Ethical and humanistic views of A. Schweitzer and J. Shihana: the experience of comparative analysis

The subject of the study is the common and different views on man, society and ethics of A. Schweitzer and J. Sheehan - the most famous representatives of the philosophy of sports in the USA of the twentieth century and theorist of the humanistic content of running practices. This comparison is carried out in order to determine how an American researcher expresses, concretizes and enriches a complex of humanistic ideas, generically called Schweitzerianism. The author explicates the relationship between A. Schweitzer and J. Sheehan addresses the problems of human physicality, clarifies the causes and consequences of their desire for freedom from inauthentic life, identifies the specifics and spheres of self-knowledge, defines the role of religion and mysticism in their spirituality, and compares ethical programs and humanistic ideals. The research methodology is presented by general logical methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, as well as philosophical methods: hermeneutical and phenomenological. A. Schweitzer and J. Sheehan is united by finding the meaning of one's own existence in affirming the existence of a bodily expressed life – both in the fullness of its presence (A. Schweitzer) and in the form of individual human physicality (J. Sheehan). The task of the individual is to form an individual ethic that, in the interests of human development, would be characterized by life and world affirmation, as well as optimism. Both A. Schweitzer and J. Sheehan believes that the source of such ethics is a religious and mystical connection with the Absolute, which is achieved by two paths: consistent and deep thinking (A. Schweitzer) and bodily (in particular, running) practices (J. Sheehan), the stages of ascent of which to the Absolute are as follows: play – suffering – Vision. After acquiring this type of ethics, a person must move into the mode of active service to the good ("life for others"). The boundless ethics of A. Schweitzer has become a new stage in the development of humanism, and one of the social forces actively asserting the complex of his ideas today is the amateur running community, the expression of the humanistic spirit of which is J. Schweitzer. In the context of the ethical progress of society, running as a social practice can be considered as a sphere of affirmation of values such as democracy, equality, individualism, honesty, the positive significance of human physicality and heroism without violence against rivals.