Looking at Mihhail Lotman’s Article (2017) “History as Geography” (Part 3 of 8)
0765 Does Russian culture savor binary models?
Or are binary models more than what they seem on the surface?
The author mentions two kinds of dualisms.
0766 One is obvious.
Two, equally powerful options prevail, such as the ideologies of “capitalism” and “communism”. Like identities, these are normal contexts and belong to Peirce’s category of thirdness. The logics of thirdness are exclusion, alignment and complement. The two mentioned ideologies appear to be exclusive. But, if they are formatted by scientific methodology, then one has difficulty seeing the signs of their exclusivity. Under this circumstance, can they align?
0767 The other is ontological.
Ontology is the logos of “ontos” or… for Peirce’s formalism… actuality2. Ontologies are real, no matter what people say or think. At least, that’s what I think and so I am saying it.
The author’s example for the ontological binary is Russian culture. Russian culture is substantiated before Christianity. Yet, now, everyone says that Russia is a Christian nation as opposed to what it just recently was, an officially atheist Marxist nightmare.
0768 Here is the thing.
Before 800 AD, the Slavs were a narod, a traditional culture, speaking Slavic languages. They were not a “tribe”. They were not an “ethnos”. They were not a “people”. The term, “narod”, is employed by Alexander Dugin to describe traditional cultures, before and after adoption of Christianity. In short, the Slavs remain a narod after converting to Byzantine Orthodoxy.
0769 If I follow the author, the archaic images and indexes of pre-Christian Slavic culture are like matter. Geography is intrinsic to this picture… er… archaic imagery. Indeed, the matter of geography and its iconography2a substantiates the form of Russian identity3a and will1a.
Consequently, an actuality2a provides matter to the form of a normal context3a and its potential1a.
0770 So here is a picture of the original thing.

0771 This thing is called an “incorporation”. A thing is incorporated (as matter or form) into another hylomorphic actuality.
B corresponds to the actuality2a in the category-based nested form. The geography thing appears as a dyadic structurefor originating matter.
A and C constitute the original form (that will go on to entangle matter). To a degree, this constitution reifies the co-opposition between A and C.

0772 Co-opposition?
Imagine will3a becoming a normal context and identity serving as its potential1a.
Identity and will are co-opposed.
0773 I suppose that a modernist may object.
How can a normal context3a and its potential1a (A and C) occupy a slot that is reserved for a form?
Aren’t forms typically actual2?
After all, Aristotle’s hylomorphe of {matter [substantiates] form} is an exemplar of Peirce’s category of secondness. Secondness (the realm of actuality) consists of two contiguous real elements. For Aristotle, the real elements are matter and form. The contiguity, placed in brackets, is [substance]. The noun and the verb are interchangeable in this regard. The contiguity is both noun and verb.
0774 A scholastic note appears on each side of the hylomorphe. Esse_ce brings the Latin term, esse, into English. Esse_ce is matter substantiating. In contrast, essence is substantiated form.
So, let me rename the hylomorphic actuality2a (B) as a thing that occupies the slot for matter.
In the following figure, the esse_ce of archaic pagan imagery substantiating binds to the essence of substantiated Russian identity and will.

0775 During the sovereignty of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Social Republics, this original Russian thing entangles Marxist atheism as matter. For decades, the confounding almost resolves in favor of entanglement. Russia stood on the verge of the dyad, {Marxist atheism as matter [substantiates] Russian identity and will as form}. But, society buckles starting in 1989.
This only goes to show how dangerous confoundings can be.

0776 The civilizational struggle is not between the matters of atheism and Christianity. The struggle is between Marxist atheism and archaic pagan imagery. If Marxism (as matter) ends up substantiating Russian identity and will (as form), then it will have to take the place of archaic pagan imagery (that is, of originating matter).
During the Third Battle of the Enlightenment Gods, the Hot War Among Fraternal Ideologies (1937-1945), Adolf Hitler’s matter of The German People substantiates German identity and will (as form), by taking on the attributes of the archaic pagan imagery of the German narod. The resolution of the confounding in favor of entanglement stuns Christendom. Some of that pagan imagery turns out to be truly nasty.
0777 The lesson?
A confounding is one form standing in relation to two matters, one originating and one entangled. The originating matter and form are one thing. The entangled matter and form have the capacity to become a palpably different thing,even though the form is the same.
According to the author, archaic pagan imagery infuses the Russian thing, which starts centuries before 1000AD, and includes the conversion of the kingdom of Rus (centered in Kiev, composed of Scandinavian rulers and Slavic subjects, who undoubtedly do not care about who rules them). I think that the Slavs like Christianity. Saints Cyril and Methodius hale from Byzantium and represent a branch of Christianity that never loses touch with Aristotle’s tradition.
0778 Here is a picture.

0779 Here is a confounding that is highly rewarding.
Some claim that, over the past thousand years, the confounding resolves in favor of Christianity. Others would contest that proposition, saying that the Russian identity belongs in Heaven or White India or somewhere in the East or somewhere in the West. This reminds me of archaic pagan imagery, weirdly sanctified through its confounding with Christianity (and, for a lifetime, weirdly corrupted by its confounding with Marxist atheism).
0780 Indeed, the author claims that, the Viking Kiev-Rus tended to reject and censor Byzantine culture, even while allowing Orthodoxy to spread. Then, Rus sovereignty fell to Mongol domination. For the next few centuries, Russian… Church Slavonic… culture is encapsulated by the… um… archaic pagan imagery of the Mongols.
0781 What does that imply?
Does it mean that the pagan imagery of the Mongols became an esse_ce to the Russian essence?
This is a historical question.
0782 After the fall of Constantinople, Russia becomes an Orthodox stronghold.
This means that the confounding resolves in favor of Christianity, as shown below.

0783 But, I don’t believe it.
Why?
The geography of Russia itself figures into its archaic pagan imagery2a.

































