One of the most interesting phenomena of our religious-political life is the considerable difference in attitude toward religion between the popular masses and the political elite. In our survey of public opinion, the respondents had to express their attitude to two alternative statements: "There are national, traditional religions in our country. They should have more rights than representatives of religions that are new to our country "; and "All religions should have absolutely equal rights." Only 9 percent agreed with the (...) first statement, while the vast majority agreed with the second. Even among the Orthodox, adherents of the Moscow patriarchy, only 13 percent were supporters of special patronage by the state for the traditional religions, while those who advocated an equality of religion made up 69 percent. Thus, the idea of a state church is alien to the contemporary popular consciousness. The evolution of mass consciousness is toward an even greater amorphousness and indefiniteness with regard to religion and further away from the idea of a national, state church. The data confirming this have already been presented. Let me just recall that the percentage of persons who approved of the church's participation in political life decreased from 74 percent to 48 percent from 1990 to 1991. (shrink)

From the editors. Our society, too, is apparently not uninterested in problems associated with such mysterious phenomena of the human psyche as clairvoyance, telepathy, and telekinesis. Expectations and hopes with regard to psychosurgical intervention on the human organism thrive; ideas of reincarnation and life after death, the interaction of our civilization with supposed inhabitants and civilizations of the Universe , the influence of the natural-cosmic environment on human destiny , or, on the contrary, man's independence of natural laws are widespread. (...) The corpus of these ideas has a life of its own , is becoming institutionalized, is successful in lobbying for its interests, and is becoming an influential force in society, generating a unique emotional atmosphere that combines fear of the future with hopes that fate is more favorable to man than would be warranted from the picture of the world painted by modern science. (shrink)

There are practically no sincere and consistent "Westernizers" left in our country after the almost universal "Westernist" euphoria at the end of the eighties. This applies equally to active politicians of all camps and to the predominant moods in society.

This text is an introduction to the translation of R. Aquila "Kantian Appearances, Intentional Objects, and Some Varieties Phenomenalism".

Sex chromosomes in plants have been known for a century, but only recently have we begun to understand the mechanisms behind sex determination in dioecious plants. Here, we discuss evolution of sex determination, focusing on Silene latifolia, where evolution of separate sexes is consistent with the classic “two mutations” model—a loss of function male sterility mutation and a gain of function gynoecium suppression mutation, which turned an ancestral hermaphroditic population into separate males and females. Interestingly, the gynoecium suppression function in (...) S. latifolia evolved via loss of function in at least two sex‐linked genes and works via gene dosage balance between sex‐linked, and autosomal genes. This system resembles X/A‐ratio‐based sex determination systems in Drosophila and Rumex, and could represent a steppingstone in the evolution of X/A‐ratio‐based sex determination from an active Y system. (shrink)

This is a review of: Николай Онуфриевич Лосский, под редакцией В. П. Филатова, Москва: Росспэн (Серия "Философия России первой половины ХХ века"), 2016. It describes and appraises the content of this collection of nineteen articles on the life and thought of the prominent twentieth century Russian philosopher Nikolai Lossky. The volume, edited by Vladimir Filatov, presents the reader with an analysis of Lossky's philosophical legacy, including such aspects of his thought as his intuitivism, his personalism, his relation to phenomenology, (...) his narrative of the history of Russian philosophy, and so on. Lossky is also compared to other Russian philosophers (Shpet, Frank) and his legacy in other countries (Poland, Slovakia) is examined. The authors are Piama Gaidenko, Frances Nethercott, Albert Novikov, Victor Molchanov, Vitaly Lechtzer, Tatiana Shchedrina, Irina Beshkareva, Anatoly Pushkarsky, Elena Serdyukova, Vasily Vanchugov, Irina Blauberg, Roman Granin, Varvara Popova, Evgeny Babosov, Teresa Obolevich, Zlatica Plašienková, Oleg Ermichin, Alexander Podoxenov, Alexander Opalev, and Vladimir Schultz. (shrink)

The report is devoted to elaboratation creative philosophical models for optimization multi-cultural dialogue into “post modern” global society. The main idea of the article is to describe the basic philosophical models (rooting in ancient philosophy, as the most seriously and fundamental theoretical positions for solution the problem of many-pole's world), connecting them with the main points of modern philosophers (F. Fucuyama, A. Toffler, S. Hantington, S. Averintsev, A. Panarin, Y. Lotman, S. Filatov, A. Malashenco, E. Volkhova etc). The dialogue (...) of cultures is the “other side” of the process of globalization. The question about possible strategies of intercultural interaction, its opportunities and limits, as well as potential grounds for mutual understanding is ultimately vital todayfor contemporary philosophy of culture. Its solution determines perspective of consolidation of sodium as well as selection of definite position in the dialogue itself – whether it will be an isolationism leading to the “end of history” as to the returning to cyclic model of life of human community; or there will be retained an orientation for mutual displacement of value priorities (war of ideologies) as competitive adaptive programs. In any case the globalizing world in the order of self-organization in the next decades will stop at the selection of any definite strategy. (shrink)

My presentation will evidently be the longest since I will be presenting the results of two major surveys done in Moscow, Pskov, and a number of other cities and villages in July-September 1990 and in August-October 1991. The interpretation of the findings of these surveys was done by me together with S.B. Filatov, while the actual investigations were carried out by S.B. Filatov, L.G. Byzov, L.M. Vorontsova, and G.L. Gurevich. The purpose of the surveys was above all to (...) shed some light on the picture of contemporary religiosity and on the connection between religious beliefs and political attitudes. What do the findings of these surveys tell us? (shrink)

Russian is presently in a transition stage between the old centrally administered command economy and a market economy. The result is uncertainty and instability. In such a situation there is both little room and little concern for business ethics. The objective conditions for this include distortions in the systems of supply and exchange, political instability, and judicial ineffectiveness. The subjective conditions include the breakdown of morality under the communist system, and the wide acceptance of “wild” capitalism as a necessary stage (...) in the development of a capitalist market system. (shrink)

Understanding has usually been seen as a method of hermeneutics. Until recently, philosophers of science paid little attention to the topic of scientific understanding because they came to the conclusion that understanding can be nothing more than a psychological by-product of scientific activity. However, many scientists believed that understanding was an important aim of science. The article states that understanding is a universal cognitive phenomenon applicable to the knowledge of not only cultural and historical phenomena, but also natural objects and (...) processes. Understanding does not oppose explanation; some types of the latter produce scientific understanding. In the course of criticism of the standard model of scientific explanation, the first concepts of “scientific understanding” arose – unifying and causal-mechanistic. A pragmatic approach to scientific understanding is also considered, linking it to the cognitive skills of a scientist or a group of scientists. (shrink)

_The purpose_ of the article is to clarify the most relevant philosophical dimensions of modern patriotism against the background of defending the processes of national identity. _The theoretical basis_ of the study consisted of institutional analysis, synergetic and philosophical-anthropological approaches, as well as existential philosophy and philosophy of applied ethics. Patriotism is seen as a path to self-expression, the world of life, mental self-limitation and self-aggrandizement of modern man. The peculiarities of modern considerations about the philosophical content of patriotism within (...) the framework of its comparison with other value structures, such as cosmopolitanism, liberalism, nationalism, etc., are established. _Originality._ The scientific novelty is that the article for the first time reveals the correlations of patriotism with other ideological and ideological doctrines and systems of political and social worldview, which fix the identity of individuals and groups in the context of ethnic, social or political community. _Conclusions._ The existential dimension of patriotism is based on worldviews of involvement in the local community. Trends in globalization are forcing modern people to "seek refuge" in small communities, or even in a family or other small group. "Local" or "neighborhood" patriotism acquires the character of an expression of involvement in a friend and relative. It almost completely "crosses out" the constitutional and ideological patriotism inherent in the states of the twentieth century. The reorientation of significant philosophical justifications of patriotism in modern conditions provokes a discussion about the spirituality and societal nature of patriotic meanings. In the struggle for the independence of modern Ukraine, we are all witnessing the process of overcoming "state" patriotism "local". This process is very important in the face of opposition to the totalitarian ideology of the Russian aggressor. (shrink)

The article traces the crisis of intellectual and political situation in which the Vienna Circle operated. It is shown that the struggle against metaphysics was a common task of its participants. Forms and methods of metaphysical criticism are considered. The role of neo-Kantianism in the formation of logical empiricism is evaluated. The origins of the profound rift in German-speaking, and then Western philosophy as a whole, are analyzed.

In this paper we examine Interaction-free measurement where both the probe and the object are quantum particles. We argue that in this case the description of the measurement procedure must by symmetrical with respect to interchange of the roles of probe and object. A thought experiment is being suggested that helps to determine what does and what doesn’t happen to the state of the particles in such a setup. It seems that unlike the case of classical object, here the state (...) of both the probe and the object must change. A possible explanation of this might be that the probe and the object form an entangled pair as a result of non-interaction. (shrink)

The article discusses the significance of the figure of Adam in the artistic philosophy of Acmeism. Particular attention is paid to the functioning of the image of biblical Adam in the works of Nikolay Gumilyov and Osip Mandelstam. Their texts present the first man not only as the epitome of the poet and bearer of an unclouded view of the world but also as a symbol of the balance between the earthly and the heavenly principles. For Gumilyov, Adam is also (...) an example of manhood and fortitude. The poet creates an original Adamic myth re-evaluating the Fall as a test given to man by God. According to the plot of the myth, the purpose of human life is to seek and attain Paradise. Mandelstam turns to the image of Adam much less often encoding the ideas of Adamism by various means. The poet openly distances himself from the version of Adamism created by Sergey Gorodetsky sharing implicitly the ideas presented in the works of Gumilyov. (shrink)

What is the relation of philosophy and teaching? Do we start from philosophy and then work to close the gap through a process of application? Do we start from teaching, and work to create a space for philosophical reflection? Is it enough to include philosophical texts and activities in teacher education? Or perhaps we need to include teachers from the start as collaborators in the production of philosophical work. Of, in, for, with: it seems that every preposition has been proposed (...) to join teaching and philosophy–a perennial dilemma that philosophers of education are far too familiar with. These anxious efforts to close the gap only reinforce our narrow, lopsided images of each endeavor. The teacher turns outward; the philosopher inward. Teaching is mired in the quotidian; philosophy prone to pointless abstraction. Called to act, the teacher works within the constraints of institutions; called to question, the philosopher practices principled withdrawal. While there is a grain of truth here, such contrasts obscure a key fact: philosophy and teaching are deeply kindred practices. The contemporary tragedies unfolding in Gaza and Israel serve as an urgent reminder of the costs of cleaving contemplation from action. Indeed, we will argue that the alienation of teaching (a practical endeavor if ever there was one) and philosophy (the contemplative discipline par excellence) damages the integrity of each. In what follows, we explore three conceptual sites—the posing of questions, the act of walking together, and the effort to discover what is at stake—which demonstrate a welcome return, or reunion, between philosophy and teaching. (shrink)

This article defends the conclusion that the soccer World Cup in Qatar should not be boycotted by rich countries from the Global North. This conclusion is underpinned by considerations about the economic background conditions in guest workers’ home countries. Three arguments are considered for the view that the World Cup should be boycotted. It is argued that each of these arguments is unsound. Section 7 contains a discussion of an argument for a boycott that centers on the process through which (...) Qatar was awarded the World Cup. This argument is rejected. The article lists several ways in which guest workers in Qatar are wronged, but this fact about how guest workers are treated does not justify a boycott by rich countries from the Global North. (shrink)

Short treatises, with commentaries, of the Advaita school in Hindu philosophy.

Commentary on Tarkasaṅgraha of Annambhaṭṭa, active 17th century, treatise on the fundamentals of Nyaya philosophy.

Guiden til Søren Kierkegaards værk Frygt og Bæven er vigtig, fordi det er et værk, som mange finder det svært eller direkte usympatisk at læse, så her skulle være lidt tilgængelige tilgange til forståelsen heraf. Det er troens paradoks, der behandles i værket, og det undersøges via historien om Abraham og Isak. Det er et etisk dilemma af dimensioner, for ikke blot er det et mord, der bliver planlagt, men det er også et mord på Abrahams egen søn, hvis det (...) altså gennemføres, som Gud har befalet. Det, der interesserer pseudonymet Johannes, er det modsætningsforhold, der findes mellem religion og etik, for der er en etisk pligt, som vi alle kender i henhold til, hvad man må og ikke må, eller hvad der er redeligt eller uredeligt. Der er imidlertid også en pligt for Gud, når man er troende, og den pligt kan vise sig at gå imod ordentlighed og lovlighed. (shrink)