The Splendour and Misery of the Anthropological Crisis: a Myth of Contemporary Russian Philosophy

Abstract

The concept of the anthropological crisis is very popular in contemporary Russian humanities: the Russian Scientific Electronic Library (Elibrary.ru) includes more than 10,000 publications with the keyword “anthropological crisis”. On the contrary, Google gives links to Russian publications only when searching “anthropological crisis”. This keyword has no reference in the famous online book catalogue Worldcat. org. Nowadays, English-speaking scientific communities still explore the crisis in anthropology as a discipline. The difference between the anthropological crisis and the crisis in anthropology seems essential. The crisis of a scientific discipline is not a crisis of human nature. Modern Russian scholars, including the late Vyacheslav Stepin, find many features of the anthropological crisis in the successes of genetic engineering and modern medicine, as well as in the growing psychological pressures that people face. Russian-language scholars find traits of the anthropological crisis in many fields, including studies of memory, bioethics, pedagogics, literature, and economics. Others, such as Vyacheslav Stepin and Boris Pruzhinin, point to the loss of a sense of meaning in life as a sign of the anthropological crisis. The problems of self-identity are also marked by Russian authors as a mark of that crisis. Sergey Averintsev felt that human beings lack human nature. Pruzhinin supposes humans cannot predict the consequences of genetic engineering for their nature as a species. But all these trends have nothing in common with the anthropological crisis. Genetic engineering helps to improve human health and self-realization. Certainly, we cannot envision all the possible consequences, but this is true of any scientific discovery or breakthrough. Cyborgs are an inevitable step towards healthier and smarter humans. Existential problems are universal since all humans are endowed with self-consciousness. Self-identities have been in constant flux since the birth of complex societies, especially since the industrial revolution strengthened alienation. The growth and volume of information flows are not threats to humans, as there is no need to memorize all the data in the world, and there are multiple network and personal filters which block garbage. The anthropological crisis seems a myth in contemporary Russian-language humanities in general and philosophy in particular.