The article gives a general assessment of G. Marcel’s philosophical thought in the context of modern spiritual situation. The author believes that the productive potential of Christian existentialism in general and G. Marcel’s existential thought in particular is not yet exhausted. Attempts to provide modern answers to new challenges call for a certain reactivation.

The problem of understanding the body in the phenomenological philosophy of the 20^th century allows not only to demonstrate how the research programs of certain thinkers transformed, but also to explain the mechanisms that drove phenomenology in different national traditions. Examination of Merleau-Ponty’s Structure of Behavior through the lens of this problem shows how the philosopher adopts and changes psychological ideas and in which direction he takes phenomenology. His research program is a turn to particular human existence and lived experience.

The article is aimed at the analysis of the historical experience and the narrative relations. It reveals that in Ricœur’s doctrine the historical experience is interpreted on the basis of the human existence in time fixed in the meaningful narrative addressed to the community of people looking for a way of understanding and actively changing world. In this perspective, Ricœur should be viewed as a thinker who offered on the broad inter-disciplinary platform a profound understanding of epistemology of the historical narrative proving at the same time the enrichment of the experience meaningful content in the course of this process.

The article scrutinizes theoretical sources of Georges Bataille’s ideas in the light of one of his key concepts - «inner experience». This concept was constantly reinterpreted by Bataille during the course of his life. That is why it is possible to use it as a coordinate system to define the place of different themes in Bataille’s works. This allows one to provide a brief but informative overview of influence that various sources exerted on Bataille’s thought. Also it allows one to reconstruct the chronology of his thought and understand what his multidisciplinary approach yields.

This article discusses the concept of Difference in the philosophy of J. Derrida and G. Deleuze. The author proposes to doubt prejudice to consider the mentioned philosophers as opponents of any Metaphysics and shows that Derrida and Deleuze begin as heirs of Metaphysics and only then come to a conclusion about the impossibility of metaphysics, a statement which, however, requires a paradoxical way of thinking, claiming that Metaphysics points to his own inability and the inability of inability at the same time.

With reference to the famous «Turing test» - according to which a computer could be programmed in such a way that it’s answers to a series of questions in any specific domain were indistinguishable from human responses, the author wonders whether all kinds of mental activity are amenable to formalization and, therefore, to total mechanization. A possible exception would be the sense of humor or intuition as a whole.

How does philosophy conceive of orgasm? An orgasm is a very special experience that involves and questions personal identity as well as one’s interaction with someone else’s body. What is the significance of sexual climax?

The article focuses on the philosophical and political discussions between Rousseau and Condorcet in France in the early years after the French Revolution and led to the abolition of university for a century. The thesis about a need of formation of a «new man» was in the heart of this discussion during transition from the Ancien Régime to Modern France. Duration and nature of this discussion about the ultimate goals of education demonstrated a lack of consensus on this issue among French intellectuals and politicians. as well as stimulate not only political. but also philosophical debates on the «university question».

The article examines the main elements of Condillac’s concept of education: analysis as a method of teaching, the development of the ability to think as the main goal of educational process, the role of history and philosophy in it. The author analyzes also the major provisions of Destutt de Tracy’s project of public education (1801): schools for workers, the specifics of general and special education. The article makes an observation about the weaknesses of the doctrines of the two thinkers, and notes their ideas which have proved their viability and remain relevant presently.