Conference Announcement - “Russia and the Phenomenological Tradition”

The Orbiculus Phaenomenologicus and

The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology

February 2005



Dear Colleague,

The Orbiculus Phaenomenologicus of the St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy (SRPh) and the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc. headquartered at Florida Atlantic University (CARP) are organizing a conference with the title "RUSSIA AND THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL TRADITION". This theme will be investigated within a global perspective for the first time at a conference in Russia. We are planning to bring together phenomenologists from the West in addition to Russian phenomenologists as well as representatives of academic institutes, post-doctoral students, and other colleagues. The conference will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia September 14th – 18th, 2005.

The wide penetration of phenomenology in the humanities, political philosophy, sociology, philosophy of natural sciences, religion, and other areas that has happened in the West has now been reproduced in its essential character within the contemporary cultural situation of Russia. Our conference theme is therefore geared toward the collaboration of Russian phenomenology with phenomenology from the West. As an additional highlight, a SYMPOSIUM will be held during the conference with the purpose of preparing a Dictionary of Phenomenology in Russian, in which major phenomenologists will be invited to speak and participate.

The conference will include a cultural program in St. Petersburg, with trips to museums, concerts and excursions to other beautiful places around the city.

If you are interested to learn more about the conference, please see the attached Announcement. The deadline for registration is the end of April 2005.

With best wishes and hope for cooperation,

Dr. Natalia Pecherskaya, Rector, SRPh

Prof. Dr. Alexei Chernyakov, Chair of the Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. Lester Embree, President, CARP

For more information, please contact the SRPh office directly at
E-mail: [e-mail], or [e-mail]

____________________________________________________
The Orbiculus Phaenomenologicus and

The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology

Detailed Description

International Conference Announcement

“Russia and the Phenomenological Tradition”
September 14th - 18th 2005, St. Petersburg, Russia

The Orbiculus Phaenomenologicus of the St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy and the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc., headquartered at Florida Atlantic University, with support also from the Department of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University, the Institute of Philosophy in Moscow, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Center for Phenomenology of the Russian State Humanities University, and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, announce the international conference “Russia and the Phenomenological Tradition” to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia
The organizers of the Conference are seeking to provide a comprehensive overview of the history and the contemporary state of phenomenological philosophy in Russia, to outline the place of phenomenology in the forming of the present-day cultural and historical identity of Russian society, and to specify the role of phenomenology in the encounter between traditional Russian culture and the values of “European humanity”. The conference languages will be English, German and French as well as Russian.
The reception of phenomenology in Russian philosophy of the 20th century and the originality of the Russian “phenomenological project” are of vivid interest for the contemporary phenomenologists and historians of philosophy in Russia and in the West. This interest is conditioned among the other things by the fact that the heritage of the “early” or “classical” Russian phenomenologists, like Alexei Losev, Gustav Šchpet, Vladimir Lossky, and Simeon Frank develop some significant alternatives in relation to Edmund Husserl’s and Max Scheler’s ideas of phenomenology. They also offer original developments of interpretation in phenomenological theory. The increasing number of publications devoted to the comparative analyses of Russian and Western versions of phenomenology testify to this interest.
During recent decades the interaction of structural linguistics and phenomenology, which is characteristic of the Russian academic tradition from the outset, has become a subject of intensive research throughout the world (the central figures here are Roman Jacobson and Mikhail Bakhtin). Already in its early stages, phenomenological philosophy in Russia as well as in the West considered a dialogue with literary criticism and the analysis of works of art as among its most important tasks. One can also say that the basic concepts of phenomenological aesthetics influenced the creative work of some outstanding representatives of the Russian artistic avant-garde (Kasimir Malevitch, Vassily Kandinski) and directly or indirectly the great poets of the Russian “Silver Age”. Research on the dialog between phenomenology and Russian art of the first half of the 20th century is also included in the agenda of the Conference.
One of the Conference’s priorities is the discussion of the particular role of methodology that Russian phenomenology acquired from the very beginning in relation to Russian philosophy. As a particular topic we suggest the relation of phenomenology to Russian political thought, more specifically the history of a rather intensive dialog between Russian Marxism and Russian phenomenology. Another important theme for discussion is the interface of phenomenology and Russian religious and moral philosophy.
We hope to use the occasion of the international conference with the participation of significant Russian and Western philosophers in order to highlight the originality and richness of Russian phenomenological thinking and to mark its place in a more and more interconnected and yet culturally very diverse world.

We would like to hear about your interest in this conference by the end of April 2005. Please contact us with your questions and proposals.

Prof. Dr. Alexei Chernyakov,
Chair of the Organizing Committee

St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy
Universitetskaya emb., 5, R.300
199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
Tel: [phone] or Tel/Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail], [e-mail]
http://www.srph.ru