MENTALITY AS AN UNDERLYING ANTHROPOLOGICAL REALITY

MENTALITY AS AN UNDERLYING ANTHROPOLOGICAL REALITY 
AND WAYS OF ITS COMPREHENSION IN THE HUMANITIES 
(EXPERIENCE OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONSIDERATION) 
V.I. Postovalova 
Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences 
1, bld. 1 Bolshoy Kislovsky Lane, Moscow, 125009, Russian Federation 
Abstract.
The work is devoted to the epistemological analysis of the formation of the idea of 
mentality in modern humanitarian knowledge. The sources, approaches and main directions in the 
understanding of mentality in the science of the 20-21st centuries are considered. The idea is being 
developed that the dynamic path of teaching about mentality in modern culture can be presented as 
an ascent from polydisciplinarity in the study of mentality to the creation of mentology as an 
integrative discipline. The idea is that in order to understand the processes of the formation of the 
idea of mentality in humanitarian knowledge, it is necessary to take into account, in addition to the 
immanent perspective of the presentation of this topic as part of individual disciplines, also the 
general context of the formation of humanitarian knowledge. The question of the heuristic value of 
ideas and principles of doctrines about integrity for the development of integrative concepts of 
mentality is discussed. It is suggested that the “anthropology of wholeness” can be chosen as an 
ontological basis for the development of mentology, and “philosophy of wholeness” in its various 
versions, based on the principles of holism, and particularly – on the principle of all-encompassing 
unity, can be chosen as a methodological tool for constructing this discipline. 
Keywords:
humanitarian knowledge, polydisciplinarity, integrative discipline, mentalistics 
and mentology, mentality, category, concept, picture of the world, integrity, the principle of holism, 
all-encompassing unity.