Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2018 number 3

Introduction. The paper discusses the concept of patriotism and its role in the mentality of modern Russian society, as well as the status of patriotism in the system of social values. Methodology and methods of the research. The values inherent in any society form a hierarchical system. The division of values in this hierarchy into higher and lower ones is due to certain forms of differences between them. Pro-social values that contribute to the preservation and development of the society can be considered as the higher ones. In practice, however, the higher values are often those that are simply shared by the majority and shaped by educational practices. In this case, it is possible that the pro-social values will be pushed to the wayside. The result is the inversion of values. Results of the research. Analysis of this inversion shows that pro-social values should be the basis for the formation of the hierarchy of values of a particular society, but today it is increasingly not confirmed. In the discourse of studying patriotism as a social phenomenon, national culture, perceived through education and training, should be recognized as the highest value. The value of national culture is mentally so high that it is even possible to sacrifice life to preserve it. It is confirmed by the historical process that as long as there is culture, there is society. Today, however, a false understanding of patriotism as xenophobia is spreading more and more. In addition, patriotism is often a part of ideology imposed by the state. Some authors even consider patriotism as an outdated and unnecessary concept in the modern world. The present paper shows the failure of such approaches.