R.P. Selegin
Introduction. For more than a century, a dispute has been going on in Russia between Westernizers and Slavophiles; now it grows, and then it subsides, on the eve of a new inversion of the ideological polarities of the Russian world. And so far there are no grounds for resolving the dispute in favor of one of the parties in the coming centuries, because the dispute reveals the geophilosophical originality of Eastern Europe. However, in the last century, there has been a very negative component in the everyday manifestation of this philosophical discussion, leading to enormously destructive consequences in Russia. How to make sure that the collision of polar ideologies leads not to the destruction of the country, but to its ideological and material strengthening? This article seeks to answer this question, using not empty verbal abstractions, but specific topical material from one of the important spheres of Russian culture. This sphere is the problem of the development of fundamental science.
In the past three centuries, enlightened humanity has been headlong to climb to the top of scientific and technological progress, and now, it would seem, having reached the top of the technological Olympus, a vague doubt about the goal and result of its grandiose breakthrough has begun to torment it: have not we waded into the unknown water without checking first?
The rest of the text has the following subsections:
Final Conclusion of the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)
On the nature of the dispute between Westerners and Slavophiles and its further perspective
What to do
Appendix 1. Comments to the Conclusion of the RAS
Appendix 2. Copy of the RAS Conclusion
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