PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING OF LEADERSHIP IN THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS

The article is devoted to the investigation of development of philosophical ideas of leadership. The accent has been made on the historical and cultural specific features of interpretation of the phenomenon of leadership in Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern Age and contemporary time. It has been concluded that leadership research can be divided into three main areas: 1) the first direction comes from the interpretation of leadership as a social and cultural universal as an activity inherent in society at all stages of its development and having general patterns of manifestation in all spheres of social life; 2) the second direction is based on the identification of leadership and management; 3) the third direction of inquiries singles out leadership as a separate social and cultural phenomenon with various aspects which it is not reducible either to the sphere of management, or to psychology, or to the activities of state authorities or individual political leaders.