СОВМЕСТНЫЙ ПРОЕКТ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФИЛОСОФСКОЙ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОСТИ И ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВА «СИДИПРЕСС»

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THE RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHICAL GAZETTE

August 2009 – No 8

 

FEATURES

Aleksandr Raditschev, “A Man of Truth is Just Another Word for a Patriot.”

 

Aleksandr Radishchev (1749–1802) was a Russian author and social critic who was exiled to Siberia by Catherine the Great because of the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Radishchev was born into a minor noble family. Because of his exceptional academic promise, Radishchev was sent abroad to acquire Western learning at the University of Leipzig. His foreign education influenced his approach to Russian society, and upon his return he hoped to incorporate Enlightenment philosophies to Russian conditions. He was especially critical of serfdom and the limits to personal freedom imposed by the autocracy.

Catherine the Great viewed Radishchev's calls for reform as evidence of Jacobin-style radicalism, and ordered copies of the text destroyed. He was arrested and condemned to death. This sentence was later commuted to exile to Ilimsk in Siberia.

Radishchev was freed by Catherine's successor Tsar Paul, and attempted again to push for reforms in Russia's government. Under the reign of Alexander I, Radishchev was briefly employed to help revise Russian law, a realization of his lifelong dream. Unfortunately, his tenure in this administrative body was short and unsuccessful. In 1802 a despondent Radishchev - possibly threatened with another Siberian exile - committed suicide by drinking poison.

BY NATALYA LOGINOVA

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The Seventh Crusade Against the Russian Academy of Sciences

 

 

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It has always been the principal form of instituting fundamental science in the country by providing the integrity of the scientific community, the succession of traditions and organizing for achievements of global significance. The Academy is also a backbone of the intellectual sphere of our society. Obviously we all take pride in it and thus feel all right, if it were not for numerous encroachments upon its integrity that come out as attempts to reform it.

Today it is the seventh time that such an attempt has been made. It is nothing else but a seventh crusade against the Academy with the only purpose to destroy it. The authors of the so called “Draft Academy of Sciences with the Administration of the Russian Federation and the International Committee for Scientific Audit” are anonymous but one thing is clear – they belong to those ‘reformers’ whose incompetence can be compared only to their ambitiousness. It is also obvious that such an opus signifies another step in the campaign to discredit the Russian Academy of Sciences pursuing a very clear goal – the expropriation and re-distribution of its property.

The article is an academic answer to incompetence and avarice.

 

BY VYACHESLAV LOKOSOV

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English

 

On the Eve of the Congress

 

RPhG asked some philosophers to express their views on the following three points: the effectiveness of the forthcoming Congress of Russian Philosophers, the economic crisis as a challenge to philosophy and social responsibility of those in power and the mission of philosophy today as they see it.

This article is an overview of a recent round table held by correspondence in which Vladislav Lectorsky, RAS Member and Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Problems of Philosophy’ Magazine; Professor Vladimir Porus, PhD; Professor Vyacheslav Kudashev, PhD, Chairman of RPhS, Krasnoyarsk Branch were kind enough to take part and share their opinion on the points mentioned above.

 

 

INTERVIEW BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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Empty-headed Treatment of Nature is Immoral

 

The Draft Section “Ethics of Nature Management” of the Environment Code of Russia prepared by the RAS Institute of Philosophy in 1992 says, “Nature is a natural medium of man’s origin and existence. Man is a child of nature. His history and that of nature are interrelated. The quality of environment accounts for health, working ability, longevity and welfare. It is only the harmony of man and nature that can give the human race an optimistic forecast and add the sense of morality to the developing civilization. Everything has a reason in this world and everything is interconnected. The environment, man and human society make up one system. The damage being caused to some species of animals and plants threatens the very existence of the biosphere. Therefore nature should not be treated as something insignificant.

The article is an overview of today’s affairs in the field of environment protection in Russia.

 

BY ELENA KARTASHOVA, Moscow University, Department of BiologyV

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An Instant that Went Down in Eternity

 

A very interesting story with a focus on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 –1832) who is one of the great figures in the history of German culture. He was a painter, novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, and, for ten years, minister of state for the republic of Weimar. His magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust. In the story Faust sells his soul to Satan in exchange for power and knowledge. The first part was published in 1808 and the second part was published in 1832, by which time Goethe was at the end of a sensational literary career and an idol of the German Romantics.

Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Goethe is the originator of the concept of "world literature", having taken great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, the Arab world, and others. It is not an exaggeration to say that modern German literature begins with Goethe and that he ranks as one of the most important figures in European literature.

His influence on German philosophy is immeasurable, having major effect especially on the generation of Hegel and Schelling, although Goethe himself expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the specialized sense.

 

BY NATALYA LOGINOVA

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Happiness of the Palm: Peter and Thevronia

 

In the turbulent 90s when St.Valentine’s Day came to Russia from the West, many people especially from the older generation wondered why they should accept this Catholic holiday if they have always had their own Orthodox patrons of those who truly love each other, of marriage, of fidelity and of family, of course – Peter and Phevronia. The question is then: Why shouldn’t we honor St. Peter and Maid Phevronia, whose love passed all the tests, as patrons of true love?

At the beginning of the 13th century Peter, Grand Duke of Murom, suffered from leprosy and nobody could help him. Once he had a dream that he would be cured by a young country girl whose name was Phevronia. Grand Duke promised to marry Phevronia but did not keep the promise and his disease restarted. So Peter had to marry Phevronia, but soon he realized that she was his only love. Murom's noblemen could not let a peasant girl rule their land and they demanded that Peter should either separate from his wife or give up the princedom. Peter left Murom with his beloved wife unhesitatingly. They both died at the same time on July 8.

In the 16th century Peter and Phevronia were canonized by Russian Orthodox Church. Many years have passed since those events but people still believe that if you say you love someone on July 8, your feelings will not be left unanswered.

 

BY TATYANA STUDENIKINA

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Behind a Maritime ‘Wall’…

This is a very interesting account of Swedish achievements in building a socially oriented state in conditions of well-developed market economy. Sweden is a state in which the middle class is strong, its people are socially protected and well-educated. Sweden can take pride in its systems of health care, old-age insurance and pension fund schemes. Swedish taxation based on deductions proportional to the size of income works smoothly.

The article is focused mainly on certain principles used by the Swedish government to assist certain businesses. What makes it especially interesting is that the author has singled out some strong points of Swedish experience that could be used in Russia. The story is based on his meeting with Jesper Waltersson, a representative of Stena Line – a prominent maritime company.

The name of the article is just a pun: the author implies that Jesper Walterson feels socially protected behind the ‘wall’ of social guarantees provided by his state and his company Stena. Stena may mean anything in Swedish, but in Russian it sounds like a ‘wall’.

 

 

BY VLADIMIR ROSCHUPKIN

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The Telescope and the Centre of the Universe

Galileo was the first to build and use a telescope for space observations in1609. So it has been 400 years now since he did it, and the International Union of Astronomy made a decision to declare the year 2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy. With UNESCO’s support and the UN General Assembly approval, Paris hosted an official ceremony of opening the International Year of Astronomy on 1 January 2009.

This is a story of what measures are to be taken by the international scientific community within this year’s agenda to further advance astronomy.

 

BY ANTON SMIRNOV

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