From Philosophy of the Act to New Ethics: History of the Saransk Ethical Center Formation (Materials of the Round Table Discussion)

Abstract

The paper tells about the history of the development of ethical education and research in the field of ethics in Saransk on the basis of the Department of Ethics (Ogarev Mordovia State University). The organizer of the ethical center and the founder of the scientific school in the field of moral philosophy in the second half of the 1970s was R.I. Alexandrova. Thanks to her energy and enthusiasm, the Department of Ethics became a place of attraction for students, graduate students, teachers who were interested in moral problems. For repre­sentatives of the center, the fundamental theoretical basis for research was the philosophy of act, which goes back to the Bakhtin’s ideas. The main subject of the study – the moral foundations of an environmentally significant act – was determined by Alexandrova’s works devoted to the relationship between morality and nature. Traditions, atmosphere, problems of the Saransk Ethical Center developed not only in the process of teaching and at the offi­cial events of the department, but also in the course of the work of an informal philosophi­cal society, the most prominent participants of which were O.V. Breikin, V.A. Pisachkin, A.P. Skripnik, A.V. Smolyanov and others. At this time, the problems of environmental ethics, moral ideal, moral evil are being developed. The formation of the next generation of representatives of the center in the 2000s (M.D. Martynova, A.A. Sychev, N.V. Zhadunova, E.A. Koval, etc.) was greatly influenced by ethical schools, which were held under the guid­ance of R.G. Apresyan. They made it possible to establish contacts between ethical centers and form a single community of ethics researchers from Russia and neighboring countries. The basic direction of the center’s work during this period remains environmental ethics, but the space for research is gradually expanding due to new and relevant topics for modern so­ciety. There is a steady trend towards interdisciplinary research. Modern studies of the Sa­ransk Ethical Center, on the one hand, continue and develop the traditions of the scientific school, established back in the 70s of the last century (environmental ethics, philosophy of the act), but, on the other hand, are aimed at solving dilemmas that arise in connection with the accelerating development of science and technology and social changes. At the mo­ment, the focus of research is the ethics of big data and the “new ethics”.