Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Morality and Politics — Paul Robinson


Abridged translation of Morality and Politics (Vladimir Solovyov, 1891). 

Vladimir Solovyov (not to be confused with the contemporary commentator) is one of the premier Russian philosophers that was also a public intellectual in his day. While not well known or much read in the West, he is still regarded in Russia and stands high on Vladimir Putin's reading list.

Solovyov held that is was Russia's destiny to act as a bridge between Oriental despotism and Western liberalism that he regarded a a form of anarchy.

Although Paul Robinson doesn't mention it, this short piece can be read in terms of a chief issue in ancient Greek philosophy as a pillar of Western civilization:  What does it mean to live a good life in a good society.

Irrussianality
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

4 comments:

Peter Pan said...

What does it mean to live a good life in a good society.

It means you are Mike Pence.

Matt Franko said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1891–92

Matt Franko said...

Ahhhhh yes the good life that year this art degree douchebag was writing this shit:

“ When the Volga river flooded the lack of snow caused the water to freeze, killing more seedlings as well as the fodder used to feed the horses. Those seedlings that were not killed by frost were blown away along with the topsoil in an uncommonly windy spring. The summer started as early as April and proved to be a long dry one. The city of Orenburg for example had no rain for over 100 days. Forests, horses, crops and peasants all began to die, and by the end of 1892 about half a million people were dead, mostly from cholera epidemics triggered by the famine.“

Sounds like a lovely time..,,

Peter Pan said...

Those were the halcyon days...