Мифологические аспекты просветительской деятельности «учёной дружины»

The focus of the article is an analysis of the educational activities of the intellectual community «Studiosa Cohors» in the first half of the 18th century. It is shown that the main mission of F. Prokopovich, V. Tatishchev, A. Kantemir was the enlightenment of the Russian people by preserving the ideological heritage of Peter the Great as a continuation of the myth of the monarch serving the Fatherland. In this regard, the article explores the concepts of «cohors», «duty», «honor» and their mythological background. It is shown that the content of the worldview problems of Russian enlighteners determined the original form of presentation of their reflections. They did not always use the genre of a systematic treatise to express their ideas, stayed in the space of interdisciplinary intersections of various research trajectories and did not consider pursuing philosophy to be their profession. In this way that they represented the practical orientation of enlightenment thinking and confirmed their devotion to the ideas of Peter’s reforms. For the full implementation of enlightenment, there must be a space for public discussion of the main worldview ideas. This not only teaches citizens to freely express their own thoughts, but also removes the contradiction between public freedom of thinking and individual restraint of actions. In Russia of Peter the Great age, the active civic position of building a new state was an expression of public freedom of thinking.