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Key words: amicitia; caritas; justice; unity; Isidore of Seville; Laelius; Cicero; VisigothicSpain. Abstract: The article studies the reception of Cicero's Laelius in Isidore of Seville's sententiae 3, 28-32, that offers the only extant theoretical conceptualization of amicitia as a form of interpersonal relation during the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Over the period, caritas was regularly used to describe social relations. Accordingly, the study's key question is: how was classical concept of amicitia reintegrated into the Christian discourse of 7th century Roman-Barbarian Spain? The article suggests that the question of true unity in friendship was central for Isidore: he reconsiders patristic model of grounding amicitia in caritas that was interpreted as both the principle of right behaviour towards the neighbour and a ground of general political and religious unity of gens Gothorum. Thus, Isidore attempts to correlate the personal relations of amicitia with the principle of caritas that rules and unites the society. This suggestion helps to explain why Isidore pays attention to the ideal of friendship represented in Cicero's Laelius. In the final analysis, the study tries to explain why Isidore builds the chapters on friendship from quotations and allusions on Laelius, suggesting that by these means Isidore's text according to the principles of writing of Late Antiquity, established a set of references between relevant problems of unity and relations in 7th century Visigothic Spain and the authoritative text of the tradition. Riassunto: Nel presente contributo viene studiata la ricezione del Laelius ciceroniano nelle sententiae di Isidoro di Siviglia (nello specifico, 3, 28-32), che offrono l'unica concettualizzazione teorica dell'amicitia, intesa come forma di relazione interpersonale, tra il VI e il VII secolo d.C. In questo periodo, era regolarmente usato il termine caritas per indicare il piano delle relazioni sociali. Costituisce allora il focus di questo studio il seguente interrogativo: come è stato reintegrato il concetto classico di amicitia nel pensiero cristiano della Spagna romano-barbarica di VII secolo? L'articolo cerca di dimostrare che la questione della vera unità, all interno dell amicizia, costituisca un tema centrale di riflessione per Isidoro di Siviglia: egli rivaluta il modello di stampo patristico, che consisteva nel fondare l'amicitia sulla caritas e che, inoltre, era interpretato sia come principio di un retto comportamento verso il prossimo sia come terreno di intesa comune, religiosa e politica, per la gens Gothorum. Isidoro tenta così di correlare i rapport personali di amicizia con la nozione di carità che regola e rinsalda le relazioni sociali. Ciò contribuisce a spiegare perché egli rivolga attenzione all'ideale di amicizia presentato nel Laelius. In ultima istanza, lo studio si propone di illustrare la ragione per cui Isidoro si serva, per scrivere i capitolisull amicizia, di citazioni e di allusioni tratte dal Laelius. In questo senso, nel testo, in ossequio ai principi che regolano la scrittura della tarda antichità, si innesta una trama di riferimenti, tra i problemi riguardanti l'unità e le relazioni nella Spagna visigotica del VII secolo e il testo consegnatoci dalla tradizione.

Key words: amicitia; caritas; justice; unity; Isidore of Seville; Laelius; Cicero; VisigothicSpain. Abstract: The article studies the reception of Cicero's Laelius in Isidore of Seville's sententiae 3, 28-32, that offers the only extant theoretical conceptualization of amicitia as a form of interpersonal relation during the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Over the period, caritas was regularly used to describe social relations. Accordingly, the study's key question is: how was classical concept of amicitia reintegrated into the Christian discourse of 7th century Roman-Barbarian Spain? The article suggests that the question of true unity in friendship was central for Isidore: he reconsiders patristic model of grounding amicitia in caritas that was interpreted as both the principle of right behaviour towards the neighbour and a ground of general political and religious unity of gens Gothorum. Thus, Isidore attempts to correlate the personal relations of amicitia with the principle of caritas that rules and unites the society. This suggestion helps to explain why Isidore pays attention to the ideal of friendship represented in Cicero's Laelius. In the final analysis, the study tries to explain why Isidore builds the chapters on friendship from quotations and allusions on Laelius, suggesting that by these means Isidore's text according to the principles of writing of Late Antiquity, established a set of references between relevant problems of unity and relations in 7th century Visigothic Spain and the authoritative text of the tradition. Riassunto: Nel presente contributo viene studiata la ricezione del Laelius ciceroniano nelle sententiae di Isidoro di Siviglia (nello specifico, 3, 28-32), che offrono l'unica concettualizzazione teorica dell'amicitia, intesa come forma di relazione interpersonale, tra il VI e il VII secolo d.C. In questo periodo, era regolarmente usato il termine caritas per indicare il piano delle relazioni sociali. Costituisce allora il focus di questo studio il seguente interrogativo: come è stato reintegrato il concetto classico di amicitia nel pensiero cristiano della Spagna romano-barbarica di VII secolo? L'articolo cerca di dimostrare che la questione della vera unità, all interno dell amicizia, costituisca un tema centrale di riflessione per Isidoro di Siviglia: egli rivaluta il modello di stampo patristico, che consisteva nel fondare l'amicitia sulla caritas e che, inoltre, era interpretato sia come principio di un retto comportamento verso il prossimo sia come terreno di intesa comune, religiosa e politica, per la gens Gothorum. Isidoro tenta così di correlare i rapport personali di amicizia con la nozione di carità che regola e rinsalda le relazioni sociali. Ciò contribuisce a spiegare perché egli rivolga attenzione all'ideale di amicizia presentato nel Laelius. In ultima istanza, lo studio si propone di illustrare la ragione per cui Isidoro si serva, per scrivere i capitolisull amicizia, di citazioni e di allusioni tratte dal Laelius. In questo senso, nel testo, in ossequio ai principi che regolano la scrittura della tarda antichità, si innesta una trama di riferimenti, tra i problemi riguardanti l'unità e le relazioni nella Spagna visigotica del VII secolo e il testo consegnatoci dalla tradizione.

Sometimes the term "elite" loaned from foreign socio-humanistic disciplines is not easy corresponding with modern Russian realities. And more special it concerns political elite. The possession of a whole number of personal and moral qualities was a sign of belonging to elite of its representative in pre-revolutionary Russia, but elite has been depersonalized in the Soviet political model and could be described in nomenclature terms. Actually, the elite production technology has been put in motion, identification the elite was defined by a post occupied and could be lost at any time by its owner owing to these or those reasons. Thus the interests of elite were identified with the interests of the state. In the 90's another model has come to replace the Soviet model of formation of elite on a nomenclature basis, where the political elite is recruited as a team representing the interests of the specific functionary. Such approach has resulted in a further depreciation of elite to a group carrying out functions of supernumeraries to certain charismatic leaders. Under these conditions the elite appears to be even less stable and distinctly shaped. At the moment the system of preparation of elite is in a deep crisis and that is focused not on real formation but on production of some substitute which is not possessing real attributes of elitism. In the presented theses an attempt is undertaken, ascending from the particular to the general, to estimate inductively the real condition of the Russian elite. A problem of the actual state of a political elite recruitment system in Russia is poses, its real situation is described, and the issue of need of radical improvement of quality of elite through modernization of public administration system and revision of the elite recruitment concept is brought up.

This article discusses the state and developmental prospects of modern Russian elitology. Popular estimates of modern regional political elites provide an indicator reflecting the state of internal regional security. The analysis of the criteria of elitism, i.e., defining the set of personal and professional qualities of the people recruited into the elite, notes a discrepancy between the traditional meaning of elitism and the possession of real political power. The research of the features of the formation of the state elite in China has been done. The experience of the modernization of the American political elite ensuring the US withdrawal from the protracted social and economic crisis in the first half of the last century and the experience of the national elite reformatting in the South Korea, which was managed to bring the country out of a deep crisis in the postwar period was analyzed. This article is one of the first attempts to assess objectively the status and prospects of domestic elitology and regional elites in order to formulate recommendations for Russian elitologists.

Even English historian A. Toynbee claimed that each new generation of the “creative minority” (elite) periodically faced challenges of the time, to which it had to seek and give an adequate response. In case of an unsatisfactory answer, this “creative minority” should leave the historical stage, giving way to the more competent elite. The coronavirus crisis experienced by the global community in 2020 has become such a global challenge of our time for many people. And the public can make conclusions about the professional training and level of competence of the ruling elite groups judging from how effectively they cope with this challenge. But even now it can already be stated that the crisis has revealed a number of significant systemic failures in the functioning of political elites - their slow reaction to the event, disunity, clip consciousness and underestimation of the degree of risk, resources and their own capabilities. This article is devoted to the analysis of all these problems.

The article considers the problem of unity and variety of the contemporary theories of tradition that appear in different fields of scholarship. It is argued that the unity of these theories is mainly a discursive one. This theoretical dis­course, which starts with the famous essays of T.S. Eliot, M. Oakeshott, and K. Popper, ascribes to the tradition rationality, flexibility, the active participa­tion of the individual in the functioning of tradition and non-authoritative cha­racter. The concept of 'invented tradition', which describes tradition as rigid and unchangeable, presupposes its deliberative and rational character. The theo­ries are more or less unanimously challenge the opposition between tradition and rationality. At the same time the term 'tradition' possesses various mea­nings and functions not only in different theories, but also within a single theory. The unity of the problems and 'puzzles' that the concept of tradition should solve is weak and is getting weaker. The article puts forward a hypothe­sis that the discourse about tradition reflects the situation, in which the episte­mological paradigm of Cartesian subject is felt to be insecure. The metho­dological reflection grows, but still cannot change the model, because it mere ascribes to the tradition the qualities of its opposite, and mere leads to the blur­ring of the concept of tradition.

Early Modern philosophy pays some attention to the image of minister of reli­gion. While its anticlericalism is well known, the positive program of pastor seems to be neglected. This article considers the structure and grounds of this positive image, concentrating on the texts of Hobbes, Spinoza and Pufendorf. It argues that the universal and yet subjective natural light turns out to be the key element for the image of pastor. The method of mathematical demonstration al­lows early Modern philosophers to establish the clear and distinct grounds of morality. They demand the same basis for the pastoral care that should consist of teaching and preaching. The same universal and subjective grounds underlie the division of power and authority between sovereign and individual. Conse­quently, pastor is deprived of any form of power except for the power of demon­stration. The doctrine preached by the pastor should be coherent to the natural light. The use of eloquence or any (other) form of coercion is not allowed for him. Otherwise this doctrine is designated as superstition, i.e. political, moral and epistemic evil. This kind of reasoning brings the pastor under control of in­stances of the reason (represented e.g. by the philosophers) and the sovereign. Finally, the assumption is made that the structure of this ideal Early Modern pas­tor sets the limits of rational-legal order of authority of the religious leader.