Reception of Analytical Philosophy in Russia

Abstract

The article examines the reception of analytical philosophy in Russia. In this paper analytical philosophy is considered as tradition of philosophizing, which is dominant in English-speaking countries. This tradition is in opposition to the tradition of philosophizing denoted by the term “continental philosophy”. In the past two decades, the modern analytical philosophy is becoming popular not only in English-speaking countries. The influence of this philosophical tradition extends to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Now it is possible to talk about development of analytical philosophy in Russia. Soviet Marxist philosophy belonged to the tradition of continental philosophy. However, this does not mean that Soviet philosophers were not familiar with the analytical philosophy. The development of the ideas of analytical philosophy in Soviet Union can be presented as follows. First of all, the study of analytical philosophy took place in the context of criticism of bourgeois philosophy. Another line of development of analytic philosophy has passed through the logic. Although there were some features of analytical philosophy in the works of Soviet philosophers, analytical philosophy has not become any notable event in the philosophical life of the country and, of course, could not be formed as a separate line of thought. Since the nineties of the last century to the present, the development of analytical philosophy in Russia goes mostly through the study of history of philosophy. But since the beginning of the new century the number of theoretical studies which may well be described as belonging to analytical philosophy has also increased. They are devoted to issues that are central for analytical philosophy and they use the methodology inherent in this tradition. Basically it is the study of problems of philosophy of language and philosophy of mind.