Download or read book Ideas Against Ideocracy written by Mikhail Epstein and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost theoreticians of culture and scholars of Russian philosophy gives for the first time a systematic examination of the development of Russian philosophy during the late Soviet period. Countering the traditional view of an intellectual wilderness under the Soviet regime, Mikhail Epstein provides a comprehensive account of Russian thought of the second half of the 20th century that is highly sophisticated without losing clarity. It provides new insights into previously mostly ignored areas such as late Soviet Russian nationalism and Eurasianism, religious thought, cosmism and esoterism, and postmodernism and conceptualism. Epstein shows how Russian philosophy has long been trapped in an intellectual prison of its own making as it sought to create its own utopia. However, he demonstrates that it is time to reappraise Russian thought, now freed from the bonds of Soviet totalitarianism and ideocracy but nevertheless dangerously engaged into new nationalist aspirations and metaphysical radicalism. We are left with not only a new and exciting interpretation of recent Russian intellectual history, but also the opportunity to rethink our philosophical heritage."--

Download or read book Ideas Against Ideocracy written by Mikhail Epstein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost theoreticians of culture and scholars of Russian philosophy gives for the first time a systematic examination of the development of Russian philosophy during the late Soviet period. Countering the traditional view of an intellectual wilderness under the Soviet regime, Mikhail Epstein provides a comprehensive account of Russian thought of the second half of the 20th century that is highly sophisticated without losing clarity. It provides new insights into previously mostly ignored areas such as late-Soviet Russian nationalism and Eurasianism, religious thought, cosmism and esoterism, and postmodernism and conceptualism. Epstein shows how Russian philosophy has long been trapped in an intellectual prison of its own making as it sought to create its own utopia. However, he demonstrates that it is time to reappraise Russian thought, now freed from the bonds of Soviet totalitarianism and ideocracy but nevertheless dangerously engaged into new nationalist aspirations and metaphysical radicalism. We are left with not only a new and exciting interpretation of recent Russian intellectual history, but also the opportunity to rethink our own philosophical heritage.

Download or read book In Marx s Shadow written by Costica Bradatan and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-03-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its key role in the intellectual shaping of state socialism, Communist ideas are often dismissed as mere propaganda or as a rhetorical exercise aimed at advancing socialist intellectuals on their way to power. By drawing attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist arguments and dogmas. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue, the collection demonstrates how various bodies of theoretical knowledge (philosophical, social, political, aesthetic, even theological) were used not only to justify dominant political views, but also to frame oppositional and nonofficial discourses and practices. The examination of the underlying structures of Communism as an intellectual project provides convincing evidence for questioning a dominant approach that routinely frames the post-Communist intellectual development as a 'revival' or, at least, as a 'return' of the repressed intellectual traditions. As the book shows, the logic of a radical break, suggested by this approach, is in contradiction with historical evidence: a significant number of philosophical, theoretical and ideological debates in post-Communist world are in fact the logical continuation of intellectual conversations and confrontations initiated long before 1989.

Download or read book Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century written by Vladislav Lektorsky and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the 20th Century is the first book of its kind that offers a systematic overview of an often misrepresented period in Russia's philosophy. Focusing on philosophical ideas produced during the late 1950s – early 1990s, it reconstructs the development of genuine philosophical thought in the Soviet period and introduces those non-dogmatic Russian thinkers who saw in philosophy a means of reforming social and intellectual life. Covering such areas of philosophical inquiry as philosophy of science, philosophical anthropology, the history of philosophy, activity approach as well as communication and dialogue studies, the volume presents and thoroughly discusses central topics and concepts developed by Soviet thinkers in that particular fields. Written by a team of internationally recognized scholars from Russia and abroad, it examines the work of well-known Soviet philosophers (such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Evald Ilyenkov and Merab Mamardashvili) as well as those important figures (such as Vladimir Bibler, Alexander Zinoviev, Yury Lotman, Georgy Shchedrovitsky, Genrich Batishchev, Sergey Rubinstein, and others) who have often been overlooked. By introducing and examining original philosophical ideas that evolved in the Soviet period, the book confirms that not all Soviet philosophy was dogmatic and tied to orthodox Marxism and the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. It shows Russian philosophical development of the Soviet period in a new light, as a philosophy defined by a genuine discourse of exploration and intellectual progress, rather than stagnation and dogmatism. In addition to providing the historical and cultural background that explains the development of the 20th-century Russian philosophy, the book also puts the discussed ideas and theories in the context of contemporary philosophical discussions showing their relevance to nowadays debates in Western philosophy. With short biographies of key thinkers, an extensive current bibliography and a detailed chronology of Soviet philosophy, this research resource provides a new understanding of the Soviet period and its intellectual legacy 100 years after the Russian Revolution.

Download or read book The Phoenix of Philosophy written by Mikhail Epstein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost theoreticians of Russian literature, culture, and thought gives for the first time an extensive and detailed examination of the development of Russian thought during the late Soviet period. Countering the traditional view of an intellectual wilderness under the Soviet regime, Mikhail Epstein offers a systematic account of Russian thought in the second half of the 20th century. In doing so, he provides new insights into previously ignored areas such as Russian liberalism, personalism, structuralism, neo–rationalism, and culturology. Epstein shows how Russian philosophy and culture has long been trapped in an intellectual prison of its own making as it sought to create its own utopia. However, he demonstrates that it is time to reappraise Russian philosophical thought and cultural theory, now freed from the bonds of totalitarianism. We are left with not only a new and exciting interpretation of Russian thought, but also an opportunity to rethink our own intellectual heritage.

Download or read book What Was Soviet Ideology written by Petre Petrov and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2023-11-02 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because the Soviet Union loudly proclaimed to be an ideological state, its scholars have rarely scrutinized ideology as a concept. Instead, they have treated it as a self-evident fact and proceeded to deliberate the importance of the Marxist-Leninist creed in social life or political decision-making. In the context of the Cold War, such theoretical neglect was exacerbated by political investments that often outweighed—and deformed—intellectual priorities. This has left us today with a notion that is both worn out and opaque, over-used but under-thought. In What Was Soviet Ideology? Petre Petrov stakes a new theoretical ground beyond prevalent misconceptions, ready-made definitions, and popular stereotypes. Drawing on continental philosophy and critical theory, this book presents ideology as a dynamic form with its own inner dialectic, in which the Soviet ideological regime figures as an original moment, a sui generis phenomenon. Petrov argues that Soviet ideology should be seen not as a member of an existing species but as a qualitative transformation of the species, ideology, and itself.

Download or read book Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought written by Teresa Obolevitch and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between science and faith in Russian religious thought. Teresa Obolevitch offers a synthetic approach on the development of the problem throughout the whole history of Russian thought, starting from the medieval period and arriving in contemporary times. She considers the relationship between science and religion in the eighteenth century, the so-called academic philosophy of the 19th and 20th century, the thought of Peter Chaadaev, the Slavophiles, and in the most influential literature figures, such as Fedor Dostoevsky and Lev Tolstoy. The volume also analyses two channels of the formation of philosophy in the context of the relationship between theology and science in Russia. The first is connected with the attempt to rationalize the truths of faith and is exemplified by Vladimir Soloviev and Nikolai Lossky; the second wtih the apophatic tradition is presented by Pavel Florensky and Semen Frank. The book then describes the relation to scientific knowledge in the thought of Lev Shestov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergius Bulgakov, and Alexei Losev as well as the original project of Russian Cosmism (on the examples of Nikolai Fedorov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and Vladimir Vernadsky). Obolevitch presents the current state of the discussion on this topic by paying attention to the Neopatristic synthesis (Fr Georges Florovsky and his followers) and offers the brief comparative analyse of the relationship between science and religion from the Western and Russian perspectives.

Download or read book Ideocracies in Comparison written by Uwe Backes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideocracies, or ideological dictatorships, such as the "Third Reich", the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China have, much more than any other kinds of autocracy, characterized the history of the 20th century. Despite their undeniable loss of significance, ideocracies have not disappeared from the world in the 21st century. This book explores the functioning of ideocracies and analyses the typical interplay of legitimation, co-optation and repression which autocratic elites use in an attempt to stabilize their rule. In the first part of the book, the contributors discuss the conceptual history of the ideocracy notion. The second part offers case studies pertaining to the Soviet State, Italy, the National Socialist Regime, the German Democratic Republic, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and Cuba. Finally, the third part compares various ideocracies and draws together key themes. Uniting the perspectives of history, philosophy and political science through the use of case studies and systematic comparisons, this book offers a unique examination of ideocracies both past and present which will be of interest to students and scholars researching political regimes, political history and comparative politics, as well as other disciplines.

Download or read book Historical and Cultural Transformations of Russian Childhood written by Marina Balina and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical and Cultural Transformations of Russian Childhood is a collection of multidisciplinary scholarly essays on childhood experience. The volume offers new critical approaches to Russian and Soviet childhood at the intersection of philosophy, literary criticism, film/visual studies, and history. Pedagogical ideas and practices, and the ideological and political underpinnings of the experience of growing up in pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union, and Putin’s contemporary Russia are central venues of analysis. Toward the goal of constructing the "multimedial childhood text," the contributors tackle issues of happiness and trauma associated with childhood and foreground its fluidity and instability in the Russian context. The volume further examines practices of reading childhood: as nostalgic text, documentary evidence, and historic mythology. Considering Russian childhood as historical documentation or fictional narrative, as an object of material culture, and as embodied in different media (periodicals, visual culture, and cinema), the volume intends to both problematize but also elucidate the relationship between childhood, history, and various modes of narrativity.

Download or read book The End of Russian Philosophy written by A. Deblasio and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The End of Russian Philosophy describes and evaluates the troubled state of Russian philosophical thought in the post-Soviet decades. The book suggests that in order to revive philosophy as a universal, professional discipline in Russia, it may be necessary for Russian philosophy to first do away with the messianic traditions of the 19th century.

Download or read book Dialogue and the New Cosmopolitanism written by Fred Dallmayr and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogue and the New Cosmopolitanism: Conversations with Edward Demenchonok stands in opposition to the doctrine that might makes right and that the purpose of politics is to establish domination over others rather than justice and the good life for all. In the pursuit of the latter goal, the book stresses the importance of dialogue with participants who take seriously the views and interests of others and who seek to reach a fair solution. In this sense, the book supports the idea of cosmopolitanism, which—by contrast to empire—involves multi-lateral cooperation and thus the quest for a just cosmopolis. The international contributors to this volume, with their varied perspectives, are all committed to this same quest. Edited by Fred Dallmayr, the chapters take the form of conversations with Edward Demenchonok, a well-known practitioner of international and cross-cultural philosophy. The conversations are structured in parts that stress the philosophical, anthropological, cultural, and ethical dimensions of global dialogue. In our conflicted world, it is inspiring to find so many authors from different places agreeing on a shared vision.

Download or read book Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes written by Trevor Erlacher and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 659 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English-language biography of Dmytro Dontsov, the “spiritual father” of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, this book contextualizes Dontsov’s works, activities, and identity formation diachronically, reconstructing the cultural, political, urban, and intellectual milieus within which he developed and disseminated his worldview.

Download or read book Superfluous Women written by Jessica Zychowicz and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using firsthand interviews, archival documents, and visual analysis, Superfluous Women explores the intersections between art, protest, and feminism in today's Ukraine.

Download or read book Politics of Ideocracy written by Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1995-02-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expanding upon the concept of totalitarianism, this study introduces the concept of ideocracy to encompass all those political systems that legitimize their actions by reference to an all-inclusive utopian ideology. It distinguishes pluralist systems, marked by competing schools of thought, from monistic systems in which a utopian ideology is dominant. Focusing on twentieth-century regimes, the authors develop Weberian ideal-type models to clarify different forms of ideocracy and pluralism; explore the ideal-type model of ideocracy; and analyze the dynamics of political life using models that allow readers to examine the contradictions and evolutionary paths of specific political systems. In addition, they examine diverse psychological, social, and environmental factors in analyzing the emergence of ideocracies and their subsequent evolution and emphasize that although these systems may persist for extended periods, they may also evolve into other forms of government through processes ranging from radical transformation to gradual erosion.

Download or read book Plots against Russia written by Eliot Borenstein and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original and timely assessment of cultural expressions of paranoia in contemporary Russia, Eliot Borenstein samples popular fiction, movies, television shows, public political pronouncements, internet discussions, blogs, and religious tracts to build a sense of the deep historical and cultural roots of konspirologiia that run through Russian life. Plots against Russia reveals through dramatic and exciting storytelling that conspiracy and melodrama are entirely equal-opportunity in modern Russia, manifesting themselves among both pro-Putin elites and his political opposition. As Borenstein shows, this paranoid fantasy until recently characterized only the marginal and the irrelevant. Now, through its embodiment in pop culture, the expressions of a conspiratorial worldview are seen everywhere. Plots against Russia is an important contribution to the fields of Russian literary and cultural studies from one of its preeminent voices.

Download or read book The Extreme Nationalist Threat in Russia written by Thomas Parland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-11-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the nature of the extreme right in contemporary Russia, arguing in particular that, alongside a continuing tradition which emphasizes Russia's orthodox and traditional past, an increasingly important intellectual current is drawing on Western European neo-fascist ideas and adapting them to the Russian situation. This book examines this intellectual current within the context of increasing conservatism across Russia as a whole, showing how the new ideas have an impact right across the political spectrum, and assessing the threat posed by them and their proponents.

Download or read book Totality Charisma Authority written by Mihai Murariu and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-24 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary endeavour portrays the central features of militant movements which hold totality as an important part of their doctrinal core. Revisiting the importance of modernity, utopianism, eschatology, charisma, psychology and the history of ideas, Mihai Murariu pursues a reconstruction of the historical requirements for the emergence of such movements. Making a central use of the concept of totalism, the work establishes a conceptual bridge from antiquity to the contemporary period, whilst also arguing for the suitability of the term in comparison to totalitarianism or political religion. The author also proposes a distinct taxonomy for structural elements, variants, and development phases which may be encountered in totalist movements.