Philosophy and Ideology (To the Centenary of the Philosophers' Ship)

In: Voprosy Filosofii, Heft 9, S. 5-13

Abstract

The article is an extended version of the introductory speech to the international conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the "Philosophers' Ship". It contains an event that began with the expulsion (forced sending abroad on steamboats) by decision of the top political leadership in 1922 from Soviet Russia of a large group of intelligentsia, including a number of prominent philosophers, and ended with the actual recognition by the same political autho­rity of the fallacy of this act. The author proposes to consider this event, which received the symbolic name of the "Philosophers' Ship", as a single (integral) process and at the same time as a historical experiment in elevating a certain philosophy (dialectical materialism) to the rank of state ideology. It is shown that the negative result of this experiment is important for understanding the na­ture of the interaction between philosophy and ideology as different forms of so­cial consciousness. They have a common area of intersection, but an attempt to merge them completely inevitably leads to mutual collapse, the most impor­tant consequence of which the author considers is the revival of the pluralism of philosophical teachings in the country. The symmetry between the expulsion of the "Philosophical Ship" and its return is emphasized. The most important outcome and socially significant lesson of this epoch-making event is the need for such an organization of the space of spiritual life, which by its very nature opposes the elevation of a certain philosophical doctrine, regardless of its qua­lity, to the rank of state ideology.