(NEW) Oleg Valuev (Russia)

The philosophy of creativity as a personal practice of the freedom to be, do and create (Lecture)

In my life and professional activity, I have always understood philosophy as an eschatological art of human freedom, which opens up new forces and possibilities of the spirit. Her need, as well as the "need for myself" (according to MK K. Mamardashvili), I feel in pedagogy, psychology, psychotherapy, art and life. The philosophical foundation of my personal practice is associated with a creative synthesis of the philosophy of personalism and the philosophy of free spirit. At the lecture, in contrast to the intellectual understanding of creativity as a cultural product, an existential understanding will be "defended" - as the liberation of the spirit in the transformation of the world, the change of life (N.A. Berdyaev). Freedom is not that which you can, but that which you cannot. In this sense, real freedom is revealed as the freedom of creativity - in the synthesizing interaction of existential and essential freedom, freedom to do and freedom to be. It will be shown that the practice of freedom reveals the spirit in the triangulation of meaning, possibility and impossibility, therefore the self-knowledge of the philosopher is the creative basis of the philosophy of knowledge. The loss of meaning, leading according to V. Frankl to an existential vacuum, is the loss of freedom, and, therefore, the loss of the spiritual foundations of life, the loss of oneself. The philosophy of creativity as a personal practice of freedom allows you to correlate different types of freedoms with different types of creativity, revealing new meanings as connections and relationships between the possibilities and impossibilities of your life.

Surreal ballad as a dialogue of fate and freedom (workshop)

The search for answers to significant questions of human life sometimes leads to intellectual deadlocks, creating various difficulties in our life's journey. This sometimes happens due to the inability to organize a lively dialogue between your destiny and freedom, a dialogue that allows you to find yourself at a level of greater sincerity, complexity and concentration. In one fantastic work by Robert Sheckley, it says that "to correctly pose the question, you need to know half the answer." Workshop participants can bring with them or pose any significant life question that excites them in the past, present, future or eternal, and get an answer to it, which they will be ready for at that point in time. The cultural practice of self-awareness proposed for this can be used both in group and in individual work formats. It is based on the philosophy of personalism of N. A. Berdyaev, the philosophy of art M. M. Bakhtin, the existential psychology of R. May, the psychology of art L.S. Vygotsky and the psychology of the creative act of V.P. Zinchenko. So, we turn to the synthesized art - the animated film "Destino" (2003) - the famous joint project of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. This practice includes watching and discussing the cartoon, reflective writing and free drawing, the semantic performance of the ballad of one's fate and freedom. It will be a "motional dialogue" of self-knowledge, allowing you to find a new self.

Cultural and historical practices of life during a pandemic: overcoming the apocalyptic time (Lecture)

The year that mankind spent in a situation of forced self-isolation and massive restrictions, which caused numerous overcoming in society and culture, was completely shrouded in the themes and ways of life and death hovering over all of us. This forces us to speak of a catastrophic and even apocalyptic time (the latter is considered in the logic of F.M. Dostoevsky) that found reflection in the concept of "chronological neurosis", i.e. neurosis of loss of time connectivity, timelessness and the subsequent disintegration of the vital chronotope (A.A. Ukhtomsky, M.M. Bakhtin, V.P. Zinchenko). The coronavirus pandemic is understood by me in the logic of sociosystem and existential approaches as a trinity of epidemic, infodemic and noodemic. This enables a holistic and multifaceted consideration of our difficult time and its mental effects. This is not the first time humanity has faced such phenomena and has historically accumulated a certain set of tools and practices for working with society and personal life in such times. These practices, considered to overcome the apocalyptic time in working with oneself and other people, have both a psychological and a philosophical and existential structure. About them we can talk in more detail in the context of awareness of the transitions between survival, revitalization, life, experience and revival.

Existential motto as a philosophical and psychological practice of resolving personal problems and life difficulties (Workshop)

In difficult situations of life and activity, a person needs warm words that concentrate positive ideas, constructive thoughts, motivating and inspiring for new actions. As such expressions, various wishes of family and friends, beautiful philosophical sayings and aphorisms, artistic quotes, numerous advertising slogans, military and political slogans, meditative and religious texts are often used. Personal rules of conduct, professional credos, family and generic inscriptions and mottos are drawn up from them. In contrast to them, the existential motto allows you to give new strength and meaning to change life and personal circumstances for a certain period of time. The workshop is supposed to demonstrate the application of the futurological practice of writing to resolve a number of life issues and tasks facing a person. The methodological basis of this practice is the existential approach in psychology and psychotherapy (R. May, L. Binswanger), existential anthropology (N.A. Berdyaev, A. Camus, G.S. Pomerants) and cultural-historical psychology (L.S. Vygotsky, P.Y. Galperin, V.P. Zinchenko, A.G. Asmolov). This is work with oneself, turning a person to his own life-world, giving deep meaningful answers to personal questions in a symbolic form. The practice of creating an existential motto always refers to the future, with which it is proposed to work.