Philosophy in a Polycentric World: about the VIII Russian Philosophical Congress

Abstract

The main issues discussed at the VIII Russian Philosophical Congress held in Moscow are considered, an assessment of its results is given. The appeal to the memory of outstanding Russian philosophers A.A. Zinoviev, V.V. Mironov, V.S. Stepin, I.T. Frolov, B.G. Yudin and other colleagues-philosophers gave the work of the congress the character of a philosophical reconstruction carried out in the space of personal knowledge. The question of the polycentricity of the modern world allowed us to proceed to the consideration of the civiliza­tional ideas of Russian philosophers. The issues of civilizational differences and relations between Russia and the West found a significant addition at the plenary session “A.A. Zinoviev’s Philosophy and Modernity”, at which A.A. Guseynov, V.A. Lectorsky, A.P. Kozyrev and others spoke. The recognition of civilizational diversity, as A.V. Smirnov specially noted, involves thinking about the poly­centricity of philosophy itself, about its role in ensuring the “coherence” of cul­ture as an integrity. The symposium dedicated to the memory of V.V. Mironov, “Metaphysics does not die”, allowed us to draw a number of generalizing con­clusions about the metaphysical foundations of philosophy and the need to un­derstand it as a form of cultural self-consciousness and civic identity.