Interrelation of mentality and political consciousness

Philosophy, in Hegel's figurative expression, is "an epoch captured in thought". Philosophical knowledge possesses the highest degree of reflexivity, which manifests itself in the constant clarification of the thinking person's own thinking process. As a result, philosophy as a form of social consciousness expresses the self-consciousness of a historical epoch or, in the case of national philosophy, acts as a form of national self-consciousness.

Philosophy as a form of national selfconsciousness inevitably embodies the peculiarities of the national mentality. The specificity of national mentality is the basis for perception and understanding of other national (including philosophical) culture.

Since we link the peculiarities of national philosophy with the peculiarities of national mentality, it is first of all necessary to clarify this notion. The term "mentality" as applied to an individual means not only intellect, thinking ability, but also a special mindset, mindset (for example, mathematical, technical, figurative character of thinking). In the modern interpretation of the term, the above characteristics are supplemented with the features of thinking characteristic of an individual or social groups of various types (distinguished by age, ethnic, religious, ideological, professional and other characteristics). Thus, the content of the term clearly contains the moment of dependence of thinking peculiarities on social conditions of its formation and functioning, associated with the nature of spiritual activity in a certain social and cultural context [1].

Another researcher A.Y. Gurevich writes: "The concept of "mentality" is characterised by uncertainty, but, according to Le Goff, this uncertainty is fruitful .... I would add to this that, apparently, a certain blurriness of the concept is due to the very nature of the phenomenon: mentality is omnipresent, it permeates all human life, being present at all levels of consciousness and behaviour of people, and therefore it is so difficult to define it, to put it into some framework" [2].

From our point of view, mentality is a stable complex of past years formed on the basis of social and spiritual experience, a stable system of fundamental concepts and expressions of the subjects of society, orienting and largely conditioning public and individual consciousness and behaviour. It acts as a system of components of the spiritual life of a person or social group and includes the method of thinking, worldview goals, predisposition to perception, mindset. It seems that this complex predetermines the stereotypes of behaviour, activity, way of life of a community, individuals. The nature of mentality is twofold, including both spiritual-psychological and social components. This interpretation of the concept of "mentality" allows us to identify the most significant aspects of the structure of mentality: spiritual existence, social and individual consciousness, traditions, material and spiritual culture, identity, archetype.

The analysis of the problem of mentality as a quality of a person is very relevant in the conditions of renewal of all aspects of life any society. This is due to the fact that for the successful development of any society the formation of the young generation should be in accordance with the culture of the people of its country and their mentality.

However, in the modern social-psychological and philosophical literature, there are very different definitions of the mentality. As a result, the concept under consideration suffers from certain difficulties. The mentality of a person is characterised by the diversity and richness of its components, as V.A. Shkuratov notes [3]. According to the author, it comprises: social and cultural factors, which are rooted in social life and its structures, and natural factors, which encompass both the natural sphere of man's environment and his own nature; conscious factors, which are fully perceived and evaluated by a person, and unconscious, subconscious factors, which are not understood by a person; rational factors (science, philosophy, political ideology, etc.) and emotional and psychological factors, etc. ) and emotional and psychological factors. etc.) and emotional-psychological factors (attitudes, affects, etc.); public factors that come from society, from sociality, and individual factors that are rooted in the intimate depths of the personality. We believe that the importance of this concept of mentality lies in the fact that it draws on a wide range of social factors, without excluding or rejecting any of them.

The social role of mentality extends to the macro- and micro-environment and creates a specific orientation of life activity. It is a process of creating conditions for creative adaptation of personality to the social environment and at the same time – a means of forming the essential forces of society.

Human mentality is characterised by integrity, the existence of a specific qualitative core. Note that not all factors that make up the mentality exist not in their heterogeneous difference, not in their external connectedness and conjugation, because they are merged into a certain alloy. Mentality as an integral system determines the predisposition of a person to think, feel and perceive the world in a par- ticular way, to act in a particular way, to prefer (or reject) certain values, cultural codes, etc.

The wide use of the concept of "mentality" in various branches of modern science was conditioned by the emergence of the non-classical paradigm of social cognition, the subject of which is the world of everyday life and pre-reflexive forms of everyday consciousness, and the goal is the study of "living" social communications and life practices.

Before developing a multidimensional model of mentality, it is necessary to define the meaning of the predicate "political".

In English there are three key words related to the term "politics":

• 1)    "politics" – the political sphere of society;

• 2)    "polity" – the political system;

• 3)    "policy" – the political strategy pursued by various power structures.

In Russian the word "politics" is also used in several senses:

• 1)    as political life of society;

• 2)    as a strategy of activity in a certain sphere of society;

• 3)    as management of public affairs;

• 4)    as a form of social consciousness;

• 5)    as science and art [4].

Some scientists, considering political mentality as an area of people's psychological life, believe that it manifests itself through a system of views, assessments, norms, and mindsets that are based on the knowledge and beliefs available in a given society. Others understand political mentality as a set of attitudes, emotions and moods of various political subjects that make up the style of their thinking and manifest themselves directly in political activity. Some researchers identify political mentality with the symbolic level of ordinary political consciousness.

Considering the political mentality in the context of consciousness, two blocks of elements are distinguished in its structure: motivational (needs, values, attitudes, feelings) and cognitive (knowledge about politics, awareness, interest, beliefs, way of thinking). There are also four "layers" in political mentality: collective unconscious, reflexive, archetypal, and value. Integral definitions of political mentality as a set of attitudes, habits of thinking, moral orientations, beliefs, manners of behaviour, characteristic of any community of people or a particular individual, conditioned by the attitude to power structures and their assessment are also given.

In political psychology, as well as in political science, sociology, philosophy and other sciences, there are different, although very few approaches to the understanding of political mentality. Some believe that it is "a set of stable, generally spread in this or that group of ideas, expressing a special vision of political and social reality by people belonging to it".

There is a widespread opinion that the phenomenon of political mentality can be singled out as an independent form of mentality. It is pointed out that political mentality is directly related to the political consciousness of the nation, as well as to the everyday experience of real life. According to this approach, political mentality includes:

• 1)    perceptions of political reality;

• 2)    holistic political orientations;

• 3)    political attitudes [5].

Others consider political mentality in the context of ordinary mass consciousness and define it as "a set of symbols, which need to be formulated within a certain semantic-temporal space and which are fixed in people's consciousness in the process of communication with their peers, i.e. through repetition. These symbols (concepts, images, ideas) serve in everyday life as an ontological (answer to the question: what is it?) and functional (answer to the question: how and why is it?) explanation, a way of expressing knowledge about the political world and man in it. The identity of political mentality among its carriers is ultimately conditioned by the commonality of socio-political conditions in which their consciousness is formed, and it is manifested in their ability to endow the same meaning to the same political phenomena of the objective and subjective political world, i.e. to interpret and express them in the same way in the same symbols.

Often the concepts of "mentality" and "political mentality" are considered in the context of consciousness and, moreover, are identified with the concepts of "public consciousness", "mass consciousness" or simply "consciousness" [6]. However, such an identification unnecessarily simplifies and narrows the understanding of mentality, since the latter only determines the peculiarity of this type of consciousness, and the conscious elements of mentality are inextricably linked with the area of the unconscious, which can be considered exclusively as collective.

In a meaningful sense, the political mentality is a set of conscious and unconscious political perceptions, values, attitudes and stereotypes of a particular social community in the sphere of political reality.

Political mentality is not just a way of looking at and thinking about the world. This interpretation contains elements of contemplation and passivity. R.A. Lubsky interprets mentality as an active process of worldview, which implies both activity of perception and activity of action. In line with this, a multidimensional model of political mentality is proposed, which structurally includes [7]:

• 1)    conscious and unconscious perceptions of political reality, which function as cognitive motives for political behaviour;

• 2)    political value orientations, which are both conscious and unconscious and function as a value motive of political behaviour;

• 3)    political attitudes and beliefs -conscious willingness and unconscious predispositions to respond to the situation in a certain way.

As far as the formation of the political mentality and its dynamics are concerned, two further aspects should be added to those already mentioned.

Firstly, the mentality, which is largely created and supported by traditions, rituals, direct educational influences of the closest reference environment, the mass media, and which crystallises already in the early enough stages of a person's ascent to social maturity, is both an indicator and a means and result of the process of transmission of social-political experience from generation to generation, in fact it proves the fact of its continuity.

Secondly, in the conditions of cardinal social changes, mentality, not supported by established rules, customs and traditions, can change qualitatively, and human perception of social life, approaches to assessment of oneself, other people and social phenomena can undergo unexpected and at the same time qualitative deformations, moving significantly in the continuum "irrational approach - rational approach".

Thus, the political psyche is a complex socio-cultural formation, which is a special form of active reflection of socio-political processes and phenomena by a subject, aris- ing in the subject's socio-political interaction with the outside world and performing a regulatory function in his behaviour. The analysis of the political psyche involves consideration of its structure, including socio-perceptual, intellectual and emotional-volitional blocks, revealing the role of political consciousness and unconscious processes and states. A special place in the system of political psyche belongs to political mentality.