CULTURAL SECTION OF THE CONCEPT OF MEDIOCRITY IN THE CONTEXT OF PLATO'S PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the cultural analysis of the concept of mediocrity through the prism of Plato's philosophy: based on the materials of his treatise «The State» and individual dialogues. It was found that the concept of mediocrity is implicitly present in Plato's philosophy not only as a philosophical concept, but also as a certain cultural form in the context of
the political culture of ancient Greek society. A close connection between the concept of mediocrity and the cultural genesis of ancient Greek societies has been established. It is proved that the universalism of this concept gives an idea of the transformations of a social, political and cultural kind, which concern not only antiquity, but also other periods in European
history. It should be noted that Plato's ideological construction makes it possible to find a reference point for the study of mediocrity as a socio-cultural phenomenon that is widespread in transformative periods of history. In this context, it is worth noting that in this article, with the help of the analysis of Plato's texts, the presence of the phenomenon of mediocrity in the historical perspective and the regularity of its temporal recurrence is recorded. Outlining the regularities of the manifestation of mediocrity, a conclusion was made, according to which mediocrity is most fully manifested at the moment when the culture is experiencing a crisis and feels the consequences of the degradation of education and science. Research methodology is historical-genetic, hermeneutic, dialectical, and systemic.
Results: the author emphasizes that mediocrity is a constructive and culturally conditioned concept and correlates with ineffective models of education, as pointed out by Plato in his Dialogues. It is not the effectiveness of educational practices, the decrease in the level of applicants who have access to higher educational institutions, the loss of systematic education, and the low qualification of leaders of public opinion, that leads to the appearance of mediocrity as a certain social class, which can influence both the internal and external policies of the state. In turn, this poses a danger of the emergence of new dictatorships that will use social networks, and the Internet in general, as a means of control, not communication.
Novelty: this article makes it possible to look at the implicit formation of mediocrity in European culture as a phenomenon dependent on political form and time period.

The practical significance: can be applied in further studies of mediocrity and in solving the issue of reducing the risks associated with the massification of knowledge.