"Philosophy of Islamic world" series      

The book series was founded in 2009 by the Institute of Philosophy (Moscow). 

Including "Primary Sources", "Translations", "Research" and "Textbooks" sections. Published in Russian.

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Ishraq. Islamic Philosophy Journal

Founded in 2023 by the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of Ibn Sina Foundation.

The journal continues the tradition of the yearbook of Islamic philosophy “Ishraq”.

Official Page >>

Ishraq. Islamic philosophy yearbook

      Published in 2010-2022 by the Institute of Philosophy (Moscow), Institute of Philosophy (Tehran) and Ibn Sina Islamic Culture Reasearch Foundation. 

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Van Ess, Joseph. Theology and Society in the 2nd-3rd century AH. Volume I. The history of religious thought in early Islam / J. van Ess; translated from German by P. Kazaku; edited by I.R. Nasyrov. M.: OOO Sadra, 2021. 632 p/ ISBN: 978-5-907041-70-7 (in Russian)

The work of Joseph van Ess, a prominent contemporary German Islamic scholar, represents the most fundamental work on the intellectual history of early medieval Muslim society and has been published in Russian for the first time. The first volume describes the formation of religious thought in Islam.

The book is intended for a wide range of readers interested in the philosophical and cultural heritage of the Islamic world.

Smirnov A.V. Logic of sense as a philosophy of mind: an invitation to reflection. Moscow: Sadra, LSC Publishing house. 2021. 448 p. ISBN 978-5-907290-42-6 (in Russian) 

The book introduces the key notions of logic of sense as a philosophy of mind. Logic of sense proposes an answer to the question of how and why cogito ergo sum statement does not violate the radical doubt criterion while introducing ‘being’ as a correlate of cogito. Consciousness is treated as a sense-positing activity of human mind. Notions of substance and process logics are introduced. The book argues that Arabic language, thought, logic (including apodictic proof), worldview, the set of basic categories, ethics, aesthetics in Arabic, and later in Arabic-Islamic culture depend on the process logic. Methodological basis for the history of philosophy comparative studies is clarified for cases when the culture analyzed differs not just in its content, but in its logical basis as well. Human mind is capable of developing diverse, mutually irreducible logics each of which accounts for the general outline of language, thought, worldview, culture, and society. Therefore there can be no single ‘ideal’ and universal model of human society, and the current globalization scenario is totalitarian and suppresses the logical diversity of human mind, culture, and society. An alternative scenario is proposed based on the notion of vsechelovecheskoye elaborated in Russian philosophy and thought for the last two centuries, which presupposes ‘gathering’ the logically diverse models without imposing any general restriction on them. The book invites its reader to elaborate logic of sense as a means to fulfill the Cartesian ‘cogito program’ for philosophy of mind.

Boroday S.Yu. Language and cognition: introduction to post-relativism / Edited by V.A. Lektorskiy, A.V. Smirnov. Мoscow: ООО Sadra: YASK publishing house, 2019. 800 p. ISBN 978-5-906859-62-4. (in Russian)

The book examines the impact of the structure of a language on the cognitive abilities of its speakers, also known as linguistic relativity. The first chapter contains a detailed analysis of the development of relativist theories from the end of 18th centuries to 1990s. The second chapter is devoted to the comparative research carried out in 1990s-2010s on the matter of space semantics, conceptualization of time, colour terminology and other empirical and theoretical issues related to the neo-relativist school in psycholinguistics and cognitive anthropology. The third chapter presents a new model of interrelation between the structure of a language and cognitive processes, which is referred to by the author as post-relativism. It also outlines a plan for future post-relativism research. Drawing on numerous examples (250 languages and hundreds of empirical studies), the author demonstrates that the language is involved in the work of many cognitive mechanism on a real-time basis, which affects the cognitive style of its speakers.

Smirnov A.V. Vsechelovecheskoye vs. obshechelovecheskoye. Moscow: Sadra, LSC Publishing house. 2019. 216 p. ISBN 978-5-907041-24-0. (in Russian)

The work focuses on the conceptualization logic explaining the interior mechanism of consciousness and the culture unwrapped in the systems. It suggests the understanding of the consciousness’ activity as an epistemic chain, that is a provisional build-up line of cognitive actions’ complexity connected with the initial intuition of the subject-predicate agglutination and equipped withleast three significant levels: sensory perception, conventional speech and theoretical reasoning, including formal argumentation. It contains an explanation of initial intuitions for the substantial conceptualization logic unwrapped in the context of the European culture and the processual logic unwrapped in the context of the Arab Muslim culture. The work also raises the question of the Russian culture and demonstrated that the difference of conceptualization logics per se implies the indispensable plurality of the mind and excludes the justifiability of accepting a culture unwrapping only one of possible logics as a universal one. The book mentions the idea of the Panhuman as an alternative. It also describes the genesis and the development of the Panhuman in the Russian thought and examines the concepts of the classical Eurasianism.

Smirnov A.V. Process-based Logic. Moscow: Sadra, 2019. 160 p. ISBN 978-5-907041-37-0. Co-authored by V.K.Solongayev. (in Russian)

The monograph contains an outline of the conceptual theory of consciousness. The authors demonstrate that the consciousness (cogito) considers “the way of existence” (Descartes’ cogito ergo sum) and “the way of action” (cogito ergo actum not mentioned by Descartes) as equally possible. The former was developed by the European culture based on the substantial logic (S-logic), whereas the latter was developed by the Arab culture based on the processual logic (P-logic). Cultural practices tend to select and to anchor only one logic as a legal framework for the social structure, politics, law, ethics and philosophy in the collective consciousness. The individual consciousness (cogito) always has the possibility to choose any of these ways and logics. The multi-logicality of the individual consciousness was confirmed during an experimental psychological test. The book presents prospects offered by the P-logic in the area of psychology and philosophy.

Smirnov A.V. Occurence and things. Moscow: LSC Publishing house, Sadra. 2017. 232 p. ISBN 978-5-906859-48-8. (in Russian)

The book answers the question how the conceptualisation of the “harf”, a basic linguistic component, which developed in the Arab linguistic tradition since the 8th century, is possible. It has been demonstrated that the “harf” can not be accurately interpreted using the European linguistic categories, such as phonemes, vowels, consonants, letters etc. It is possible to explain the view on the “harf” in the Arab linguistic tradition only on the ground of the process logic, but not the substantial logic. It raises the question of the metaphysics of splitting the events in systems of things and suggests reconsidering the idea of universal scientific truths and their correlation to reality in the context of the “events-and-things” metaphysics. 

Burmistrov K.Yu. Oskar Goldberg and His “Biological Kabbalah” in a Historical Context. Мoscow: Institute of philosophy Publ., 2016. 135 p. ISBN 978-5-9540-0298-0. (in Russian)

This book explores the views and ideas of the anthropologist and orientalist Oskar Goldberg (1885-1953). The book discusses the basic concepts of that particular worldview that Goldberg developed through his whole life and expressed in his books and articles. A separate chapter is devoted to Goldberg’s explanation of Kabbalah. The ideas of O. Goldberg were paradoxical, obscure and often rather unpleasant, they often caused confusion and aggressive opposition. His views were unique and became the subject of fierce debate. In the philosophy of Oscar Goldberg, you can find a lot of ideas that could serve as a basis for reflection on various issues, his thoughts about myth and cult, art and culture, science and history may be of interest to the readers.

Smirnov A.V. Mind. Logic. Language. Culture. Sense. Moscow: Languages of Slavonic Culture, 2015. 712 p. (Studia philosophica) ISBN 978-5-94457-235-6. (in Russian)

The core issues of the book — the subject-predicate complex as a nuclear form of consciousness in its basic aspects: self-awareness, sensory perception, discursive thinking. The book explicit the basic possibility of understanding any subject-predicate structure in the two logics (substance-oriented and process-oriented). On the material of Arabic language and Arab-Muslim culture demonstrated the effectiveness of the analysis of logic-and-meaning structures in the process-oriented perspective.

Russia in the Architecture of the Global World: a Civilizational Dimension. Ed. A. Smirnov. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2015. 520 p. (in Russian)

The core issue of the book is the question of a viable civilization space and the principles of its construction, taking into account cultural diversity and cultural dynamics in the modern world. This issue has been studied primarily in relation to Russia in the aspect of its historical experience. Particular attention is paid to non-Western cultures (Islamic world, India, China). For the first time on such a wide scale the book raised the problem of typology of rationality and its correlation with the different aspects of civilizational development.

Burmistrov K.Yu. Jewish Philosophy ana Kabbalah: History, Concepts and Influences. Moscow: Institute of philosophy Publ., 2013. 266 p. ISBN 978-5-9540-0243-0 (in Russian)

The monography aims to analyze a series of themes that remained obscure in modern Russian science, scholarly works on history, philosophy and theology. The author undertakes a complex analysis of philosophical, theological, religious, and mystical trends in Jewish thought of the last two millenniums. He tries to discern the basis, or the general core which allows talking about it as an independent and specific phenomenon of Jewish culture. 

Bessmertnaya O.Yu., Zhuravsky A.V., Smirnov A.V., Fedorova Y.E., Chalisova N.Yu. Otherness Problematized: Russia and Islamic World / Edited by Smirnov A.V. Moscow: Languages of Slavonic Cultures, 2010, 526 p. ISBN 978-5-9551-0400-3. (in Russian)

Pride of place in this book is assigned to the study of the concept of mutual otherness of cultures. Drawing a distinction between the substantial and the logic-and-meaning otherness, the authors propose a new method for analysis the second one. The authors investigated the history of the relationship between Muslims and the non-Muslim part of the Russian population, analyzed the mechanisms of perception of poetry by focusing on the patterns of interaction between two cultures. The book is innovative and demonstrates the effectiveness of the logic-and-meaning approach to the study of various segments of the Arab-Muslim culture.

Burmistrov K.Yu. "For He is Like a Refiner's Fire": Kabbalah and Alchemy. Мoscow: Institute of philosophy Publ., 2009. 296 p. ISBN 978-5-9540-0139. (in Russian)

The monograph provides an analysis of the interaction between two esoteric traditions – Jewish Kabbalah and Alchemy. The main object of the study is an anonymous treatise entitled «Esh Mezaref» («The Refiner’s Fire»), the most representative extant work XVI – XVII c. combining kabbalistic and alchemic doctrines. The first Russian translation of the treatise as well as a reconstruction of its Latin text are provided in the book (Appendix I, II).

Smirnov A.V. What does ‘comparative study of cultures’ mean? Saint-Petersburgh: SPb. Trade Unions Humanitarian University Publishing House, 2009, 132 p. ISBN 978-5-7621-0495-1. (in Russian)

The book contains lectures delivered by A.V. Smirnov, one of the major experts in the field of classical Arab-Muslim philosophy and culture, at the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions on October 1–4, 2008. A.V. Smirnov gives an idea of the Arab-Muslim culture as a conceptual integrity in its main components: linguistic consciousness, law, doctrine, ethics, philosophy. He also shows the contrast of substantial and procedural view of the world, typical for Western and Arab-Muslim cultures.