Between Literature and Psychology: Konishi Masutaro (1862–1940) in the History of Russo–Japanese Scientific Connections

The aim of this paper is to describe some episodes from the life of Konishi Masutaro (1862–1940), a Japanese scholar and psychologist who obtained his theological and psychological education in Russia and who played a role in the development of psychological science in Russia. Masutaro is mostly known as a translator of Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, and the psychological side of his biography is not well studied. Masutaro's life and work in Russia occurred in the context of great political and cultural changes. He was one of the first authors who translated fragments from Eastern philosophy (works by Laozi and Confucius) into the Russian language. Personal and scientific details of the life of this educated scholar are also given in the present paper.     

The semantics of personality in Russian “subjective sociology”

The article is devoted to the “subjective method” and the role of value preferences, as underscored in Russian proto-sociology, developed by the populists in discussions with the “ethical Marxism,” on the one hand, and with positivists, on the other. The main issue—how was the apologia of individual in these studies connected to the ideals of social development?—leads to the question, whether such ideals could be based on an inborn moral law or “universal good” in the spirit of empirical-positivist theories. Is the use of ethical categories in scientific knowledge admissible in principle, and if so, to what degree? How should the measure of subjectivity in historical or sociological studies be “regulated,” and are there universally binding solutions to these problems?     

Cutting Space—Cutting Body: The Nature of the Grotesque in Umwelt

We give psychological elaboration to some of Rayner’s (2011) ideas. For the idea of a space and boundaries within it many psychological explanations are possible. We elaborate the boundaries as these occur in urban contexts as well as in the flow of irreversible time (between future and past). Shifting boundaries or any act of transforming them leads to changes in the understanding of the whole. Boundaries within space and between different fields—while having a physical existence—have also a symbolic component, which is specific to human beings. We reframe the dynamic concept of boundaries along the lines of Bergson’s idea of durée, which allows us conceptualize boundaries between bodies and environments, as well as boundaries in the environment, as ever transforming in spaces of ambiguity and, following Bakhtin, grotesque. This opens way for treating the boundary phenomena as functionally emerging in person-environment—or, in von Uexküll’s terms, organism-Umwelt relation. Following Heidegger, we conclude that through dynamic boundary-making we as species dwell in the world and make the world.     

Culture,Perception, and Artistic Visualization: A Comparative Study of Children's Drawings in Three Siberian Cultural Groups

In a study of three indigenous and non‐indigenous cultural groups in northwestern and northeastern Siberia, framed line tests and a landscape drawing task were used to examine the hypotheses that test‐based assessments of context sensitivity and independence are correlated with the amount of contextual information contained in drawings, and with the order in which the focal and background objects are drawn. The results supported these hypotheses, and inspection of the regression relationships suggested that the intergroup variations in test performance were likely to result from differences in the attention accorded to contextual information, as revealed by the drawings. Social and environmental explanations for the group differences in context sensitivity are also discussed. The conclusions support the argument that cultural differences in artistic styles and perceptual tests reflect the same underlying perceptual tendencies, and they are consistent with the argument that these tendencies reflect corresponding differences in patterns of social and environmental interaction.     

Nuanced aesthetic emotions: emotion differentiation is related to knowledge of the arts and curiosity

The ability to distinguish between emotions is considered indicative of well-being, but does emotion differentiation (ED) in an aesthetic context also reflect deeper and more knowledgeable aesthetic experiences? Here we examine whether positive and negative ED in response to artistic stimuli reflects higher fluency in an aesthetic domain. Particularly, we test whether knowledge of the arts and curiosity are associated with more fine-grained positive and negative aesthetic experiences. A sample of 214 people rated their positive and negative feelings in response to various artworks including positive and negative themes. Positive ED was associated with the embracing sub-trait of curiosity that reflects engagement and enjoyment of novelty and complexity, but was unrelated to artistic knowledge and perceived comprehension. Negative ED was associated with higher curiosity and particularly more knowledge of the arts. This relationship was mediated by appraised comprehension suggesting that deeper engagement with art, by those with more art knowledge, is associated with more fine-grained emotional experiences. This finding extends ED beyond well-being research and suggests that more nuanced emotional experiences are more likely for those with expertise in the arts and motivation for exploration.