Contemporary scholars gave Friedrich Nietzsche, a young poet of a genius and a man of wisdom, a cautious welcome accepting him into their circle though they rejected him later. Fame came to Nietzsche when he was already an ill man who had suffered a mental disorder.

As a philosopher, he challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He believed in life, creativity, health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life’s energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers, Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

This article is an overview of Nietzsche’s life, work and his contribution to philosophy.

BY NATALYA LOGINOVA

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Religion at School, Unified State Examination and Morality

These and some other points at issue were discussed by the 5th Russian Congress of Philosophy at Novosibirsk this August, within the framework of a special initiative of the Russian Philosophical Gazette.

This material presents a broad array of opinions expressed by prominent Russian philosophers and scientists on these and other questions. Their views also give a vivid picture of the spirit of this philosophical forum as a whole. RPhG has tried to be as objective as possible giving our readers both ‘pros’ and ‘contras’ in the most balanced way.

INTERVIEW BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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“There is a Russian Sprit Here…”…

This is a story of the village of Pushkino which is incidentally not in Russia but in Ukraine’s Transcarpatian Region. The region is multinational: 120 nationalities live there (Hungarians, Ukrainians, Russians, Slovakians, Rumanians, Czechs, etc.), but this village is mostly Russian. It owns its name to a local Museum of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Over the years the museum has grown into an important centre of Russian culture. A lot of help and assistance has been given to the museum by Professor Provozin, vice-president of the Ukrainian Academy of Russian Culture, who handed over many rare Pushkin-related exhibits.

BY YURI KIRILLOV

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“Shine, Shine, the Distant Star…”

These are the words of Mikhail Lermontov (1814 –1841), a great Russian Romantic writer and poet. He was the most important figure in Russian poetry from the time of Alexander Pushkin’s death until his own four years later, at the age of 26 — like Pushkin, he was killed in a duel.

His poetry is among the most beloved in Russia, perhaps second only to that of Pushkin. His work had immense influence on later Russian literature. His only novel A Hero of Our Time made Lermontov one of the founding fathers of the Russian prose.

Unlike Shelley, with whom he is sometimes compared, he attempted to go further to analyze and bring to light the deepest reasons for his metaphysical discontent with society and himself.

BY NATALYA LOGINOVA

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Can Russia be Perceived by Mind Alone?

It will take you just one hour to get from the noisy Tokyo centre to the Tama station from where you can walk into the green and quiet campus of one of the most prestigious centres of higher learning in Japan – the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages. There is a large poster with Moscow’s St.Basil’s Cathedral on one of the doors in a long spacious corridor. Behind the door is Ms Maeda Idzumi, a teacher of the Russian language, literature and culture. Today she answers some questions and shares her views on what Japanese think about Russia, in what way Russians are different from other Europeans and Americans, why Dostoevsky is popular among the Japanese, how she and her students are trying to understand Russia and the Russian character.

BY OLGA ROSCHUPKINA

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The Worlds of Alexander Humboldt

Today it is 240 years since Alexander Humboldt, one of the world’s greatest explorers of all times was born. Quite a few places on the map bear his name: a river and a lake in the United States, mountain ranges in Central Asia and North America, a glacier in Greenland and an ocean current near the Peruvian coast. His name was given to a lunar crater and two minerals. To crown it all, a university in Berlin was also named after the Humboldt brothers.

This seems impressive, but… we think that his contribution to science is still largely undervalued. Although his brother Wilhelm is generally considered to be a philosopher, it is Alexander who is a true one, i.e. a man seeking truth and wisdom, a man who devoted his whole life to exploring nature in the broadest sense for there is no path in the field of science where Alexander Humboldt had not left his footprint.

BY ANTON SMIRNOV

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The Moon Race: Yesterday and Today

The enigmatic and mysterious disc in the dark sky… called the Moon has been a subject of worship, myth and legend since time immemorial. It is the second brightest object above Earth’s horizon and the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system. Over the centuries the Moon has been like a magnet to astronomers, philosophers, artists, musicians, poets and science-fiction writers who used it as a source of inspiration. Of particular scientific interest are flashes of uncertain origin on the surface of the Moon that have been an object of close observation for the last three years.

This article presents an overview of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to send a man to the Moon and also gives the highlights of the current ambitious plans of NASA, Europe and Russia to continue its exploration and that of Mars and other celestial bodies, of course.

BY VLADIMIR ROSCHUPKIN

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