Letter from Russia [Brief aus russland]

This essayistic letter examines the actual situation of philosophy in Russia. From the quantitative point of view it seems as if we can be optimistic: Russia's stock of philosophers and philosophical faculties, departments and institutes is one of the largest in the world. But from the other qualitative point of view, the whole situation is more complicated. First of all, the institutional and moral legacy of ideologically colored Soviet philosophy has not been wholly overcome in theory, teaching practice, selection and training of a new staff. Second, new problems have arisen which are caused by the desire to preserve at all costs the old patterns of behavior and thinking in any external and internal modification of ideas and institutions. As a consequence, philosophy ceases to produce new ideas. Philosophical books and journals cease to be of interest not only to the general public, but also to the philosophers. Non-professionals and students who have not lost their interest in philosophy have to look for ideas in other fields of knowledge, sometimes far removed from academia. And "professional" philosophers have turned their occupation into a boring routine which is left with no choice but to protect the incompetence of its adherents using aggressive methods of institutional bureaucracy and intellectual intolerance.