THE DEVELOPMENT PATH OF EUROPEAN CULTURE IN RELATION TO THE PROBLEM OF GOOD AND EVIL

The article presents the detailed content of the report of Dr. Hauke Ritz, PhD, co-director of the Laboratory for European Democracy, which he delivered at the X International Scientific Conference “Creativity as a National Element: the Problem of Good and Evil”, held from June 27 to July 1, 2024 at the St. Petersburg State University of Economics. Dr. Hauke Ritz is one of the most profound Western European analysts of contemporary processes in the EU. In this article, the author appeals to historical memory, drawing a parallel between the current state of European culture and the 30-40s of the last century. He describes the “emptiness of postmodernism”, which reproduces the spirit of fascism and totalitarianism in the new conditions, as well as deadening the depths of humanism and spirituality inherent in the “old Europe”. The author associates the depths of spirituality with the principles of Christianity, while the ideology of fascism and postmodernism revives polytheism in the crudest and most primitive forms. In this confrontation between monotheism and polytheism, the struggle between good and evil unfolds in the concrete-historical forms of modern politics. In his analysis, the author of the article relies on the work of philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries, who fulfill one of the main functions of philosophical culture of thinking, namely prognostic, allowing not only in speculative but also in aphoristic form to see alternative trends of the future. To this end, the role of F. Nietzsche is outlined and Walter Benjamin's aphorisms in his work “Theses on the Philosophy of History” are analyzed in depth. The author focuses on three aspects of the contemporary reassessment of Christian influence on European culture: the transformation of the concept of time and history; the changing image of man; and the meaning of sexuality. In conclusion, it is substantiated that the discussion on these questions, which has developed in the German philosophy of the XX century, is far from being completed.