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Ñîäåðæàíèå ñàéòà =>> Ðîññèéñêîå ãóìàíèñòè÷åñêîå îáùåñòâî =>> «Çäðàâûé ñìûñë» =>> 2005, ¹ 4 (37) |
ÇÄÐÀÂÛÉ ÑÌÛÑË Îñåíü 2005 ¹ 4 (37)
TABLE OF CONTENTS AND ABSTRACTS
ZDRAVYJ SMYSL, Autumn 2005 ¹ 4 (37)
TABLE OF CONTENTS AND ABSTRACTS
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EDITOR'S CORNER |
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| 2 | Humanism: the Burden of Enlightenment and Courage, by Valery Kuvakin. “…A Humanist faces two substantial prdblems. In order to remain a Humanist, one has to realize the internal, ethical and psychological boundaries of Humanism, and the extent to which Humanism is accepted by people around; one has to understand one's social status and agree to being just a social worker, not a hero and not a leader. But a Humanist is never a slave, and never a master”. |
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PROBLEMS OF HUMANIST EDUCATION |
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| 4 | Valery Kuvakin and Vladimir Zhukotski: Why Do We Need a Course in Basics of Modern Humanism? “Russia's education system is struggling through one of the most dramatic moments in all its history. In these circumstances, the academic and educational community should close their ranks by accepting a worldview based upon traditions of secular culture”. |
| 8 | Vladimir Zhukotski, Tumen regional RHS branch Chairman. Secular Humanism an Ideological Foundation of Contemporary Inter-cultural Communication. Introductory lecture to the course in Basics of Modern Humanism. “Essentially we can talk of historical mission of Secular Humanism…” “In its historic perspective, Humanism is evolving from a specific cultural phenomenon into a completeness of mature cultural entity acquiring the intrinsic harmony of the human and the social”. |
| 12 | Igor Utrobin: Science and Humanism as the Prime Values of the 3rd Millennium Institute of Education. “The merge of such planetary values asscience and Humanism with the institute of education, and the pursuit offree and decent life by today's youth justify our growing optimism as welook into the multivariate future of Russia…” |
| 13 | Introducing Humanism into Military Profession and Relationships (The textbook “Basics of Modern Humanism” by I. Borzenko, V. Kuvakin and A. Kudishina recommended as teaching aid under the military specialty “Organization of Humanities Teaching”) – a news report. |
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HUMANISM AND POLITICS |
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| 14 | Paul Kurtz (Chairman, Council for Secular Humanism; Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo) Secular Humanismand Politics: When Should We Speak Out? “…The secular humanist movement does not have a narrow political agenda or party platform”; “The secular humanist position is an honorable one. It is based on deeplyheld convictions, rooted in reason, and focused on an ethical concern toenhance, fulfill, and realize human happiness, peace, and tranquility on theglobe. This point, though apparent to us, is still a minority position in theworld today. Yet we need to affirm it. And in that sense, we need to need to take a strong moral-political stance”. |
| 21 | The Society and the State: Humanist Alternative. Alexander Shutov, Chairman of the Kirov regional RHS branch, calls for “creating a nationwide intellectual, ideological and political Humanist Union – a Humanist party of Russia, to become a member of the Humanist International…” |
| 24 | Gennady Shevelev, Editor-in-Chief of the St. Petersburg RHS branch website: Does Party Constitute an Alternative? “Humanism is not a one-party ideology but a worldview, and for this reason it cannot be the doctrine of any single party. It is offered to the whole society, and our organization welcomes all people, whatever ideology they share – except, of course, the misanthropic ones. This is the strength of the RHS idea…” |
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WHAT IS HUMANISM? |
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| 26 | Atheism: Anti-Theism and Non-Theism, by Valery Finogentov. “The term 'Atheism' has at least two meanings: (1) Atheism as Anti-Theism, and (2) Atheism as Non-Theism. The former interpretation of the term is much more frequent… Still I am certain that nowadays the Non-Theist version of Atheism is more relevant…” |
| 30 | On the Definition of Humanism as an Ethical Category, by Viktor Rybin. “By definition, Humanism cannot be Liberal, Christian, Socialist or of any other type. There is Humanism per se. Sometimes this Humanism is defined as secular, which I think is redundant…” |
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CULTURAL WORK |
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| 36 | Yevgeny Glushakov, “Accept My Blessing…” – essay about Boris Mazin, a biographer of Alexander Pushkin from Yaroslavl who compiled a unique card-catalogue describing the life and literary legacy of great poet (over 30,000 reference cards). Unfortunately, the scholar's life-long work has not yet found its publisher… |
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AMONG THE HUMANISTS |
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| 39 | The Good Vector, by Yury Mironov. One of the minor planets of the Solar System has been named after Boris Romanenko, 93, scientist, engineer, public man and the eldest member of RHS. |
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SORE POINT |
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| 41 | The Youngest Doomed to Bullying. The Problem of Violence in Russian Army, by Vsevolod Lyashenko. “The word 'democracy' is still in use here… But given that nearly all Russia's men, in the pride of their youth, have to take a course in 'fist law' and civil lawlessness in a huge melting-pot away from public scrutiny, then where will democracy come from?..” |
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OPINIONS |
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| 43 | The Rights of Nations and the Human Rights: the Problem of Priority Values, by Konstantin Zachyosov. “…I venture to conclude that the rights of a nation are placed lower on the scale of values than the human rights. Lower! This means that all and every right of a nation must be recognizedas devoid of their importance and mandatory nature whenever they comeinto conflict with individual human rights…” |
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CONTROVERSY |
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| 44 | Yury Yefremov: Foolishness or Provocation? (Remarks on Orthodox Christians' critical review of Humanism). Scientist's ironic retort to thebook by I. Medvedeva and T. Shipova, “The Orgy of Humanism (the Valuesof Life and Globalization)”, which describes the 1933, 1973 and 2000 Humanist Manifestos as the platform of Globalism and a kind of “ideological act of sabotage” against traditional Russian values and mentality. |
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BACKFIRE |
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| 47 | Sergei Buryanov, Sergei Mozgovoi Police Tyranny Approved. The Supreme Certification Commission approved A. Tonkogonov's thesis, “Sectarianism as a Social Phenomenon…”, despite the critical response from the Freedom of Conscience Institute. From now on, the police will have the authority to identify the so‑called 'sects'. Among those, the thesis places not only the new religions and some Protestant organizations, but also the Old Believers branch of Orthodox Christianity, as well as research groups and NGOs…” |
| 49 | Vladimir Tsaplin: Common Sense and Stereotypes. “It is distressing to read in ZS, from time to time, comments that are contrary to its goals and style. Sometimes we hear incomprehensible appeals to 'spirituality'; subjective and even conformist perspective is quite obvious…” |
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SUMMER EVENTS |
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| 52 | Anna Kudishina International Humanist Schools. Under RHS agreements with the MSU Philosophy Department and the Center for Inquiry – Transnational University (Amherst, USA), International Humanist Schools took place last summer at MSU and the Center for Inquiry. |
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LETTERS |
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| 54 | Polina Maximova: Middle Ages – 21st Century. The author is a Moscow State University student. She points to striking similarity between Russia's modernity and the medieval type of culture: clericalism, an outbreak of paranormal beliefs, deepening poverty and the like. |
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LITERARY PAGES |
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| 55 | The Old Man, a short story by Vladislav Khmelevsky. |
| 64 | “Into One's Beautiful…” – Selected Poems by Nikolai Rustanovich. |
| 67 | Incomplete Loop. Poems by Vadim Agol. |
| 68 | Alexander Yarzhombek: Seafood. Poems and Essays. |
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APHORISTS' CLUB |
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| 70 | Konstantin Kushner: Freethinking – Involuntary Thoughts. |
| 71 | Alexander Loktev: A Dream of Man as He Could Grow to Be. |
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OUR ANTHOLOGY |
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| 71 | Francois Voltaire (1694‑1778) |
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IN MEMORIAM |
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| 72 | Sergei Borodavkin |
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