bringing the west to the east

Sun., Jun 07

Is philosophy universal, or is it culture-bound? Questions like this can generate much debate among philosophers, regardless of their nationality. 

Russian philosophers had a rare chance recently to learn more about how their American counterparts view their discipline when Philosophy Professor Armen Marsoobian and his co-editor John Ryder traveled to Moscow for a book launch of the Russian translation of their book, "The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy." The launch took place Sept. 26 at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow.

Ryder is director of international programs at the State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration. SUNY and Moscow State University are engaged in a partnership that dates back to the mid-1970s. Marsoobian is editor of the journal Metaphilosophy, in addition to being a member of the Southern Philosophy Department faculty.

The U.S. State Department's Moscow Embassy chooses a few American books for translation into Russian each year and subsidizes these books' publication. Marsoobian says his and Ryder's book was chosen for publication in 2008 because of the high level of interest in Russia on the subject of American philosophy. 

Marsoobian explains it is not easy to publish American books in Russia without a government subsidy, and while the publishing industry in Russia used to be state subsidized, the number of academic books published has dropped since the end of the Soviet Union. 

"Philosophy is a pretty big subject area in Russia," he says, adding that at Moscow State, 2,000 undergraduates are studying philosophy, down from 4,000 before the collapse of the U.S.S.R. "It's staggering how large the university's philosophy program is," he says. Moscow State, home to the largest university building in the world, was the leading educational institution for the Communist world during the time of the Soviet Union but has now opened up.

Marsoobian explains that in Russia, a book launch is an academic event, similar to a conference. At the launch of his and Ryder's book, a dean of the university spoke, as did representatives of the embassy and the publisher, along with Marsoobian and Ryder. Then the audience had a chance to speak about their work in American philosophy and how they see this book being useful to them, or not. A book signing and reception followed the discussion.

About 30 philosophers attended the launch, Marsoobian says. Many had copies of the book, and some of these scholars had worked on American philosophy. "One person argued that there's no such thing as American philosophy," Marsoobian says. "He argued that you can't identify philosophy with a particular nation, that it transcends national identity and characteristics." 

Marsoobian was given copies of books and articles in Russian, and in turn, as a token of gratitude, he gave the faculty a gratis subscription to Metaphilosophy. "They haven't been able to get many English language journals so they were very happy," he says. 

Marsoobian is also trying to encourage more submissions to the journal from Russia. The journal is international but doesn't receive many submissions from Russia, and Marsoobian wants to make Russian philosophers more aware of it. "Being able to go to Moscow opens the door to new potential collaborators," he says.The Moscow State faculty said they'd like to bring American and Russian philosophers together to talk about philosophy across the East/West divide and to consider such questions as whether nationality affects philosophy. 

Marsoobian was in Russia for a week, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1. He divided his time between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he also met informally with faculty at a university. He has been invited back to Moscow State to give a series of lectures and hopes to work out an exchange of some kind between Southern and Moscow State.