On the basis of the archival materials, first identified by the authors, and the published historical sources that have not yet come to the attention of historians of science, this article reconstructs the biography of Johann Christian Weltzien (1767–1829), doctor of medicine and surgery. In 1785, Weltzien became a court physician. In 1799, in the retinue of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, he participated in Italian and Swiss military campaigns. After that, Weltzien was assigned to the Сourt of Grand Duke Konstantin (...) Pavlovich of Russia and stayed at his court until 1810. He started his charitable activities in the Medico-Philanthropic Committee. From May 1810 to the middle of 1825, Weltzien was a physician at the Imperial Page Corps. It turned out that around the same time, in 1804–1825, he was a member of the Medical Council. Furthermore, as there were two medical councils under two ministries at the time, in 1811–1822, he was a member of both. Since 1825, Weltzien lived on his estate in Somel, now Vaiatu Manor in Estonia, and died in St. Petersburg. Weltzien’s work as a provincial physician prompted him to write a book on medical police, which was published in 1785. It has been established that this remained his only book on the topic. The article shows that Weltzien became one of the first ideologists of state care for public health in the Russian Empire. Weltzien’s ideas, expressed over 200 years ago, regarding the state having mechanisms to impact public health and the importance of not excluding it from solving health problems have not lost their significance even today. (shrink)

The novel Doctor Zhivago has not received the attention it has deserved lately—even much less for its philosophical ideas—so in this essay I want to bring attention to Boris Pasternak's notion of the nature of consciousness, which I find quite interesting. Yurii Zhivago, one of the principal characters in Doctor Zhivago, says the following about the experience of death: Will you [Anna Ivanovona] feel pain? Do the tissues feel their disintegration? In other words, what will happen to your consciousness? (...) But what is consciousness? Let's see. A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to... (shrink)

A fragment of Professor Yuriy Kushakov's lecture course "German Philosophy of Modern Times" on the doctrine of Immanuel Kant is published for the first time.

End period 30 - beginning. 40's of the twentieth century. in Transcarpathia it was extremely difficult. After the overthrow of the government of the independent Carpathian Ukraine by the Hungarian troops, a military administration was established in the territory of Transcarpathia. The Orthodox Church has been held hostage to international events and has become the epicenter of the struggle between Hungary and Yugoslavia. It should be noted that the religious situation in Transcarpathia during this period was tense. About 61.9% of (...) the population belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, 17.2% to the Orthodox Church, less believers were Jewish, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Evangelical and other churches. Among the Orthodox, since the 20's of the twentieth century. Two ecclesiastical jurisdictions dominated - the Serbian and Constantinople, whose representatives fought each other. The recognition and support of the Czech state before the Hungarian occupation had Serbian jurisdiction, which was represented by the vast majority of the clergy. (shrink)

Reveals a little-known pages of World War - participation of Russian Cossacks and Vlasov soldiers in mass crimes against the population of Rivne. Determined number of immigrants in Ukraine, their status, specific examples shown atrocities perpetrated by the Cossacks and Vlasov soldiers in the western regions of Ukraine, including Rivne region. Measures considered Ukrainian Insurgent Army against terror campaign results found work among Russian collaborators.

We provide a list of open problems in the research area of generalised Baire spaces, compiled with the help of the participants of two workshops held in Amsterdam (2014) and Hamburg (2015).

The article deals with the socio-cultural nature of information and studies its role in increasing global turbulence. Based on the methodological grounds put forward by A. Toffler, S. Moscovici, N. Chomsky, R. Patzlaff, O. Aronson, dialectical and systemic methods, the authors argue that the infodemic roots in stereotypical thinking generated by mass culture, as well as informatization and computerization of social relations. Mass culture contributed to a decrease in the level of critical thinking and caused the so-called ‘clip consciousness’. The (...) paper substantiates the idea that the infodemic became most evident during the coronavirus pandemic, and the spread of hybrid and information wars within the world scale. The infodemic organically correlates with the world of post-truth, where a person does not seek the truth but up-to-date information. The fact of whether the information is true or not in such a context becomes secondary to the cliché of the stereotypical consciousness of an individual, social group, or society as a whole. (shrink)

У статті розглядається проблема впливу феномену нудьги з творчості А.Шопенгауера на творчість М.Гайдеґґера. Вітчизняні і світові дослідники відмічають, що Шопенгауер є основоположником екзистенціалізму, хоча в історії філософії займає нішу філософії життя. Для розкриття концептів світу, волі та нудьги він використовує закони логіки, достатні раціональні підстави, основи сущого та вищі ідеї. Не можна сказати, що М.Гайдеґґер нехтує таким підходом, хоча б тому, що провідний метод дослідження традиції, – деструкція, – вводить його вчення до неї. За матеріалом статті аналізуються опозиції: метафізичне вчення (...) про волю як річ у собі – свобода, тільки яка й здатна ставити питання до себе (у Шопенгауера людина керується мотивами до вольового акту; у Гайдеггера людина є носієм якості свободи); нудьга як апріорі настрій пізнання – нудьга як екзистенціальний настрій Dasein. Стаття має за свої задачі: 1) дослідження вчення про нудьгу з метою вияву в її структурі аспектів свободи; 2) дослідження паралелей, зв’язку і протилежностей в концепті людини, на яку орієнтовані світогляди Шопенгауера та Гайдеґґера в проблемі можливості пізнання буття. Зроблено висновки, що у творчості Гайдеґґера одного періоду нудьга є фундаментальним настроєм Dasein, який виражений актуальним часу життя М.Г. духом постіндустріального робітничого суспільства. За пізнішою версією – нудьга є певним способом буття-тут, який характеризується тотальним підходом до відкриття собі своєї справжності. Таким чином, Гайдеґґер далеко наперед закидує актуальність проблеми нудьги в її широкому значенні, яке перегукується з шопенгауерівським – рутина, щоденність, коло бажань і страждань, ведення не свого життя, das man. Результатом дослідження, який представляється у статті є розділення гайдеггерівських інтуїцій про нудьгу на дві окремі позиції. Перша залишається у шопенгауерівському дусі, коли вчення про сенси буття, головним настроєм якого є нудьга, сприймаються як засновки ведення життя людей типів da-sein і das man. Друга представляє розрив від екзистенціальної дисципліни до фундаментальної онтології, герменевтики фактичності, в темі якої глибинною нудьгою пояснюється тотальність (постійна доступність до можливостей бути через мислення). (shrink)

The present paper is a continuation of the previous appearances by the author addressing the phenomenon of the cultural-symbolic world pictures as typologically founded in the “epoch-making” ontologies and culturally expressed versions of history. In their construction, philosophy is responsible for the love of wisdom, history – for the given in making the consciousness of being, culture – for the personal expression of human history. This article re-constructs the world picture of the Latin Christian Medieval Ages, adequate to the author’s (...) original theoretical constructs, with an emphasis on its ontological dimension proper. Section 1 deals with the European practice of interpreting the mentioned period as a distinct cultural-historical type, from Renaissance till the 20th century’s Human World. Concurrently, at the theoretical level, the paper addresses the very historical form of being is defined; philosophical tools to tell theory and history apart are offered; transformations of fact in the past are shown; distinguishing features of the knowledge relation. Section 2 deals with the basic components of cultural myth on the symbolic Divine World, and their representation in the philosophical practice of that period. Primarily, the very pathway of such philosophical “portraying” is sketched out: 1) the “epoch-making” interpretations of the absolute foundations of life of resp. ontologies → 2) ideals and values as defined by the latter, being components of an “epoch-making” ontological structure → 3) characteristic recording of the obtained “picture” in cultural reflections → 4) the “epoch-making” guides into knowledge and texts – realizers for the intent to irradiate knowledge. The paper also offers three symbolic worlds of the Latin Medieval Ages. Finally, under the distinctive Medieval “double-focus” view mode, and based on analysis of key texts of the period, seven twofold ontologically oriented characteristic features are offered as fundamental components of the then picture of the world. Section 3 suggests the final definition of the Latin Medieval Ages as a distinct cultural-historical type of life. Manuscript received 16.02.2020. (shrink)

The paper highlights the problems of the methodology of linguistics in the light of modern cultural transformations. The research object is the methodology of linguistic studies in the paradigm of postmodernism. The purpose is to substantiate the need for parity between rational and irrational approaches in the methodology of linguistic research. A point of the problem is the state inconsistency of the linguistic methodology with modern requests of global communication. In the process of research, a brief analysis of postmodernism in (...) its relationship with linguistics is given; the causes of methodological disagreements of linguistic practices are determined; the parity of rationalism and irrationalism in the interpretation of the text is declared; a philosophical substantiation of the position on the correspondence of the narrative form of linguistic methodology to the humanistic potential of postmodernism is given. The conclusion is that the requirements of the philosophy of postmodernism should become an immanent part of research in linguistic methodology. The significance is improving the efficiency of the practical implementation of linguistic research. (shrink)

The article deals with the problem of the cyclical nature of socio-historical development. Cyclicity is positioned as a universal feature of social development, making it possible to use the “lessons of history” in forecasting the future. Particular attention is paid to analyzing the causes of chronic disruptions in Russia’s modernization. The specificity of the Russian history cyclical nature is seen in the action of the institutional matrix, which unites authoritarianism and the suppression of private property into a monolithic whole.

Examples of "anti-Soviet" behavior of schoolchildren in Ukraine during the 1960-1970s are analyzed in the article based on the materials of the State Archives Department of the Security Service of Ukraine and interviews conducted by the author. The ambivalence of family and school education as factors of upbringing of "Homo Sovieticus" is characterized. Communist education set an ambitious goal to form a generalized canonical image of the "respectable person". Standing out was not only condemned, but also attracted attention of the (...) Committee for State Security, regardless the child's age. Among the unauthorized actions there are the following: distribution of leaflets, inscriptions on the walls, anonymous letters, condemnation of the foreign policy of the USSR, display of Ukrainian symbols, stylisation, membership in religious communities, disruption or distortion of portraits of leaders and visual agitation, creation of unauthorized organizations, clubs, groups. The forms and methods of the Committee for State Security, in combating anti-Soviet behavior of schoolchildren are revealed in the article. The Committee for State Security, found various reasons to explain the students' anti-Soviet behavior, such as medical diagnoses, games of children, lack of ideological education at school, negative influence of family, watching foreign films, listening to prohibited media channels, influence of bourgeois propaganda, nationalist ideas and religious views. These motives would have to show that deviations from the norm associated with insignificant short-term influences, are not an indicator of the mistakes in the policy of juvenile communist education. However, each document of the Committee for State Security, about "anti-Soviet behavior" has personal resolution of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, regardless the age of the child who committed the action. The utopia of attempts to educate appropriate Soviet schoolchild under the conditions of "Khrushchev Thaw" and "Era of Stagnation" is stipulated. It has been argued that anti-Soviet behavior of schoolchildren was not only manifestation of juvenile maximalism, but also evidence of more significant socio-political crisis in the Soviet society of the 1960 -1970s, including those related to national issues. (shrink)

The article justifies the need to involve philosophy in specific scientific research due to the ineffectiveness of verbal-and-figurative models and the inadequacy of character education. Indeed, philosophy can increase their theoretical and applied effectiveness in the long-term methodological perspective. The article shows the wrong side of limitations in specific scientific research imposed by an interdisciplinary methodology. It points out to the disadvantages of applying interdisciplinary methods in psycholinguistics, such as analysis synthesis, induction and deduction. The article expands the range of (...) their understanding to achieve a higher level of reliability. Besides, it proves the inadequacy of conclusions obtained mainly from superficial empirical studies without revealing and analyzing their main causes, it being a violation of the determinism principle. It substantiates the need to comply with methodological principles of objectivity and systematicity while analyzing the concepts of the humanities block. If one ignores these principles, it can lead to eсlecticity and, hence, the inefficiency of specific scientific research. The effectiveness of methodological principles in psycholinguistics is shown through a consistent analysis of freedom as a philosophical category, as well as a gradual analysis of the links between such concepts as freedom - responsibility, freedom - arbitrariness - responsibility, freedom - interest - arbitrariness. (shrink)

The article is devoted to innovative postmodern requests for the liberalization of education. Postmodernism influenced education not only methodologically, but also by changing the very pedagogical culture of teaching. Now the relevance of the research topic is due to the problems of forming information content and methodological support for the introduction of distance learning technology in mobile form. The introduction of IT in education, the improvement of smart devices, the formation of an electronic information and educational environment have created the (...) basis for such forms of education as mobile learning and blended learning. In both cases, the student situationally himself forms the educational process, turns from an object of training into its subject. The humanistic potential of mobile learning in the sense of ensuring equal access to education for people with different abilities is noted. The opinion is expressed about the importance of student motivation and IT competence of teachers to provide information content, intensify the introduction of e-learning and mobile-oriented learning technologies. It is argued that learning based only on mobile learning technology, using smart devices without classroom or office work, real communication with the teacher is not didactically self-sufficient, which would provide adequate language skills. Effectiveness in learning foreign languages is achieved by synergy of technologies distance mobile and traditional classroom or classroom training, real communication with the teacher. (shrink)

We present a novel treatment of set theory in a four-valued paraconsistent and paracomplete logic, i.e., a logic in which propositions can be both true and false, and neither true nor false. Our approach is a significant departure from previous research in paraconsistent set theory, which has almost exclusively been motivated by a desire to avoid Russell’s paradox and fulfil naive comprehension. Instead, we prioritise setting up a system with a clear ontology of non-classical sets, which can be used to (...) reason informally about incomplete and inconsistent phenomena, and is sufficiently similar to ${\mathrm {ZFC}}$ to enable the development of interesting mathematics. We propose an axiomatic system ${\mathrm {BZFC}}$, obtained by analysing the ${\mathrm {ZFC}}$ -axioms and translating them to a four-valued setting in a careful manner, avoiding many of the obstacles encountered by other attempted formalizations. We introduce the anti-classicality axiom postulating the existence of non-classical sets, and prove a surprising results stating that the existence of a single non-classical set is sufficient to produce any other type of non-classical set. Our theory is naturally bi-interpretable with ${\mathrm {ZFC}}$, and provides a philosophically satisfying view in which non-classical sets can be seen as a natural extension of classical ones, in a similar way to the non-well-founded sets of Peter Aczel [1]. Finally, we provide an interesting application concerning Tarski semantics, showing that the classical definition of the satisfaction relation yields a logic precisely reflecting the non-classicality in the meta-theory. (shrink)

У статті досліджується формування архітектурного ансамблю Почаївської лаври в 1831-1920 рр., якому в середині ХХ ст. надано статус пам'ятки історії та культури. На основі аналізу архітектурних проектів храмів лаври розкрито особливості архітектурних стилів споруд ХІХ - поч. ХХ ст. Відзначено, що розбудова лаври тісно пов'язана з творчістю видатних архітекторів, скульпторів, художників, різьбярів, будівничих. Показано, як на формування історико-культурного обличчя Почаївської лаври впливали різноманітні обставини, зокрема політичного, економічного, культурного характеру.

The paper is taking up the original research, spanning now a quarter-century, on distinguishing European cultural-historical epochs using the philosophical toolset proper. It is about an application of the phenomenological dialectic methodology within the general Platonic approach to the problem of knowledge and understanding where the former per se turns into the self-correlation of sense, while the latter appears as an embodiment of knowledge over ‘the other’, distinguished from pure knowledge ‘by a measure of reason’ of its holder. Thus any (...) thing considered in correlation with itself as a subject matter of knowledge, appears as its own idea. Correlation of an idea with its reasonable embodiment transfers a thing into the ‘medial’ domain of understanding. It is here that the particular historical comprehension of types for the above ideality, embodiment, and being a holder allows for considering epochs through the lens of ‘epochal’ ontologies. In such acts of understanding, philosophy is responsible for the love of wisdom as a synthesis of knowledge and life in its reasonable explanations, and history – for the comprehension of being in its continuous making, and culture – for the picturesquely personal expression of human history. Thus emerges a kaleidoscope of picturesquely expressed ontologies where various epochs in European history are explicitly distin- guished upon sense-bearing grounds. This philosophical ‘depicting’ shall be preceded by a definition of concept for world pictures as a European thought heritage proper. For this purpose, on the backdrop of such categories as essence, sense, reason, intelligence, eidos, idea, symbol, myth, and name, the author is preliminarily identifying here: Europe – as the idea of arranging vital space under the guidance of personality; history – as a self-realizing being in the making; personality – as an actually embodied self-consciousness; culture – as an expressed mythology of human personality. Hence, the final definition of the world picture as history is typologically expressed in culture. Article received 17.08.2019. (shrink)

In welchem Verhaltnis steht die Seelenlehre zur Kosmologie in Platons Phaidon?

Todorčević (Fund Math 150(1):55–66, 1996) shows that there is no Hausdorff gap (A, B) if A is analytic. In this note we extend the result by showing that the assertion “there is no Hausdorff gap (A, B) if A is coanalytic” is equivalent to “there is no Hausdorff gap (A, B) if A is ${{\bf \it{\Sigma}}^{1}_{2}}$ ”, and equivalent to ${\forall r \; (\aleph_1^{L[r]}\,< \aleph_1)}$ . We also consider real-valued games corresponding to Hausdorff gaps, and show that ${\mathsf{AD}_\mathbb{R}}$ for pointclasses (...) Γ implies that there are no Hausdorff gaps (A, B) if ${{\it{A}} \in {\bf \it{\Gamma}}}$. (shrink)

A historical investigation of the exclusion of Africa and Asia from modern histories of philosophy.

Putative counterexamples to the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles (PII) are notoriously inconclusive. I establish ground rules for debate in this area, offer a new response to such counterexamples for friends of the PII, but then argue that no response is entirely satisfactory. Finally, I undermine some positive arguments for PII.

Mental health research and care in the twenty first century faces a series of conceptual and ethical challenges arising from unprecedented advances in the neurosciences, combined with radical cultural and organisational change. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry is aimed at all those responding to these challenges, from professionals in health and social care, managers, lawyers and policy makers; service users, informal carers and others in the voluntary sector; through to philosophers, neuroscientists and clinical researchers. Organised around a series (...) of case studies in five key topic areas - concepts of disorder, the philosophical history of psychopathology, philosophy of science, ethics and philosophical value theory, and philosophy of mind - the book provides a detailed introduction to the field and a framework for study and skill development. Each case study is supported by selected readings from both philosophy and mental health, thinking skills exercises, self-test questions, key learning points and detailed guides to further reading. There is an introduction for philosophers to classification and descriptive psychopathology, and for practitioners to philosophical methods (including logic). The philosophical topics covered include philosophical methods (analytic and Continental); phenomenology, hermeneutics and existentialism, logical empiricism and its successors; idealism and realism; reasons and causes; and modern theories of mind and brain, free will and personal identity. Topics from mental health include psychiatry and 'anti-psychiatry'; Jaspers' psychopathology and the new neurosciences; the future of psychiatric classifications; strengths-based approaches, recovery practice, social inclusion and diversity; and key topics in psychopathology, such as delusion, autism, disorders of volition, thought insertion and other experiences in schizophrenia. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry aims to secure the skills-base of the discipline by bringing philosophers closer to the realities of practice in mental health, and mental health practitioners closer to the resources of philosophy as a partner to the sciences in responding to the challenges of twenty-first century mental health and social care. (shrink)

This book is a defense of modal realism; the thesis that our world is but one of a plurality of worlds, and that the individuals that inhabit our world are only a few out of all the inhabitants of all the worlds. Lewis argues that the philosophical utility of modal realism is a good reason for believing that it is true.

This text explores how human beings construe experience: experience as a resource, as a potential for understanding, representing and acting on reality.

Review of Adamson, P., & Ganeri, J.. Classical Indian Philosophy: a History of Philosophy Without any Gaps. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Volume 5.

Studies of transcriptional control sequences responsible for regulated and basal‐level RNA synthesis from promoters of Drosophila melanogaster retrotransposons reveal novel aspects of gene regulation and lead to identification of trans‐acting factors that can be involved in RNA polymerase II transcription not only of retrotransposons, but of many other cellular genes. Comparisons between promoters of retrotransposons and some other Drosophila genes demonstrate that there is a greater variety in basal promoter structure than previously thought and that many promoters may contain essential (...) sequences downstream from the RNA start site. (shrink)

Philosophy has much to offer psychiatry, not least regarding ethical issues, but also issues regarding the mind, identity, values, and volition. This has become only more important as we have witnessed the growth and power of the pharmaceutical industry, accompanied by developments in the neurosciences. However, too few practising psychiatrists are familiar with the literature in this area. -/- The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry offers the most comprehensive reference resource for this area ever published. It assembles challenging and (...) insightful contributions from key philosophers and others to the interactive fields of philosophy and psychiatry. Each contributions is original, stimulating, thorough, and clearly and engagingly written - with no potentially significant philosophical stone left unturned. Broad in scope, the book includes coverage of several areas of philosophy, including philosophy of mind, science, and ethics. For philosophers and psychiatrists, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry is a landmark publication in the field - one that will be of value to both students and researchers in this rapidly growing area. (shrink)

This Book Focuses On The Evolution Of Philosophy In India With Reference To Socio-Political And Economic Conditions, Through Which One Can Learn That Life And Thought Are Invariably Interconnected With Polity And Persons, Economy And Environment. This Book Is Unique In The Sense That It Contains A Review In The Conclusion; And The Philosophical Heritage Has Been Evaluated In Its Introduction.

This authoritative volume, written by two well-known psychologist-philosophers, presents a model of the person and its implications for psychological theory and practice. Professors Ramakrishna Rao and Anand Paranjpe draw the contours of Indian psychology, describe the methods of study, explain crucial concepts, and discuss the central ideas and their application, illustrating them with insightful case studies and judicious reviews of available research data and existing scholarly literature. The main theme is organized around the thesis that psychology is the study of (...) the person and that the person is a unique composite of body, mind and consciousness. The goal of the person is self-realization. Self-realization consists in the realization of one's true self as distinct from the manifest ego and it is facilitated by cultivating consciousness. Cultivating consciousness leads to a kind of psycho-spiritual symbiosis resulting in personal transformation, altruistic value orientation and flowering of the hidden human potential. (shrink)

Are mystical experiences primarily formed by the mystic's cultural background and concepts, as modern day "constructivists" maintain, or do mystics in some way transcend language, belief, and culturally conditioned expectations? Do mystical experiences differ in the different religious traditions, as "pluralists" contend, or are they identical across cultures? Twelve contributors here attempt to answer these questions through close examination of a particular form of mystical experience, "Pure Consciousness"--the experience of being awake but devoid of intentional content for consciousness. The contributors (...) analyze pure consciousness and other mystical experiences from historical Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish sources, as well as from modern mystics. They demonstrate that pure consciousness poses serious conceptual problems for a contructivist understanding of mysticism. Revealing the inconsistencies and inadequacies of current models, they make significant strides towards developing new models for the phenomenon of mysticism, breaking new ground for our understanding of mysticism and of human experience in general. (shrink)

It is advisable to treat some sorts of discourse about fiction with the aid of an intensional operator "in such-And-Such fiction...." the operator may appear either explicitly or tacitly. It may be analyzed in terms of similarity of worlds, As follows: "in the fiction f, A" means that a is true in those of the worlds where f is told as known fact rather than fiction that differ least from our world, Or from the belief worlds of the community in (...) which the fiction originated. (shrink)

How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" -- it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work A Secular Age and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times. Taylor's landmark book A Secular Age (2007) provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present -- a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a (...) compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular, making that very significant but daunting work accessible to a wide array of readers. Even more, though, Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is a practical philosophical guidebook, a kind of how-to manual on how to live in our secular age. It ultimately offers us an adventure in self-understanding and maps out a way to get our bearings in today's secular culture, no matter who "we" are -- whether believers or skeptics, devout or doubting, self-assured or puzzled and confused. This is a book for any thinking person to chew on. (shrink)

Ancient Indian philosophies consider self-realization as a fundamental concept and aim of human life, which appears theoretically similar to the self-actualization concept of the West. This article compares and contrasts the self-actualization concept with the views of ancient Indian wisdom to create a model. Both ideas strive for a more elevated Self, unleashing our potential or the realization/actualization of the true Self. From the Indian Vedanta philosophy emerged the Panchakosha theory of personality, which provides a structural framework for human states (...) of consciousness leading to higher development and transcendental identity. According to the scriptures, any form of stress is due to an underdeveloped state of consciousness at these levels or due to disconnection from the true Self; once an individual comes in contact with the ‘true Self’, the problems of life are eliminated. Yoga is a systematic process and way of human development, and applying the principles of Yoga philosophy in life will help in transcending one from the lower Self to the higher Self, awakening human potential, and becoming self-actualized. Yogis, who practice Yoga, could be responsible for a positive shift towards sustainable communities or transformative environments through enhanced mindfulness, self-actualization, and social capital demonstrated by enhanced moral values, trust, engagement, and acceptance. This theoretical model from classical Indian thought has the potential to provide the needed guidelines to create more self-actualized people. The dimension of well-being and prescriptions on how to reach this state of highest well-being is the essence of Indian philosophy. (shrink)