Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Vladislav A. Lektorsky is Professor and Principle Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; titular member of the International Institute of Philosophy, Paris, France; and full member of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science, Brussels, Belgium. His research interests lie in Epistemology, philosophy of consciousness and philosophy of cognitive science. He has authored 6 books and over 500 articles. His works have been published in English, German, French, Chinese, Turkish, Bulgarian, Polish, and Czech. Marina F. Bykova is Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, USA and the Editor of the journal Russian Studies in Philosophy. Her research interests lay in the history of nineteenth century continental philosophy, with a special focus on German idealism and theories of subject and subjectivity developed by Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. She has authored three books and numerous articles on classic German philosophy and edited a new Russian edition of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (2000) with a new commentary. Her works have been published in Russian, German, and English.

List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

Philosophy in Soviet Russia. A Brief Overview, Marina F. Bykova (North Carolina State University, USA) and Vladislav A. Lektorsky (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)

PART I: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURE AND SCIENCE
1. The Russian Philosophy of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century as a Socio-Cultural Phenomenon, Vladislav A. Lektorsky (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)
2. Main Configurations of Russian Thought in the Post-Stalin Epoch, Mikhail N. Epstein (Emory University, USA)
3. Punks versus Zombies: Evald Ilyenkov and the Battle for Soviet Philosophy, David Bakhurst (Queen’s University, Canada)
4. On Soviet Philosophy: A Philosophical Reflection, Karen A. Swassjan (Forum fur Geisteswissenschaft, Basel, Switzerland)
5. The Philosophy of the Russian Sixtiers in the Humanist Context: A Philosophical Reflection, Abdusalam A. Guseynov (Institute of Philosophy, RAS Moscow, Russia)
6. Philosophy From the Period of “Thaw” to the Period of “Stagnation”: A Philosophical Reflection, Vadim M. Mezhuyev (Institute of Philosophy, RAS Moscow, Russia)

PART II: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
7. The Russian Philosophy of Science in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century, Vyacheslav S. Stepin
8. Systemic Analysis of Science: Ideas of Equifinality and Anthropo-Measurement, Alexander P. Ogurtsov (Institute of Philosophy, RAS Moscow, Russia)
9. Soviet Philosophy and the Methodology of Science in the 1960s—1980s: from Ideology to Science: A Philosophical Reflection, Boris I. Pruzhinin (Inst. of Philosophy, RAS / Journal Voprosy Filosofii, Moscow, Russia)

Part III: PHILOSOPHY AS THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
10. Spinoza in Western and Soviet Philosophy: New Perspectives after Postmodernism, Vesa Oittinen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)
11. On the Perception of German Idealism, Marina F. Bykova (North Carolina State University, USA)
12. Ilyenkov’s Hegelian Marxism and Marxian Constructivism, Tom Rockmore (Beijing State University, China)
13. The West Reception of Alexei Losev’s Philosophical Thought in the Late Twentieth and the Early Twenty-First Century, Maryse Dennes (Universite Bordeaux Montaigne, France)

PART IV: THE PROBLEM OF ACTIVITY IN PHILOSOPHY, METHODOLOGY AND HUMAN SCIENCES
14. The Activity Approach in Soviet Philosophy and Contemporary Cognitive Studies, Vladislav A. Lektorsky (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)
15. The Activity Theory in Soviet Philosophy and Psychology in the 1960s-1980s, Peter G. Schedrovitsky (Moscow Engineering and Physical Institute, Russia)
16.Activity and the Formation of Reason, David Bakhurst (Queen’s University, Canada)
17. Georgy Shchedrovitsky’s Concept of Activity and Thought-Activity, Vadim M. Rozin (Institute of Philosophy, RAS, Moscow, Russia)

PART V: DIALOGUE AND COMMUNICATION
18. Between “Voice” and ‘Code”: Encounters and Clashes in the Communication Space, Natalia S. Avtonomova (Institute of Philosophy, RAS/ Russian University of Humanities, Moscow, Russia)
19. A Belated Conversation, Vitaly L. Makhlin (Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia)
20. From Historical Materialism to the Theory of Culture: The Philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin as a Cultural Phenomenon, Maja E. Soboleva (Phillips-University of Marburg, Germany)
21. On the Role of the Communication Topic in the Discussions of the 1980s-1990s: A Philosophical Reflection, Victor A. Malakhov (Independent scholar, Israel)

PART VI: PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
22. Human Ontology: On Discussion in the Soviet Philosophy in the Late Twentieth Century, Alexander A. Khamidov (Biisk Pedagogical University, Biisk, Russia)
23. On the Problem of Morality in Soviet-Era Philosophy, Yuri V. Pushchayev (Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, RAN, Moscow)
24. The Individual and the Problem of Responsibility: Merab Mamardashvili and Alexander Zinoviev, Daniela Steila (University of Turin, Italy)
25. Alexander Zinoviev’s Teaching on Life, Abdusalam A. Guseynov (Institute of Philosophy, RAS Moscow, Russia)

A Chronology of Key Events in the Russian Philosophy (1953-1991)
Selected Bibliography (1954-1991)
Index of Terms
Index of Names