The early 1990s saw a dramatic rise of optimism in philosophy in Russia, a rise marked by the triumphant return of Russian religious philosophy, the founding of new independent philosophy journals, and the introduction of academic freedom following nearly 75 years of Soviet rule. Already by the mid-2000s, however, the enthusiasm of the 1990s regarding the state of philosophy in Russia had given way to widespread pessimism, with Russia's philosophers regularly denying the existence of the discipline altogether.

The End of Russian Philosophy describes and evaluates the troubled...

This volume explores the influence of the Socratic legacy in the Russian, East European, and Soviet contexts. For writers, philosophers, and artists, Socrates has served as a potent symbol—of the human capacity for philosophical reflection, as well as the tumultuous (and often dangerous) reality in which Russian-speaking and Soviet intellectuals found themselves. The thirteen chapters include surveys of historical periods and movements (the 18th century, Nietzscheanism, and the “Greek Renaissance” of Russian culture), studies of individual writers and philosophers (Skovoroda, Herzen,...