Twenty-five years have passed since the fifth and final volume of the Philosophical Encyclopedia [Filosofskaia entsiklopediia] was published in 1970. This serves as an occasion for us to examine this publication, which in its own way was unique. Neither before nor since its appearance has philosophical scholarship received such thorough and profound expression in our country, and never had it undergone such a thorough updating. The interval over which it was published, from 1960 to 1970, coincides with mathematical exactitude with (...) an epoch in the history of our culture that we are accustomed to call the epoch of the "people of the sixties." A study of the "people of the sixties" is of major and in many respects special interest, since this period differs radically in its productivity from preceding years in the history of Soviet philosophy. When we commence serious research on this history, the study of the collective reason of our country's philosophers that found its expression in the Philosophical Encyclopedia will occupy an honored place. (shrink)

The concept of virtue was of great interest and importance for H. Cohen. In the interpretation of this concept in his latest work “Religion of reason from the sources of Judaism” the most important concepts of this work were brought in the focus: the specificity of definition of what is the religion of reason; understanding of the uniqueness of God; correlation; messianism. For Cohen, a single system of virtues presupposes a single and unique ethics and correlates with the idea of (...) the unity of humanity. The last concept, in his opinion, maturated in the fold of monotheism. Humanity is one, because all people are creations of the unique God. “Religion of reason” treats of the common universal virtues. In the religion of reason, the idea of God and morality are inextricably linked. Cohen rejects metaphysical speculation about the nature of God, about the attributes of God inherent in himself. The religion of the mind speaks of God only in correlation with man. God is a moral ideal and reveals himself to man by giving him moral commandments. Morality connects man and God, and this connection is revealed in detail by Cohen in the theme of virtues. Understanding God as Truth is important for the disclosure of this topic. The corresponding virtue for a person is faithfulness to truth, or truthfulness. In addition to truthfulness in the usual sense, for Cohen, faithfulness to truth requires correct worship of God. The correlation culminates in the idea of messianism, which is interpreted by Cohen as an endless movement of a whole humanity to the social justice. (shrink)

The scholars who claim that a "black hole" appeared in the history of our philosophy are obviously violating the truth. Evidently, what they are saying is that there was no philosophy of the kind that they would call philosophy. Such an approach does not fit any theoretico-method-ological paradigm. One must study the subject, bring it under critical analysis, not declare unequivocally that there was no such thing. For this reason, I would like by way of introduction to touch upon some (...) of the theoretico-methodological preconditions of an analysis of the phenomenon under study. (shrink)

The essays in this volume, focus on this distinction in their consideration of Hegel's political philosophy - his attempted (re)construction of modern ethical ...

I took part in the work of the editorial board of Voprosy filosofii from the very first days of the journal's existence. I am thus in a position to say something about the earliest period of its activities, especially as the distinctive features of this period are worthy of special attention.

ZA PELCZYNSKI The ideas of Hegel, as of any other political philosopher, can be discussed in a variety of ways. One can approach the ideas genetically, ...

This book is a major intellectual achievement and an impressive contribution to political philosophy and Hegelian studies. Within the compass of under four hundred pages the author takes on four major thinkers - Rousseau, Kant, Fichte and Hegel - discusses them individually and in relation to each other to show the emergence, development and apogee of the idealist tradition in political philosophy.