Philosophical Anthropology of B. V. Markov. Part 1. Philosophy of the Era of “the Death of Man”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the Philosophical Anthropology of the recently deceased famous St. Petersburg philosopher Boris Vasilyevich Markov (1946-2023). Thanks to him, Russian Philosophical Anthropology started to develop actively in the 1990s. It is the peculiarities and significance of the philosophy of that period, are analyzed in the article. The writings of French philosophers, primarily the concept of the “death of man” by M. Foucault, were of central importance for the new Russian philosophy and Philosophical Anthropology of that time. The works of the archaeological and genealogical stages by Foucault had a great influence on Markov. The author of the current article examines in detail the significance of Foucault’s concept of the “death of man” and, in general, the understanding of man in Postmodernism for the development of Philosophical Anthropology of B. V. Markov in his works of the 1990s. To do this, the genesis and features of the development of European, primarily French, philosophy of the second half of the 20th century, presented in such concepts as episteme, deconstruction, archeology of knowledge, genealogy of power, language, are critically touched upon and analyzed. Based on these principles, Markov’s philosophical anthropology can be characterized as an archeology and genealogy of power in relation to man in culture, society and everyday life. The author emphasizes that the development of Philosophical Anthropology in the era of the “death of man” was a complex and controversial process, since such critical analytics led to the depersonalization of human being. The research presented in the article seeks to critically reveal the foundations of such an essentially anti-anthropological philosophy. Analysis of philosophy of B. V. Markov allows us to reveal its great significance for the development of domestic Philosophical Anthropology in the era of the “death of man”.