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AbstractBiographical details of Colquhoun's early life are remarkably scanty. Little is known of his childhood and adolescence. His only formal education was at the local grammar school, where he would have learnt Latin. At the age of sixteen, Colquhoun immigrated to America. During the five years he spent in Virginia, Colquhoun developed an interest in law, political economy, and the social sciences from his legal acquaintances there. In the year of the French Revolution, Colquhoun abandoned the pursuit of commerce and devoted himself to philanthropic and intellectual interests. Colquhoun was far in advance of his time as he argued for the compatibility of social regulation with liberty.

PLAT'S SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN VARIOUSLY INTERPRETED, WITH ASSESSMENTS RANGING FROM CHARGES OF TOTALITARIANISM TO CLAIMS THAT IT EXTOLS A UNIVERSAL ELEVATION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. THAT SUCH WIDELY DIVERGING VIEWS CAN BE HELD AT ALL CONFIRMS THE EXISTENCE OF A TENSION OR DISJUNCTION AT THE VERY CORE OF PLATO'S THOUGHT, AN INADEQUATE LINKAGE BETWEEN HIS SEEMINGLY REACTIONARY OR AUTHORITARIAN POLITICS ON THE ONE HAND, AND HIS PANHUMAN EXALTATION OF THE SOUL AND CORRESPONDING FAITH IN THE EMANCIPATORY PROMISE OF PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION ON THE OTHER. THIS ESSAY EXAMINES THE LOGICAL INCOMPATIBILITIES BETWEEN PLATO'S RESTRICTIVE POLITICS AND HIS METAPHYSICAL APOTHEOSIS OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE, AND HIS ATTEMPTS TO SHOW THAT SOCIAL OR IDEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS OTHERWISE INEXPLICABLE CONTRADICTION.

This study, based on the results of a number of scientific works on the study of sociocultural, socio-historical, socio-psychological and philosophical foundations of the historical genesis of the downshifting phenomenon, examines a number of methodological and analytical approaches that are at different stages of their substan-tive conceptualization and methodological design. Particular attention is paid to the genesis of the process of emergence and development of the foundations of alternative forms of socio-cultural existence of individuals, as well as the culturally and historically substantiated features of their understanding on the part of the social majority, often complicated by a more or less pronounced negative emotional attitude on the part of this majori-ty to manifestations of cultural and social marginality. Based on the results of the study, historically and socio-culturally mediated forms of historically early forms of individual and collective rejection of the massively pro-moted values of society for the sake of those values and goals of individual development that are recognized by the downshifter's personality as a priority, and sometimes even subjectively perceived as the only true ones.