... There are many signs that distinguish a person from an animal. I don’t mean that a person is smart, but an animal is stupid. The animal is not stupid at all. An animal has a great mind, but its mind is always connected with a certain situation. And a person is always in an unforeseen situation. And here he has “two legs”: intellect and conscience. Just as conscience without developed intellect is blind, so intellect without conscience is dangerous.
We live in very interesting times. And although there are no uninteresting times, there are times in which historians, leaving blank pages, note that nothing happened. And those pages that are completely covered are dedicated to a time in which life presents nothing easy. She then demands a lot from a person. A person ceases to be a cog; many situations arise when a choice arises: to act in one way or another. Which one? He has been given a conscience for this, and therefore he can be judged. You can’t judge a stone for falling down, but not telling you: “I was in this situation, I didn’t want anything bad, but there were such circumstances, I couldn’t do otherwise...” This is not true! There are no circumstances when you cannot do otherwise. And if you still have such circumstances, it means you have no conscience. Conscience is what dictates what to do when there is a choice. But there is always a choice... Choice is a difficult thing, so it’s easier to be a fool; a fool is not asked: “I was ordered, but what could I do?” “They brought me, and you should try it yourself...”
I will recall the words of the Decembrist Pushchin, a friend of Pushkin, spoken by him in a conversation with the Tsar. The man, whose hands were cuffed, answered Nikolai’s question: “How did you decide to do such a thing?” - answered: “Otherwise I would consider myself a scoundrel.” By this he wanted to say: I have a conscience, I have a choice - either my hands are in chains, or I will consider myself a scoundrel. History has shown that the high morality of the Decembrists helped them endure the most difficult trials that befell them in Siberia.
So what do people learn? People learn Knowledge. People learn Memory. People learn Conscience. And only in this case can we talk about human culture. Of course, you can’t do it this way: I woke up today, wanted to become cultured and began to sympathize with the humiliated and insulted. This does not happen, and the best intentions will not help here. We need to develop a soul.
(According to Yu.M. Lotman)
Lotman Yuri Mikhailovich (1922-1993) - Russian literary critic, Pushkin scholar, philologist, teacher, cultural scientist.

Text by Yu.M. Lotman about human moral culture.
Problem Author's position
1. The problem of choice. (What should a person be guided by when making a choice?) 1. When choosing what to do in a given situation, a person should be guided by conscience and intellect.
2. The problem of overcoming life's difficulties. (What helps a person to withstand the most difficult trials in life?)
2. High morality helps a person to withstand the most difficult trials of life.
3. The problem of forming a person’s moral culture. (How is a person’s moral culture formed?) 3. Only those people who have patiently educated their souls, striving to develop the best qualities in themselves, have a high moral culture.
4 The problem of conscience. (What is conscience? Why does a person need it?
Is it possible to sacrifice your conscience?)4. Conscience distinguishes a person from an animal and helps him make the right choice. You cannot compromise your conscience.

Help me draw up an outline of the text, please! For presentation! There are many signs that distinguish a person from an animal. I don’t mean that a person is smart, but an animal is stupid. The animal is not stupid at all. It has a great mind, but its mind is always connected with a certain situation. You know the expression: “Like a ram before a new gate.” This does not mean that the ram is a stupid animal. The Ram has a fairly high level of intelligence. But his intellect is chained to a certain situation, he is lost. And a person is always in an unforeseen situation. And he has only two legs: intellect and conscience. Conscience without developed intellect is blind, but not dangerous, but intellect without conscience is dangerous. We live in very interesting times. And although there are no uninteresting times, there are times about which historians, leaving blank pages, note that nothing special happened. And those pages that are completely covered are an indicator of a turbulent time, full of events and changes, when life is not easy and requires a lot from a person. And a person constantly faces many situations when he has the opportunity to choose: to act in one way or another. Which one? That is why conscience is given to man. To make the right choice. And by this choice one can judge a person. You can't judge a stone for falling down. But a person cannot say to himself: “I was in such a situation, I didn’t want anything bad, but there were such circumstances, I couldn’t do otherwise...” This is not true! There are no circumstances when you cannot do otherwise. And if we still have such circumstances, it means we have no conscience. Conscience is what dictates what to do when there is a choice. But there is always a choice... of course, choice is a difficult thing, so it’s easier to be a fool, a fool is not asked: “They ordered me, but what could I do?”, “They brought me, and you should try it yourself...” So, what do they learn? people throughout their lives? People learn Knowledge, people learn Memory, people learn Conscience. These are the three subjects that are required in any School.

(1)...There are many signs that distinguish a person from an animal. (2) I don’t mean that a person is smart, but an animal is stupid. (3) The animal is not at all stupid. (4) An animal has a great mind, but its mind is always connected with a certain situation. (5) And a person is always in an unforeseen situation. (6) And here he has two “legs”: intellect and conscience. (7) Just as conscience without developed intelligence is blind, but not dangerous, so intelligence without conscience is dangerous. (8) We live in very interesting times. (9) And although there are no uninteresting times, there are times in which historians, leaving blank pages, note that nothing happened. (10) And those pages that are completely covered are often devoted to a time in which life presents nothing easy.. (11) It then demands a lot from a person. (12) A person ceases to be a cog; many situations arise when he has the opportunity to choose: to act in one way or another. (13) Which one? (14) He was given a conscience for this, and therefore it is possible. judge. (15) You can’t judge a stone for falling down, but don’t say to yourself: “I was in this situation, I didn’t want anything bad, but there were such circumstances, I couldn’t do otherwise...” (16) This not true! (17) There are no circumstances when it is impossible to do otherwise. (18) And if we still have such circumstances, it means we have no conscience. (19) Conscience is what dictates what to do when there is a choice. (20) But there is always a choice... (21) Choice is a difficult thing, so it’s easier to be a fool; a fool is not asked: “They ordered me, but what could I do?” (22) “They brought me, and you would have done it yourself.” tried... "(23) I will recall the words of the Decembrist Pushchin, a friend of Pushkin, spoken by him in a conversation with the Tsar. (24) A man whose hands were chained; to the question of Nikolai 1: how did you decide to do such a thing? - answered: otherwise I would consider myself a scoundrel. (25) By this he said: I have a conscience, I have a choice - either these hands are in chains, or I will consider myself a scoundrel. (26) History has shown that the high morality of the Decembrists helped them endure the most difficult trials that befell them in Siberia. (27) So, what do people learn? (28) People learn Knowledge, people learn Memory, people learn Conscience. (29) And only in this case can we talk about human culture. (30) Of course, you can’t do it this way: I woke up today, wanted to become cultured and began to sympathize with the humiliated and insulted. (31) This does not happen, and the best intentions will not help here. (32) We need to develop the soul.. (according to Yu.M. Lotman)

Show full text

In this text, Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman poses the problem of conscience.

Discussing this problem, the author compares humans and animals. The narrator says that a person, unlike an animal, is always in an unforeseen situation and can only be guided by his intellect and conscience. “Just as conscience without developed intellect is blind, so intellect without conscience is dangerous,” the narrator notes. The author believes that in a person’s life there are many situations when he has to choose what to do. At such moments, our conscience helps us make the right choice. Lotman is convinced that conscience dictates to us what to do when there is a choice, and there is always a choice. As proof, the author reminds us of Pushchin’s words about participation in the Decembrist uprising. According to Pushchin, if he had acted differently, he would have considered himself a scoundrel. It was precisely the high moral qualities that helped the Decembrists endure difficult trials. " People learn knowledge, memory, conscience and only then can we talk about human culture,” says the narrator.

AB position

Ivan Maslyukov

Director, entrepreneur. Creator of the international network of urban games Encounter.

You can listen to this article. If it's more convenient for you, turn on the podcast.

1. An intelligent person talks with a purpose

In a meeting, by phone, in chat. Conversation is a tool to achieve a goal.

Stupid people talk for the sake of talking. This is how they indulge their laziness when they are busy. Or they struggle with boredom and idleness in their free time.

2. Feels comfortable alone

A smart person is not bored with his thoughts. He understands that important events and discoveries can occur within a person.

Stupid people, on the contrary, try with all their might to avoid loneliness: being left alone with themselves, they are forced to observe their own emptiness. Therefore, it seems to them that important and meaningful things can only happen around them. They follow the news, seek out companies and parties, and check social networks a hundred times a day.

3. Trying to keep balance

• Between outside experience (movies, books, stories from friends) and one’s own experience.
• Between believing in himself and realizing that he could be wrong.
• Between ready-made knowledge (templates) and new knowledge (thinking).
• Between an intuitive hint from the subconscious and precise logical analysis of limited data.

Stupid people easily go to one extreme.

4. Seeks to expand the range of his perception

A smart person wants to achieve accuracy in sensations, feelings, thoughts. He understands that the whole consists of the smallest details, which is why he is so attentive to details, shades, and small things.

Stupid people are content with average clichés.

5. Knows many “languages”

An intelligent person communicates with architects through buildings, with writers - through books, with designers - through interfaces, with artists - through paintings, with composers - through music, with a cleaner - through a clean yard. He knows how to connect with people through what they do.

Stupid people understand only the language of words.

6. A smart person finishes what he starts.

A fool stops as soon as he begins, or in the middle, or almost finishes, based on the assumption that what he has done may turn out to be unclaimed and will not bring any benefit to anyone.

7. Understands that a huge part of the world around us was invented and created by people

After all, a shoe, concrete, bottle, sheet of paper, light bulb, window once did not exist. Using what was invented and created, he wants to give something of himself to humanity in gratitude. He is happy to create himself. And when he uses what others have done, he gladly gives money for it.

Stupid people, when they pay for a thing, a service, an object of art, do it without gratitude and with regret that there is less money.

8. Maintains an information diet

An intelligent person remembers facts and data that are not needed to solve current problems. At the same time, studying the world, he strives first of all to understand the cause-and-effect relationships between events, phenomena, and things.

Stupid people consume information indiscriminately and without trying to understand the relationships.

9. Understands that nothing can be appreciated without context.

Therefore, he does not rush to conclusions and assessments of any things, events, or phenomena until he has analyzed the totality of all the circumstances and details. A smart person very rarely criticizes or condemns.

A stupid person easily evaluates things, events, phenomena, without delving into details and circumstances. He criticizes and condemns with pleasure, thus seeming to feel superior to what is the object of his criticism.

10. Considers as authority the one who has earned his authority.

A smart person never forgets that even if everyone has the same opinion, they can be wrong.

Stupid people recognize an opinion as correct if it is supported by the majority. It is enough for them that many other people consider a certain person to be an authority.

11. Very selective about books and films

It doesn't matter to a smart person when and by whom a book was written or when a film was made. The priority is content and meaning.

A stupid person prefers fashionable books and films.

12. Has a passion for self-development and growth

To grow, a smart person tells himself: “I’m not good enough, I can become better.”

Stupid people, trying to rise in the eyes of others, humiliate others and, thus, humiliate themselves.

13. Not afraid to make mistakes

An intelligent person perceives it as a natural part of moving forward. At the same time, he tries not to repeat them.

Stupid people have thoroughly learned once and for all the shame of making mistakes.

14. Able to concentrate attention

For maximum concentration, an intelligent person can withdraw into himself and be inaccessible to anyone or anything.

Stupid people are always open to communication.

15. An intelligent person convinces himself that everything in this life depends only on him

Although he understands that this is not so. Therefore, he believes in himself, and not in the word “luck”.

Stupid people convince themselves that everything in this life depends on circumstances and other people. This allows them to relieve themselves of all responsibility for what is happening in their lives.

16. Can be hard like steel or soft like clay

At the same time, an intelligent person proceeds from his ideas about what he should be like under different circumstances.

A stupid person can be hard as steel or soft as clay, based on the desire to meet the expectations of others.

17. Easily admits his mistakes

His goal is to understand the actual state of affairs, and not to always be right. He understands too well how difficult it is to understand all the diversity of life. That's why he's not lying.

Stupid people deceive themselves and others.

18. Mainly behaves like an intelligent person

Sometimes smart people let themselves go and act stupid.

Stupid people sometimes concentrate, show willpower, exert effort and behave like smart people.

Of course, no one can act wisely all the time and everywhere. But the more of an intelligent person you are, the more... The more stupid, the stupider.

M.Yu. Lotman

Yu. M. Lotman

What do people learn?

From a speech at the opening of the Russian gymnasium at the University of Tartu, 1990.

First of all, let me congratulate you on being within the walls of the University and on the beginning of our work with you.

University education, like any higher education, means a different level compared to secondary school. And one of the features of this stage is that there is no longer a top and a bottom - teachers and students - here are all colleagues, i.e. people who work together. After all, the work of a higher education institution consists of cooperation, i.e. when some want to learn, and others help them in this. Coercion and mandatory “violent” control remained at the lowest level of education. And the attitude of teachers towards you will be different. This will be the attitude of a colleague towards a junior colleague.

But this does not mean that it will become easier, but that it will become more difficult. And in general, nothing can be easy in a good deed. This will be a difficult task, because there is no controller stricter than the person himself (if there is no such internal controller, then there is no higher education). True, there is no such line that would cut off childhood from us, then cut off youth... And elements of high school and childhood often invade the university: let’s not make a secret of the fact that some students tell each other and even see some sports in to learn less and get better. This is a school approach. But the school approach is normal only in its time: " The flighty old man is funny and the sedate young man is funny".

You may begin to experience a different age today. Age is not the number of days you live, but the behaviors you can perform.

But let's think about it! It was not by chance that I said this; the philosopher Socrates loved this word. Socrates never taught his students what was right; he never answered his students’ questions: “Do this.” He said: “Let's think!” What does “let’s think” mean? - You don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do for you either. You didn’t come like schoolchildren to get the right answer, you came to a colleague for advice, to think together. And it’s really better to think together. It is differences of opinion that help move towards truth.

Look, who are you and me? We can say that we are very smart and good machines. We can do many different things. But what feature does each car have? - Everyone has different faces. What for? It seemed like it would be easier if everyone had the same face. It would be easier in many ways, maybe there would be fewer mistakes... But for some things we need to have different faces, different characters, different experiences, so that we are all different people.

The philosopher Rousseau, who wrote the most frank book in the history of mankind, where he not only talked about himself, about his positive and bad qualities (you can also be proud of them if you have such a character), he talked about his shameful actions, he revealed himself in full, writing at the top: "With or without skin." In this book he wrote: I AM LIKE EVERYONE else, AND I AM NOT LIKE ANYONE. This is a very deep remark: a person, firstly, is like all other people, and secondly, he is individual, he is the only one and there is no other like him. Therefore, he can say something that others do not know. And therefore our whole life, all our training is on two roads. Along one path we strive to be like others, in order to understand other people and so that they can understand us. But we must also keep in mind that it is not so easy for others to understand me... Everyone understands the rules of the street in the same way, except for those who do not know them or are poorly informed about them. Does everyone understand Pushkin the same way? - No, everything is different. And don’t say that some people understand it correctly, while others understand it incorrectly. Pushkin speaks to everyone as if he wrote it now and specifically for them. And you always have the opportunity to talk with a brilliant person who himself wants to tell you something. Just open your ears, just be careful! The main problem of our age is that our eyes and ears are closed. And a significant part of your education is to open your eyes and ears and see, as Gogol said, what indifferent eyes do not see...

And here we come to one thing that you know by the not very literary, but understandable word - “don’t give a damn”: “And I don’t give a damn!” A person’s culture can be determined by one thing: what he doesn’t give a damn about, what doesn’t touch him.

The life of every person passes in certain isolated circles. One lives in a small circle, another in a larger circle, the third in an even larger one. The size of your circle is determined by many things: what are you curious about, what do you know, what interests you and - one more and very important - what hurts you? For example, one person feels pain when they hit him, and another will only say: well, hit him in the face, it’s not dangerous, as long as they don’t kill him. There was a larger circle when a person responded to an insult with a duel, and said that insult was worse than death: death cannot humiliate a person, and I will not endure insult. Another will say, I will not tolerate insults from the people I love: I will not allow my children to be insulted, I will not allow my mother to be insulted, but a stranger... Remember, like in Gogol, " what indifferent eyes don’t see"When it hurts from someone else's pain, this is the largest circle, the circle of a cultured person.

Of course, you can’t do it this way: I woke up today, wanted to become cultured and began to sympathize with the humiliated and insulted. This does not happen, and the best intentions will not help here. We need to develop a soul.

There are many signs that distinguish a person from an animal. I don’t mean that a person is smart, but an animal is stupid. The animal is not stupid at all. An animal has a great mind, but its mind is always connected with a certain situation. You know the expression: “Like a ram before a new gate.” This does not mean that the ram is a stupid animal. The Ram has a high level of intelligence. But his intellect is chained to a certain situation, he is lost. And a person is always in an unforeseen situation. And here he has only two legs: intellect and conscience. Just as conscience without developed intellect is blind but not dangerous, so intellect without conscience is dangerous.

We live in very interesting times. And although there are no uninteresting times, there are times in which historians, leaving blank pages, note that nothing happened. And those pages that are completely covered with writing, at such a time life is nothing easy. She then demands a lot from a person. A person ceases to be a cog, he has many situations when he has the opportunity to choose: to act in one way or another. Which one? - He has been given a conscience for this and therefore he can be judged. You can’t judge a stone for falling down, but don’t say to yourself: “I was in this situation, I didn’t want anything bad, but there were such circumstances, I couldn’t do otherwise”... This is not true! There are no circumstances when you cannot do otherwise. And if we still have such circumstances, it means we have no conscience. Conscience is what dictates what to do when there is a choice. But there is always a choice... Choice is a difficult thing, so it’s easier to be a fool; a fool won’t ask: “They ordered me, but what could I do?”, “They brought me, and you should try it yourself...”

I will recall the words of the Decembrist Pushchin, a friend of Pushkin, spoken by him in a conversation with the Tsar. The man whose hands were cuffed, in response to Nikolai’s question: “How did you decide to do such a thing?”- answered: "Otherwise I would consider myself a scoundrel." By this he said: I have a conscience, I have a choice: either these hands are in these chains, or I will consider myself a scoundrel. History has shown that the high morality of these people helped them endure the most difficult trials that befell them in Siberia. And physically they were better preserved than those who, in the same Nicholas era, betrayed their friends, then made a career, and everything outwardly went well and wonderful for them...

So what do people learn? People learn Knowledge, people learn Memory, people learn Conscience. These are three subjects that are necessary in any School, and which art includes. And art is essentially the Book of Memory and Conscience. We just need to learn to read this Book. I hope that this is why we have gathered here.

Recorded by D. Kuzovkin.