Russian mind in philosophical views by I. P. Pavlov

The article is focused on the philosophical views of the great Patriotic physiologist, pedagogue and thinker Ivan Pavlov on the problem of the Russian national character through the prism of the intricacies of the Russian mindset described by him in public lectures “On the Mind in General and the Russian One in Particular”. The author of the paper carries out a retrospective analysis of the causes of the current crisis of national identity in terms of the aggravated struggle for cultural identity against the background of worldwide processes of Globalization and Westernization. The topical issues such as the national mentality, national identity, national character and even contradictory and mythologized national idea do not lose their relevance but become more popular and are widely discussed in scientific and public circles. The special attention is focused on the problem of national character. Since the reflections on the origins, causes and maintenance of the combination of certain qualities of character typical of a particular people, seem rather a large field to explore, the author limits the research task to the analysis of the intellectual component of the mind in particular as the most vivid manifestation of national identity. The article gives a generalized description of the characteristics of the mind formulated by I. P. Pavlov, as the search for the answers to contemporary questions on the problem of the mystery and inconsistency of the Russian mental system in the domestic philosophical thought. The author arrives at the conclusion that Pavlov’s studies of the specific characteristics of the Russian mentality on the example of the mind of the Russian intellectuals in general is limited to disapproving and negative symbols of polarity and extremes in correlation with the mind of the cultural development of the West.