals the source of the sacred in the nation itself, dissolving personal meanings in a collective sense-making. Thus, the existing strategies are not a solution to the problem of the identity crisis, since they do not form the connection between the individual and the collective, which is necessary for identity, when I and They are transformed into We.

The main conclusion of the study is a description of the need to form an alternative identification principle that builds identity on the basis of a deep connection between individuals within a team and communities in the global space. Such a principle is the perception of the Other as a sacred reference point in the realization of the unity of personal and collective meanings of national identification.

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28 December 2021

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Shamin, S. A., & Malenko, S. A. (2021). Тhe Other As A Sacred Principle Of National Meanings. In D. Y. Krapchunov, S. A. Malenko, V. O. Shipulin, E. F. Zhukova, A. G. Nekita, & O. A. Fikhtner (Eds.), Perishable And Eternal: Mythologies and Social Technologies of Digital Civilization, vol 120. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 539-545). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.12.03.72