Contemporary Russian ethics

the polarisation

Olga Zubets

pp. 181-194

in: Edward Swiderski (ed), Philosophy in Russia today, Studies in East European Thought 66, 2014.

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the key events and ideas associated with contemporary Russian ethics, as well as of publications significant to the theory of the discipline and the most sustained discussions. Notwithstanding the wide variety of topics, sets of problems, and ways of philosophizing that have emerged over the last two decades, this period is primarily characterised by a gradual conceptual polarisation and the development of two irreconcilable trends based on manifestly opposed foundations: the idea of the absoluteness of both morality and the individual responsible act, on the one hand, and the de-absolutisation of morality with individuals considered in actual situations of choice, on the other.