Abstract

This review examines the main problems of the XX International Likhachev Scientific Readings held in June 2022 at the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. The readings took place after a two-year break and their problems shifted from the traditional question of the dialogue of cultures to the question of modern conflict tension in the world. Within the framework of the Readings, a number of breakout sessions were held on various aspects of humanitarian knowledge in the context of the current political situation. The subject of the study is the discussion held during the plenary session, as well as the topic of the section, in which ethical and cultural issues were analyzed. The author of the review paid special attention to the opinions expressed by foreign participants of the conference regarding the conflict situation in the world and their assumptions about the ways to resolve it. The general idea of these reports is the idea of a desirable political multipolarity of the global space and criticism of changes in the structure of understanding of liberal values in the modern Western world. The topics of the reports of domestic researchers, humanities scientists dealing with these value transformations were also described. The author made critical remarks about the general tone of the discussion and the conclusions drawn by the speakers, since, criticizing the Western "cancellation culture", the participants mostly tended to the idea of a mirror response - and thus also to the idea of "cancellation", which makes this answer indistinguishable from what he criticizes, and only contributing to the escalation of tension.