At the origins of the Leningrad philosophy of culture. Elmar V. Sokolov. The justification of morality in philosophical practice

Abstract

The article retrospectively analyzes the stage of the origin of philosophy of culture as a discipline in Leningrad at the end of the 20th century on the example of the prominent professor Elmar Sokolov, who brought a community of interested philosophers together. The problem of spirituality substantiation through involvement in the philosophical culture can be called a key and consolidating effort of thinkers with different political orientations. At the same time, a characteristic feature of the era was the idea of the unity of a philosophical culture that does not scatter into a multitude of diverse practices. At the opposite pole from official Marxism the dividing line passed between the religious type of spirituality and the secular cultural practice of philosophy, and, accordingly, between religious morality and “moral culture” as individual free aspiration. The concept of “moral culture” in various interpretations was developed by Professor Sokolov. The basis of morality for him is freedom, and the value is a productive “freedom for”, which implies the participation of the individual in the whole (family, society, and culture). Philosophical “self-care” leads to the desire for fullness of spiritual life, and freedom is supplemented by the “dictatorship of conscience”, which is not given rationally, logically, or socially, but is rooted in the love of goodness.