| Popis: |
Can philosophy be the foundation of a political regime? The Soviet regime claimed that this was the case: led by a Party that was guided by a Marxist-Leninist ideology that, in its turn, had its foundation in a philosophical system constructed around dialectical and historical materialism. The 1920s were a period of intense debate among Russian Marxists and increasing politicisation, while the few remaining non-Marxist philosophers managed to continue their work in the institutional margins. The 1930s, however, witnessed the regimentation of philosophy generally, and the reduction of Marxist philosophy to a single dogmatic doctrine. Most remaining idealist and religious philosophers met their fate in the GULag. After WW2, however, the Soviet system, while still in Cold War opposition to the capitalist West and engaging in battle on the philosophical front, included a complex philosophical culture where, in a variety of niches, philosophers did manage to engage in independent thought. Paradoxically, philosophy proved political by definition while political philosophy, as a discipline, was absent, and much philosophical debate took place “in the kitchen” [na kukhne]. |
