“MY OPTIMISM IS KEPT": ABOUT PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION AND MAN IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN CULTURE

• Main Author: V. V. Mironov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MGIMO University Press 2019-07-01
• Series: Концепт: философия, религия, культура
• Subjects: philosophy; culture; education; science; university; globalization; digitalization; management
• Online Access: https://concept.mgimo.ru/jour/article/view/231

The article was based on the conversation of the deputy editor-in-chief of Concept magazine, the head of the philosophy department of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Professor M.V. Silantyev with the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy V.V. Mironov.The problems that define the vector of innovations in the field of education today are connected not only with globalization and its many consequences, including unification, digitalization and a general decline in the prestige of education in popular culture, including attempts to discredit the Humboldt model of the university, which is the most innovative today. No less important for the Russian education are its "internal" problems. Among them - the destruction of students' motivation as one of the results of the Unified State Exam, a consistent reduction in the share of the humanitarian component in the classroom load, as well as an overloaded curriculum due to the absence of a system of individual educational tracks.The search for ways and means to solve these problems requires, among other things, an analytical consideration of the place and role of philosophy in the modern system of Russian science and education. That, in turn, implies a clarification of the possibilities and limits of philosophical knowledge (and knowledge as such) in relation to the demands of modern society. In this regard, it is appropriate to refer to the idea of I. Kant on the division of philosophy into two main types: "scholarly philosophy" and philosophy in the broad sense of the word. The first involves the systematic introduction of a person to the theoretical culture at the level of pre-university training (as it's done in several European countries, for example in Germany and France), involves taking into account the "problems of translation" and the formation of ideas about the relationship between national and world science. The second "variety" of philosophy can be described as a timeless semantic space, the "realm of meaning." Its ontologization at the time provided a deep connection between philosophy and science, approving the thesis about the possible existence of a law that pervades nature and allows using revelation to reveal the unchanging in the changeable. Accordingly, for the study of the second type of philosophy, "schooling" is not suitable.All this becomes especially important in the practice of teaching philosophy in the system of higher education. Here it is necessary to take into account that philosophy is a dual form of consciousness, which relies both on rational-theoretical components - a vector directed to science, and on value-emotional, associated with other ways of comprehending being, besides the scientific - art, religion, etc. In this sense, philosophy is the central discipline that influences the formation of a person's worldview. Therefore, it must be present in the higher education system, if we set this task, and no other discipline can fill its place.