The author attributes the social evils of present-day Russia to a distorted "pseudoliberal" understanding of freedom as a condition unlimited by internal or external constraints.

In 1993, the American logic S. Yablo was proposed an original infinitive formulation of the classical ≪Liar≫ paradox. It questioned the traditional notion of self-reference as the basic structure for semantic paradoxes. The article considers the arguments underlying two different approaches to analysis of proposals of the ≪Infinite Liar≫ and understanding of the genuine sources for semantic paradoxes. The first approach (V. Valpola, G.-H. von Wright, T. Bolander, etc.) imposes responsibility for the emergence of semantic paradoxes on the negation of (...) the truth predicate. It deprives the ≪Infinite Liar≫ sentences of consistent truth values. The second approach is based on a modified version of anaphoric prosententialism (D. Grover, R. Brandom, etc.). The concepts of truth and falsehood are treated as special anaphoric operators. Logical constructs similar to the ≪Infinite Liar≫ do not attribute any definite truth values to sentences from which they are composed, but only state certain types of relations between the semantic content of such sentences. (shrink)

In his article Evgeny Borisov offers an original solution to Kripke’s sceptical problem of meaning. Its conceptual core is the point of view of the participant of speech acts. He believes that first-person statements of speech act participants like “I know for certain that the expression ‘e’ is used by me in the meaning of m” cannot carry any epistemic fallacies. As a criticism, I propose to point out that non-factual Cartesian semantics have serious epistemic flaws that make it vulnerable (...) to sceptical attacks and accusations of petitio principii. (shrink)

The paper deals with the questions of whether naturalization of ethical theory is possible and how radical it should be. The answer to these questions depends largely on the scientific explanations of the process of moral evaluation. The author concentrates on a moderate version of naturalization, which involves merely correcting the conclusions of normative ethics by appealing to scientific evidence. A good example of moderate naturalization is the project of debunking deontological moral principles of J. Green. From J. Green’s point (...) of view, the most important of such principles (“it is impermissible to harm other people as a means of achieving a utilitarian goal, but it is permissible to cause such harm as a side-effect of its achievement”) reflects the functioning of the emotional alarm system, which in the early ages of human history protected small groups from internal violence using contact means of harm. The means of harm have since expanded, but the inflexible emotional part of our psyche still dictates the limits of permissibility. This dictate has no reasonable grounds, and the abovementioned principle cannot claim to be objective and universal. The author shows that the data used by J. Green is different from the results of studies by Yu.I. Aleksandrov and K.R. Arutyunova on the impact of alcohol intoxication on making deontological and utilitarian moral evaluations. These results indicate that both the deontological and the utilitarian principles are partly based on the emotional subsystem. Accordingly, a normative ethicist is forced to choose as the scientific basis of his or her research some of the opposing scientific models that explain the process of making moral evaluations. Some of the models are consistent with the moderate naturalization project, others are not. The choice between models depends exclusively on already taken metaethical and normative preferences. (shrink)

J. К. Galbraith begins his book on the history and current problems of money with the following statement: “There is much that is diverting in the history of money, but even more that provides a rich reflection of human behavior and human folly.”.

There are various ways to describe the type of society that developed, at least in America and Europe, over the last two centuries. One of the better known ones is the civilization of money. Different people, depending on their world view, can judge this fact differently: to deny it, however, is impossible. This is especially obvious now, when the most grandiose and stubborn attempt at liberating society from the power of money – allegedly in order to subordinate money to higher (...) ideals – has ended in total failure. (shrink)

Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) occupies a special place in the development of Russian culture. He was at the same time a great poet, the reformer of Russian literary language, a historian and a political thinker. In the enormous mass of work devoted to Pushkin, a certain number of articles are concerned with his ideas on economics and the reflection of socio-economic problems in his writing. Until now, however, this theme has been studied in only a fragmentary way and less from the (...) point of view of the professional economist than from that of a literary historian. In an attempt to enlarge and complete the idea we may have of Pushkin's economic views, I propose also to show the importance the politico-economic thought of Western Europe had for his work. One person comes to the fore when we study the subject from this angle: Nikolai Turgenev, a Decembrist, one of the “masters” of the poet's youth, who played an important role in the rapprochement of Russian and Western European cultures. (shrink)

The development of the science of economics is closely linked to the structure of capitalism. Even though ancient and medieval thinkers had already stated a certain number of ideas in this domain, the science of economics, in the modern sense of the word, did not truly begin until the 17th Century and the early 18th Century. At that time the methodology for research in the natural sciences was developed, and the first scientific academies and societies were founded (England, France, Prussia, (...) Russia). The initial step in the development of the science of economics occurred in conjunction with this process. Moreover, the ideas of the first economists were, as a general rule, centered on the practical problems and needs of the State. And in that period the prevalent state structure in Europe was the absolute monarchy. Consequently, the first economists were, for the most part, counsellors to the sovereign, authors of studies and reports containing a variety of proposals regarding economic policy. With regard to a great many distinguished economists of the 17th and 18th Centuries, we can speak of them being “men of proposals”. (shrink)

Drawing from the complete normative resemblance between the questions of moral justification of the use of force and the moral justification of deception, the author finds in Kant's ethics an example of theoretical inconsistency. He shows that Kant's conclusion about the situational moral permissibility of forcible compulsion necessarily entails a decision in favor of the moral permissibility of lying for philanthropic reasons, which Kant denies.

This article discusses the theoretical core and evolution of Ruben Apressyan’s moral philosophy. The starting point in the development of his views was his clarification of the “idea of morality,”...

In [5] it has been shown that for first-order definability over the reals there exists an effective procedure which by a finite formula with equality defining an open set produces a finite formula without equality that defines the same set. In this paper we prove that there exists no such procedure for Σ-definability over the reals. We also show that there exists even no uniform effective transformation of the definitions of Σ-definable sets into new definitions of Σ-definable sets in such (...) a way that the results will define open sets, and if a definition defines an open set, then the result of this transformation will define the same set. These results highlight the important differences between Σ-definability with equality and Σ-definability without equality. (shrink)

Russian Marxism was fairly late to address building its own understandings of the Russian historical process. Moreover, the Bolsheviks did not have their own historiography of “Russian history” despite the fact that, beginning in 1918, they began more and more vehemently claiming not just total ideological control but also intellectual hegemony. A confrontation between “Marxist” and “non-Marxist” understandings arose. At the same time, the real disputes within the camp of Marxist historians came down to a confrontation between the versions of (...) the historical process proposed by Georgi V. Plekhanov and Mikhail N. Pokrovskii back in the 1910s. This article broadly analyzes the disputes in the Marxist camp, from pressing political implications such as attitudes toward the state to the definition of the place of “historical facts” in theory and interpretation. We also demonstrate that it was, in fact, the understandings of Plekhanov, Leon D. Trotsky, and Pokrovskii that continue, both explicitly and implicitly, the legacy of Vasily O. Klyuchevsky’s historical schema and his understanding of the “state school,” a legacy that has remained unstudied until now. (shrink)

Предлагаемые материалы могут представлять интерес не только для специалистов, но и для широкого круга читателей.

In my review, I analyze the main theses of Anastasiya Medova’s monograph entitled Phenomenology of Musical Experience (2021). The author of the book raises the issue of what it is that we generally hear as music, as well as many directly or indirectly related other issues with regard to both the essence and the ontological status of music. According to her, it is only the phenomenological methodology that can provide an answer to these questions, which deals with the specifics of (...) a musical object always in the context of the specifics of musical experience. Particular emphasis in the review is placed on the concept of reduction, as it is used in relation to music. It is designed to clear the experience of all elements not related to music as such, including sensitive shape-associations that often arise while listening to music. Another important point in the study of A. A. Medova is her posing of the question as to the regional nature of music and its possible correlation with the sphere of aesthetic in general. In this regard, I point out that the author of the monograph seeks to justify the irreducibility of music to the aesthetic sphere and that her solution of the problem of the possible regionality of music remains insufficiently determined. I also emphasize that one of the points of interest in the book is that Medova works with specific material, notably with the interpretation of significant works of musical art and the analysis of important theoretical statements about the essence of music. (shrink)

This paper elaborates on the relation between Quine’s notion of ontological commitment and his philosophy of science. I distinguish and present Quine’s solutions to two problems of existence, a semantic problem, roughly amounting to asking how existence can be expressed within a certain language, and an epistemological problem, roughly amounting to how the members of the scientific community can decide which theories are warranted. The gap between these problems is filled by noticing that existence is equated by Quine with reference, (...) and that the principle of context imposes the epistemological primacy of truth over reference. Truth, in its turn, albeit given a purely semantic account along the lines of Tarski, is coextensive with the notion of warranted belief. (shrink)

v. 1. Recuperări ; Receptarea pragmatismului ; Pragmatismul până la Peirce.

In his article, Vsevolod Ladov poses an important question – might paradoxes admit of a uniform solution? As an answer, I propose looking at an approach in which it is argued that we must recognize the truth predicate as merely analogous to a vague predicate. The proponents of this approach (V. McGee, J. Tappenden, H. Field, G. Priest and D. Hyde) insist that there is a structural relation between sorites paradoxes and self-reference paradoxes and that they should have a unified (...) solution. (shrink)

Каково состояние исследований Марксовой и марксистской мысли в постсоветской России последнего десятилетия? У сторонников марксистской мысли есть своя аудитория; они работают, прежде всего, в области политической философии, однако их труды занимают в ней лишь скромнее место. Заслуживает упоминания школа «критического марксизма» во главе с экономистом А.В.Бузгалиным, которая претендует быть современной версией марксизма. Близок к этой школе социолог и политический теоретик Б.Ю.Кагарлицкий. Проблемы философии истории и теории культуры находят оригинальную трактовку в работах В.М.Межуева. В целом современные исследования марксистской ориентации, отличающиеся яростной (...) критикой советского периода, используют марксистские понятия для изучения актуальных социальных проблем, как в России, так и в мире в целом. Quel est l’état des recherches marxiennes et marxistes dans la Russie postsoviétique de la dernière décennie? Les marxistes y ont encore une audience ; ils relèvent de la philosophie politique de la Russie contemporaine, mais leurs travaux y ont une place très modeste. L’école qui mérite le plus de retenir l’attention est celle du « marxisme critique », dirigée par l’économiste A. V. Bouzgaline ; elle a l’ambition de représenter la forme contemporaine du marxisme. Proche d’elle est le sociologue et théoricien de la science politique B. Y. Kagarlitski. Ce marxisme critique est sévère à l’égard de l’époque soviétique, mais également à l’égard du capitalisme contemporain. Les problèmes de philosophie de l’histoire et de théorie de la culture trouvent un traitement original dans les travaux de V. M. Mejouïev. Globalement, les recherches marxisantes actuelles, très véhémentes dans leur critique de la période soviétique, utilisent des concepts marxistes pour étudier les problèmes sociaux actuels, tant en Russie que dans le monde en général. How can we describe the status of both Marxian and Marxist research in post-Soviet Russia in the last decade? Marxists still have an audience; they are part of the political philosophy of contemporary Russia, but their works enjoy very limited attention. The school that deserves most attention is that of “critical Marxism”, whose leader is the economist A. V. Buzgalin, which aims at representing the contemporary form of Marxism. It is close to the sociological approach of the political science theorist B. Y. Kagarlitsky. This critical Marxism is ruthless towards the Soviet era, but also tough on contemporary capitalism. The problems adressed by the philosophy of history and of theory of culture receive an original treatment in V. M. Mezhuev. More globally, contemporary Marxist researches, however vehement in their criticism of the Soviet period, use Marxist concepts to study current social issues, both in Russia and in the world in general. (shrink)

In my review, I evaluate the first translation of Dale Jacquette’s book entitled Alexius Meinong, The Shepherd of Non-Being into Russian. First of all, I point out the relevance of the publication of this translation. It is conditioned, in my view, by the fact that the person of Alexius Meinong—one of the important representatives of the school of Franz Brentano—still remains undeservedly forgotten and not enough studied in both domestic and foreign history of philosophy. At the same time, studying the (...) legacy of Meinong could shed the light on the peculiarity of the processes that took place in European philosophy at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, as well as show the common sources of such divergent directions in modern philosophy as analytical philosophy and phenomenology. Moreover, philosophy of Meinong could discover some perspectives for modern thought that other philosophers of the past cannot indicate. All these points, in my opinion, are taken into account in Jacquette’s monograph. The advantage of his research is that he reconstructs the philosophy of Meinong, his theory of objects in a very broad historical and philosophical context of both phenomenological (F.Brentano, E.Husserl) and analytical (B.Russell, W.V.O.Quine, D.K.Lewis, S.Kripke) traditions. Systematically, the center of Meinong’s theory of objects is the doctrine of so-called Außersein of the objects, which can be considered not only as existing, but as not yet existing, no longer existing and even impossible. As conclusion, I criticize the translations of some of Meinong/Jacquette terms used in the monograph under review. (shrink)

Because of the outward openness of Platonov's world, and the existence in it of recognizable, seemingly deliberately enhanced motifs, one can easily be misled or in any event confused, never getting to the source of this diversity of meanings which, however, by being repeated over and over again, becomes a kind of monotone calling upon us to make sense of it as well. Something similar may also be identified in Dostoevsky: one and the same element, repeated incessantly, creates an "emblematic (...) theme" or an "ontological schema" the contours of which are discernible in almost all his major writings. (shrink)