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THE RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHICAL GAZETTE

February 2009 – No 2

FEATURES

Louis Montesquieu: “I have derived my principles from the nature of things.”

Montesquieu was a French political thinker and one of the great philosophers of the Enlightenment. His philosophical heritage is still very much in use. He is famous for his theory of separation of powers. Montesquieu used this theory to explain how governments might be preserved from corruption. He saw despotism, in particular, as a standing danger for any government not already despotic, and argued that it could best be prevented by a system in which different bodies exercised legislative, executive, and judicial power, and in which all those bodies were bound by the rule of law. This theory is taken for granted in modern discussions of government. Many constitutions all over the world use it.

BY NATALIYA LOGINOVA

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A Step Towards Justice

However many reasonable ideas and Nobel Prizes may encase liberal sciences that have been studying problems of humanity, things haven’t budged an inch. Every day guns fire and missiles fly, killing innocent people. But there are no, nor can there be any perpetrators because “humaneness” and consequently “sub-humaneness” are not specified as human qualities and for this reason no objective or equitable solution is possible in a legal context. Moreover so, political lawsuits filed against civilized cutthroats brought to justice from time to time have almost no response on the part of the law. Such suits are nothing else but publicity stunts set up to meet the interests of those who organize them. We see that despite the increasing number of sociologists and political scientists none of them can say what needs to be done in practice to prevent the growing negative phenomena in human relations. Who shall we send our complaints over the absence of justice or the lack of freedom? What is freedom after all?

BY ARNOLD KAZMIN

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English

The Quadrature of the National Circle

Generally, all countries go through tough ordeals in their periods of reforms because of the pressure from many directions – new government regulations, new socio-economic conditions, new interpersonal relations, etc. And all this inevitably goes together with finger pointing. Is there a real threat to the Russian nation from the sprouts of national extremism and neo-fascism? Read this interview in which Lev Annenski, a man of letters, political writer, philosopher and historian gives answers to this and some other questions on the present-day inter-ethnic relations in Russia.

INTERVIEW BY TATIANA ULITINA

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Round Table: Social Government Concept

The regulation of social processes is a problem of all human history. In fact, there are a great many concepts of equitable and fair-minded power but none of them has met people’s expectations so far.  Socialism turned out to be counterproductive and the presence of social problems in the capitalist world prompts that the existing ideas about the effective organization of socio-economic relations are incomplete and need more discussion.

Some of the passengers of the so-called “Philosophical Train”, i.e. participants in the 22d World Congress of Philosophy, have answered our call and kindly share their views on this crucial topic – that of the organization of effective social governance.

PROVIDED BY ROUND TABLE MODERATOR
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How Can We Exhort People to Creativity?

This is the response of a reader to our last December article “The Truth of Life and Life for Truth’s Sake”. This is how he begins his letter: “The article seems to be quite pertinent, relevant and useful. ‘Philosophical reflexion, an attempt to find an answer to the eternal question about the meaning of life calls for a multifaceted look at the process of thinking,’ says Kazmin. I do agree with him here. As a former teacher, I believe that what we don’t have is that multifaceted look he has mentioned”.

BY DMITRI PETRYAKOV
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The Sphinx of Russian Literature

The article is dedicated to the famous Russian fable writer Ivan Krylov (1769 - 1844). While some of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work. His name is known to everyone in Russia, his fables are widely cited by playwrights, film directors, anchormen, politicians, journalists, students, teachers and schoolchildren. His contribution to Russian literature is enormous. Krylov satirized social and individual faults in the guise of beasts, producing over 200 fables in nine books. He often dealt with human follies, but also social defects, and current events. Many of his aphorisms have become part of everyday Russian speech. His fables are still an integral part of Russian primary and secondary education.

BY NATALIA LOGINOVA
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The Planet Called “Chkalov”

Valery Chkalov (1904–1938) was a Russian test pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1930s, he turned to long-distance flying and there he achieved his greatest renown. With Georgy Baidukov as copilot and Alexander Belyakov as navigator, Chkalov set a world record for distance flying in July 1936, by flying from Moscow to Udd Island, off the coast of Kamchatka. On June 18, 1937, the same team gained international fame by flying from Moscow to Vancouver flying over the North Pole along the way. This was another world record. Chkalov died on December 15, 1938, testing a prototype of the Polikarpov I-180.

This interview with the daughter of the great pilot is particularly interesting as it sheds light on some little known facts of Chkalov’s life and work.

BY VLADIMIR ROSCHUPKIN

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