Dmitry Popov

The article deals with the mythological creativity of G.R.R. Tolkien as a socio-cultural phenomenon associated with the values of European culture. The author proceeds from the hypothesis that the myth is the embodiment of social identity, this function it retains after the loss of its ideological functions. The revival of literary mythology in the XIX-XX centuries there is an attempt to update this feature of the myth. The success of the literary myth is due to the fact that he was able to absorb and Express the basic values of society. Tolkien’s work is one of the successful examples of the literary embodiment of socially significant values, combining both traditional values and value formations characteristic of the modern era. The article shows that Tolkien’s work has organically absorbed the pagan basis, the Christian attitude, and the values characteristic of the XX century. Pagan heroic principle, Christian mercy, the idea of freedom, democracy-all this is organically intertwined in the works of Tolkien, their success is due to the harmony of the whole range of social attitudes represented in the European consciousness of the mid XX century. Currently, the decline in interest in Tolkien is a reflection of the change of value preferences of European culture.

The scope of the study is the virtue of magnanimity that reveals not only a moral but also an epistemological dimension in the context of the history of philosophy. The paper analyzes the actualization of this virtue in the works of Aristotle, Descartes and Nietzsche, where it appears at the intersection of ethics and theory of knowledge, characterizing the pursuit of truth both in science and philosophy. The relevance of such a study of the concept of magnanimity correlates with the subjects and methods of contemporary virtue epistemology that emphasizes the role of values and virtues in cognition, as well as with the modern philosophical reflection of the foundations of science in general.