TY - JOUR

T1 - Russia betwixt East and West

AU - Markov, B.V.

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - When trying to define the spirit of our age, it seems that one word inevitably comes to mind, and that would be extremism. An extremist is a person creating a situation incompatible with normal existence. This is precisely what necessitates the complementation of the philosophy of nonviolence by the responsibility principle: at all costs we ought to avoid and oppose burgeoning and realization of force majeure situations. Is any society merely a collection of citizens who once every four years participate in the elections or something considerably more – specifically, a people, a nation or just compatriots living in accordance with the formula “Live and let live”? On the eve of WWI, a renowned Russian philosopher N. Fyodorov propelled the most powerful theory of pacifism. He proclaimed the beginning of fraternity and the end of orphanhood: may everything become our own, native, not alien. It would be so exhilarating to be able to connect, to unite on the spiritual basis, in the vein of the Russian philosophical school of Unitotality; however, the time for that ambitious endeavor has not yet arrived, we are forced to come up with more realistic projects. At the present time, all human unions are constructed not with the spiritual accord in mind, but on the organizational and logistic foundations; those do not necessarily rely on solidarity as a principle. The solution to that problem consists in the acceptance of such “Other” who is not merely a romantic construct and a conceit, but the one who lives and works right next to us in the context of the contemporary multinational global community. This person cannot turn into an absolute sceptic – provided that they are not cornered by being denied their freedom, by the powers that be diminishing their social rights, paycheck and forcing them to think, eat, drink and dress as is expected of the representatives of the state-constituting nation. The involvement of the Other is actualized not only along the dimension of rational negotiations and political summits, but, most importantly, at the level of ordinary daily communication – and the best form of the latter is hospitality and friendliness.

AB - When trying to define the spirit of our age, it seems that one word inevitably comes to mind, and that would be extremism. An extremist is a person creating a situation incompatible with normal existence. This is precisely what necessitates the complementation of the philosophy of nonviolence by the responsibility principle: at all costs we ought to avoid and oppose burgeoning and realization of force majeure situations. Is any society merely a collection of citizens who once every four years participate in the elections or something considerably more – specifically, a people, a nation or just compatriots living in accordance with the formula “Live and let live”? On the eve of WWI, a renowned Russian philosopher N. Fyodorov propelled the most powerful theory of pacifism. He proclaimed the beginning of fraternity and the end of orphanhood: may everything become our own, native, not alien. It would be so exhilarating to be able to connect, to unite on the spiritual basis, in the vein of the Russian philosophical school of Unitotality; however, the time for that ambitious endeavor has not yet arrived, we are forced to come up with more realistic projects. At the present time, all human unions are constructed not with the spiritual accord in mind, but on the organizational and logistic foundations; those do not necessarily rely on solidarity as a principle. The solution to that problem consists in the acceptance of such “Other” who is not merely a romantic construct and a conceit, but the one who lives and works right next to us in the context of the contemporary multinational global community. This person cannot turn into an absolute sceptic – provided that they are not cornered by being denied their freedom, by the powers that be diminishing their social rights, paycheck and forcing them to think, eat, drink and dress as is expected of the representatives of the state-constituting nation. The involvement of the Other is actualized not only along the dimension of rational negotiations and political summits, but, most importantly, at the level of ordinary daily communication – and the best form of the latter is hospitality and friendliness.

UR - http://rfo1971.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spetsialnyiy-vyipusk-k-24-VFK.pdf

UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326980825_Russia_Betwixt_East_and_West

M3 - Article

VL - 15

SP - 149

EP - 159

JO - СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ И ГУМАНИТАРНЫЕ НАУКИ НА ДАЛЬНЕМ ВОСТОКЕ

JF - СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ И ГУМАНИТАРНЫЕ НАУКИ НА ДАЛЬНЕМ ВОСТОКЕ

SN - 1992-2868

IS - 2

T2 - XXIV Всемирный философский конгресс

Y2 - 13 August 2018 through 21 August 2018

ER -