This interview with Victor Maslov – one of the most famous specialists in the field of mathematical physics, differential equations, functional analysis, mechanics and quantum physics – is an array of questions and answers about the role of philosophy in natural science. Academician Maslov took part in the calculations on the Chernobyl sarcophagus immediately after the disaster. He is well known for his work on the possibility to apply some methods of mathematical physics to economy and financial analysis. He was the first to make an accurate forecast of the economic situation in Russia for 1991 and predict the Russian 1998 default as well as the 2008 crisis of the world financial system. What is more – he said recently that alternative currencies were to be introduced as an anti-crisis measure and if we did not do it ourselves, such currencies and barter would appear on their own. It took this prediction less than six months to come true at least in what concerns barter operations in Moscow’s realty sector.

INTERVIEW BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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An Open Letter to Medvedev and Putin

This open letter was written by the staff of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the students, the post-graduate students and the teachers of the State Academic University of Liberal Arts and the postgraduate students of other academic institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is, basically, an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Russian Government to stop the process of allegedly illegal action undertaken by the management of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts to take over the building which has always been and currently is home to the RAS Institute of Philosophy on Volkhonka Street and include it in the so-called “The City of Museums”. The letter urges the country’s topmost officials to take a close look at the situation and bring the matter to a fair solution. The letter, being essentially a resolution passed by over 400 participants in the general meeting of all those concerned, also points out that it is impermissible to favour one branch of culture at the expense of the other which is in no way inferior, i.e. in plain English – to rob Peter to pay Paul.

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The Gospel of Tolstoy and the Globalization of Morality

Aleksandr Zenkin who has come to Russian reading public with his four volumes of “The Curse of the Geniuses” strongly believes that such titans of the Russian literature as Nikolai Gogol, Feodor Dostoevsky and particularly Leo Tolstoy were the ones who largely made the Russian intelligentsia assimilate the idea about the possibility and historical inevitability of a socialist revolt. However strange it may sound, but from his perspective the Revolution in Russia was the first global attempt – so far immoral though – to bring about nothing else but morality in social relations.

BY ALEKSANDR ZENKIN

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Where is Minerva’s Owl Flying?

What are the challenges that philosophy is facing today? What is that gauntlet we expect it to take up? What particularly requires rethinking in philosophy itself? What prevents Russian philosophers today to bring up flatly and directly the question of a just society and a just government? These are the questions RPhG asked three prominent Russian philosophers – Fedor Girenok, Vladimir Porus and Nina Yulina – on the eve of the World’s Day of Philosophy. This day is a momentous occasion as the philosophical round tables and meetings associated with it are to be held for the first time in history under the aegis of UNESCO first in Moscow and then in St.-Petersburg later in November and also because it coincides with another anniversary – 80 years of the RAS Institute of Philosophy.

ROUND TABLE BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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A Monument To The Russian People

It is in the centre of the Kremlin of Novgorod; it is cast in the form of an enormous bell, though no longer ringing. The bell seems to have taken deep root forever and ever in the ancient land of Novgorod. There is nothing like it anywhere else because it is special. It tells us about a millennium rather than a century and is dedicated to all of the Russian people together rather than a single person. It is much talked about… and argued too. Who are those 129 bronze figures cast in the alto-relievo, that belt the bell? Why did the makers of the monument decide to pick preeminently them rather than other people from the endless list of our ancestors? Trying to answer such questions would, in essence, be arguing about Russia itself… Actually, Russian history is as dramatic as the fate of this outstanding monument.

BY NATALIYA LOGINOVA

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Education is a Way to Overcome the Dissociation of Mankind

A famous Indian philosopher and teacher, Jagdish Gandhi sees building bridges of peace in this world as the purpose and meaning of his life. Doctor Gandhi specified and further developed his point before Russian philosophers and teachers during his address at the RAS Institute of Philosophy in Moscow. The meeting was chaired by Vice-President of the Russian Philosophical Society Professor Chumakov who introduced Dr.Gandhi in his opening word.

The article is a short account of the meeting with a focus on Dr. Gandhi’s life, work and achievements in the field of philosophy and teaching.

BY VLADIMIR ROSCHUPKIN

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