Еruption from the spiritual rank. To the 80th anniversary of Yu. N. Solonin

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of the relationship between philosophy and power, the philosopher’s ascent to power. Although sufficient attention has been paid to the problems of state structure in classical philosophical systems since antiquity, and at the end of the 19th century an independent field — the philosophy of politics-was formed, precedents when philosophers took a direct part in the development and implementation of socio-political programs are extremely rare and unsuccessful. The cases of Plato and the Syracuse tyrant Dionysius, the activities of Confucius as a major state official, the French enlighteners and Catherine the Great, D. de Tracy and Napoleon I, M. Heidegger and the Third Reich, etc. this is perfectly demonstrated. Meanwhile, the focus on practice, on the purposeful introduction of ideas into existential and everyday experiences of life, including state-political, is as immanent to philosophy as pure speculation. Yu. N. Solonin is an example of such a practical philosopher, a state builder. Exploring philosophical problems in his philosophical theoretical works, successfully leading the Faculty of Philosophy of St Petersburg State University for almost a quarter of a century, he also took an active part in the political life of both St Petersburg and the whole country. The post of senator in the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, work in various committees and commissions, where they were conceptually articulated and received their strategic expression, which was then fixed in the laws adopted by the parliament, provided an opportunity to influence the development of the state, as well as to clearly verify the fairness or error of their purely intellectual conclusions. Therefore, the experience of combining the individual, concrete-activity and speculative-contemplative aspects of the existence of the producer of philosophical concepts (i. e. a philosopher), as well as how one affects the other, can also be understood within the framework of the general history of the evolution of philosophical thought as such.