William of Ockham or Occam (c. 1288 - c. 1348) was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered — along with Thomas Aquinas — to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the fourteenth century. Although commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, William of Ockham also produced significant works on logic, natural philosophy (physics) and theology.

BY NATALIYA LOGINOVA

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Man and his Social Form of Life

This article is has been written to further develop the RPhG much advocated theory that wisdom is the absolute basis of fair and just government and is yet one more attempt to outline some practical recommendations based on the investigation of the ethical aspects of social relations in their historical development. As little attention is given today to questions concerning the interrelation of ethics and social medium in present-day philosophical studies, those who believe that the regulation of human relations should be based on the mutual adaptation of people to specific social conditions rather than on morality and ethics are becoming increasingly insistent. We believe that this can be put down to the absence of the scientific approach to the problem in question, which calls for a comprehensive study of all the aspects of the social form of human life. It is this approach that this article is about.

BY ARNOLD KAZMIN

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English

An Open Letter to Medvedev and Putin

This is a letter of appeal of the Presidium of Russian Philosophical Society to the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Russian Government to reconsider the previously made decision to hand over a building on Volkhonka Street, which is currently the seat of the RAS Russian Philosophical Society, to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The letter requests to leave the said building with the Russian Philosophical Society urging the country’s leaders to bring the matter to a fair solution. The letter is signed by the RPhS Presidium members and many other Russian philosophers of eminence.

BY RPhS PRESIDIUM

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There Can Be No Great Russia Without Great Science

Here is an interview with Aleksei Sissakyan, Director of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Academician of the Russian Academy of Science who is both a physicist and a poet. As a scientist, he contributed much to theoretical and mathematical physics, elementary particle physics and some other fields of natural science. The questions asked were mainly about the link between science and philosophy, so the answers of this eminent scientist are very likely to be of great interest to our readers as they particularly bear on the idea advocated by the Gazette. And the last page of this issue with a number of verses written by Aleksei Sissaskyan is another proof that big scientists cannot go without liberal arts being just as good at them.

INTERVIEW BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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World Financial Crisis: the Beginning or the End?

This is a collection of views carefully brought together by our permanent contributor to highlight the work of the recent round table of philosophers and economists aimed to discuss the current world financial crisis. The discussion was held under the auspices of the Financial Academy with the Government of Russia and presided by the deputy chancellor Professor M.Fedotova. In the opening word, she pointed out that the researches currently undertaken by the Academy staff focused on how to improve the financial architecture, create a new financial order and turn both Russia and Moscow into the world’s new financial centre should also pay heed to the opinions of our philosophers. Apart from the economic aspects of the research, it is really important to know what our philosophers think on such matters as: Are we or are we not on the road to recovery? Have the measures taken by the Government to support our banks and real economy been effective? Has our reaction to the challenges brought up by the crisis been flawless from the ethical point of view?

BY SERGEI SHARAKSHANE

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A Trusted Friend of Professor Ueno

“It seems that no film has had a greater pull on the Russian movie-goer’s heart-strings in the last five years without distinction as to one’s age, sex, occupation and the amount of cynicism acquired over the years.” These are the lines from a review on Hachiko: A Dog Story, released in August 2009, directed by Lasse Hallstrom.

The film is based on a real fact. In 1924, Hachiko was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachiko saw him out from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Station. The pair continued their daily routine until when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a heart attack at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting. After his master's death, Hachiko kept on showing up again and again at the train station, waiting for Professor Ueno to return. This continued for nine years until Hachiko died. In 1932, one of these articles, published in Tokyo's largest newspaper, threw the dog into the national spotlight and Hachiko became a country-wide sensation, and since that time Hachiko's legendary faithfulness has became a national symbol of loyalty in Japan.

BY OLGA ROSCHUPKINA

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“The Gadfly” Wouldn’t Have Been Written but for a Brief Meeting at the George Hotel in London

The name of Ethel Lilian Voynich, (May 11, 1864–July 27, 1960) is very well known in Russia. An English novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes, she is most famous for her novel The Gadfly, first published in 1897, about the struggles of an international revolutionary in Italy. This novel was very popular in the Soviet Union and was the top best seller and compulsory reading there. Moreover, it was made into a movie twice: in 1928 and 1955. The article supports the view of the English historian Robin Bruce Lockhart that Voynich had a love affair with a ‘super spy’ – Sidney Reilly – a secret agent of the British Intelligence Service who first met Voynich at the George Hotel in London in 1895. After their brief affair had ended, Voynich published The Gadfly, the central character of which, Arthur Burton, was allegedly based on Sidney Reilly's own early life.

BY YURI KIRILLOV

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She Didn’t Want to Be Famous

The story is about a song – in fact, the most famous Russian Christmas song known and sung across the country irrespective of age. It is called "In the Forest a Fir-tree was Born". It is also about its author, as very few people know the name of Raisa Kudasheva. The verse was first published in 1903 and signed just by initials so the name of the author stayed in the shade. In two years’ time, Leonid Beckman wrote the music and thus the song was born to become the most widely admired piece of Christmas celebrations. It was highly regarded by such eminent people in the world of art as Rakhmaninov, Taneyev, Skryabin and so on.

BY NATALIYA LOGINOVA

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