John Amos Comenius, or Jan Amos Komensky in the Czech language, was a Czech thinker, humanist, teacher, scientist, educator, and writer of the 16th century. All his life was devoted to studying problems of teaching and education. His main purpose was to improve society through education because he believed it to be the basis for mutual understanding and cooperation of nations and eventually “achieving a better life in this world”. He was one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept set forth in his book Didactica Magna. Commonly known as Pansophia, his philosophy – including his universal education plan, his faith in that the process of improvement through continuous creative effort should be continuous and his pursuit of the universal method for shaping up both an individual and society – was considered utopian in his time and was given credit only in 20th century. Today Comenius is universally known as the teacher of nations. He is often considered the father of modern education.

BY NATALYA LOGINOVA

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The Central Question and the Answer of Philosophy

The assumption that wisdom is the cornerstone of ethicizing social relations should be universally accepted as the new principle of social life. Formalizing, i.e. measuring such categories as ‘wisdom’, ‘conscience’, ‘humaneness’, ‘intellect’ – of which and how to actually measure them RPhG has been very vocal perhaps in all of its issues – can serve well to take the culture of social relations up to the level of civility which is inherent in a genuinely civil society.

We believe that the ‘central question of philosophy’, i.e. the central question philosophy should be concerned with is in fact a range of problems relating to achieving a better, dignified life for each and everyone. As we strongly think, the correct answer to this should consist in the discovery and formalization of laws governing social life. Based on these laws, yet to be formulated, a conceptual foundation for the organization of human existence as a complex system of equitable relations in society can be developed.

BY ARNOLD KAZMIN

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English

Can We Look Forward with Shrunk Standards?

The Bologna Declaration is the main guiding document of the so called Bologna process. It was adopted by ministers of education of 29 European countries at their meeting in Bologna in 1999. As of today, the Declaration has been signed by 46 states. Russia signed it in 2003. Under the Declaration, each state party to it should take the Bologna track by the year 2010. Generally, it provides for establishing a European Higher Education Area in which students and graduates could move freely between countries, using prior qualifications in one country as acceptable entry requirements for further study in another.

Insofar as heated debates over the Declaration persist, the Russian Academy of Sciences held a round table “The Bologna Process and Russian Traditions in Education” which was another serious discussion of the issue. In this interview the deputy chairman of the RAS Scientific Council for study and protection of cultural and natural heritage Amet Volodarsky who was the moderator of the round table answers the questions asked by RPhG.

INTERVIEW BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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Philosophy Needs Higher Standards

Novosibirsk – the venue of the upcoming Congress of Philosophy – is a widely recognized center of philosophy because this place is where scientists of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the RAS Siberian Branch work hand in hand with a large group of professors and teachers from the Philosophy Department of the Novosibirsk State University and also from other institutions of higher learning. But this is the first time that a philosophical congress will be held in Siberia. This article is a story of the deputy chairman of the organizing committee Vladimir Diev about the forthcoming forum of national significance.

BY VLADIMIR DIEV

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Evandro Agazzi, “What is phony in science is phony in ethics.”

It is more than one hundred years since the first world congress of philosophy took place in Paris in 1900. And since 1948, such congresses have been held every five years. As many people think, the significance of that event inter alia depends to a large degree upon what thinkers of world renown attend it. The last but one Congress in Istanbul in this sense was marked by the participation of Jurgen Habermas, who is undoubtedly one of the brightest philosophers of our time. Last year’s Congress in Seoul was also attended by a luminary Italian, Evandro Agazzi. It is Agazzi – a famous philosopher and logician representing scientific realism in philosophy – that this article is about.

BY VLADIMIR ROSCHUPKIN

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A Banker – Friend or Foe?

The article is far deeper than its heading as it was written by the deputy director-general of the Moscow International Business Association – a man who knows what he is writing about; and the topic is Russia’s economics or its financial system. In a plain and easy language the author presents his views on the impact of the crisis on different groups of Russian banks, describes what constitutes the basis of a healthy financial institution and finally shares his views with the reader answering a practical question about what kind of banks can be trusted under the conditions of the current crisis.

BY EVGENI POLUEKTOV

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The Subjectivity of the Objective Unified State Examination

The Unified State Examination (USE) has become the only official form of state’s final evaluation of school education for all secondary school leavers in the Russian Federation. Education Minister A.Fursenko has made a great number of speeches emphasizing USE’s strong points in an attempt to convince the broad public of its practicality. There are still questions and strong doubts though. The author in fact is not questioning the objectivity of USE but trying to bring to our attention what in his opinion is yet to be done urgently to make USE an effective yardstick of school knowledge in light of the present-day requirements.

BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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Should our Children Be Scared of USE?

This material is a logical follow-up to the previous article. The emphasis here is placed on the positive logic of USE which, with all its drawbacks and imperfections, is destined to boost and thus improve our secondary education. The considerations provided are based on the comparison between the old university-level entry examinations and the newly adopted school-level USE in terms of both systems’ impact on the quality of school, university and post-graduate education and hence the future of Russian science in general. According to the author, here the scientific outreach of USE is believed to be of particular importance.

BY GENNADI SHVOV

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“The Gates to Learning”

It is 340 years this June since Leonty Magnitsky was born. He was a Russian mathematician and educator. In 1703, Magnitsky wrote his famous Arithmetic which was used as the principal textbook on mathematics in Russia until the middle of the 18th century. It is noteworthy that Mikhail Lomonosov himself was taught by this book which he called “the gates to his own learning”. It was a textbook for the courses which Magnitsky himself taught at school, essentially a published version of his lecture notes. It was also an encyclopedia of the mathematical sciences of its day. It used the methods of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Nothing could be more practical than Magnitsky's reminder, "Riches come to the hands of the man who loves wisdom and the sciences.

BY ANTON SMIRNOV

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