On the idea of true philosophy

Abstract

Background : Discussions on the actual role and status of philosophy continuously arise, especially at the time of crises, abrupt changes to habitual ways of life and patterns of thought and behavior. Throughout the 20 th century philosophical thought, both in the West and in Russia, has undergone a number of major reconsiderations, with controversial outcomes. Philosophy was, in fact, transformed into ideology, i.e. a system of beliefs that ultimately serves the interests of the ruling elite and has a definite apologetic aim – to justify the existing social arrangements and foster the required unanimity of opinions in the society. Liberal arts students and anyone pursuing philosophical studies are taught that the true philosophy is philosophy of science, while philosophy per se does not deserve serious attention because such philosophy is a relic of the past. Objective : The article aims to reveal the causes of the decline of philosophy, to reclaim the status and meaning of true philosophy, and to forecast its perspective development in the modern world. To meet these objectives the authors make use of the analytical, historical, cultural, comparative and hermeneutical methods of research. Results : The article gives substantial evidence to the fact that the inability of modern philosophy to address urgent political, social, etc. issues in Russia is the result of its deliberate three-stage transformation into ideology throughout the 20 th century. It is demonstrated that the philosophy of culture is the modern way of philosophizing and the true philosophy of our time. The article highlights some unresolved issues connected with this approach: the essence of culture; the principles, laws and the purpose of cultural development; the correlation between culture and life. The article also argues that the ultimate goal of unraveling the meaning of modern philosophy is to go from the philosophy “about something” to the philosophy of the person generated by his/her independent thought. This kind of further development is only possible in the situation of academic freedom and the person’s independence in finding and absorbing knowledge. Conclusion : The contribution of this study to the contemporary philosophical discourse is threefold: firstly, it demonstrates that the role and status of modern philosophy are different from and surpass those of narrower fields of knowledge; secondly, it defines modern philosophy as the philosophy of culture; thirdly, it envisions the future of modern philosophy as the philosophy generated by the person capable of independent thinking. This study can be applied to interpreting and evaluating current and past social issues from a cultural and philosophical standpoint.