Department of Contemporary Western Philosophy

Research Projects

“What is philosophy?”. 1998–2001.

Leading contemporary thinkers of the 20-th century on nature of philosophy and its role in society. Results of this project are presented in the book “The Path to philosophy. Anthology”(2001), which includes fragments from texts Wittgenstein, R. Carnap, M. Schlick, K. Popper, M. Heidegger, J.-P.Sartre, H. Ortega-yGasset, H. Bergson, K. Jaspers, G. Marcel, J. Maritain, N. Berdyaev, E. Mounier, E. Levinas, Th. Adorno, J. Habermas and others, accompanied by our introductory papers. 

“The philosophers of the twentieth century”. 1995–2009.

Contemporary western philosophy is presented through intellectual biographies of the founders and leaders of the major philosophical schools: T. W. Adorno, A. Ayer, Henri Bergson, M. Buber, Wittgenstein, A. Gehlen, N. Goodman, E. Husserl, D. Dennett, W.Dilthey, J. Dewey, R. Carnap, W.V. Quine, E. Levinas, J. Maritain, G. Marcel, M. Merleau-Ponty, E. Mounier, H. Ortega-yGasset, H. Putnam, B. Russell, P. Ricoeur, R. Rorty, J.-P.Sartre, X. Zubiri, P. Tillich, M. Unamuno, Z. Freud, M. Heidegger, J. Huizinga, M. Scheler, K. Jaspers. Results of our research are presented in three volumes: “The philosophers of the twentieth century. Book One” (2004);  Book Two (2004); Book Three (2009) (Allen, K. Barth, H.-G.Gadamer, A. Kojeve, J. Lacan, J. Lacroix, A. McIntyre, J.M. McLuhan, G. Mead, D.E. Moore, J. Ostin, J. Rawls, J.Searle, P. Strawson, E.Fromm, M. Foucault, O. Spengler, L. Strauss. 

“The philosophers of France”. 2003-2006.

Unique editorial project, Russia’s first encyclopedic work on French philosophers of XII –XX Centuries. Its purpose was to provide a broad panorama of philosophical life in France through its leading representatives. Articles are written by scientists from the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and State Humanitarian University.