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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin » Deutsch |
"In the
worse case I may be ... sent to
war ..., where I will be forced to
kill people of foreign nationalities,
who did nothing wrong to me, where
I may be mutilated or killed,
where I may come to a place like
Sewastopol, and where, like in
every war, people are sent to
death, and most agonizing is the
fact, that I can be sent against
my own countrymen and will have to
kill my brother because of
dynastic or governmental
interests, which have nothing to
do with me."
Lev
Tolstoy: Sevastopol Sketches
(1855/56)
Perpetual peace "We need not try to decide whether this satirical inscription, (once found on a Dutch innkeeper's signboard above the picture of a churchyard) is aimed at mankind in general, or at the rulers of states in particular, unwearying in their love of war, or perhaps only at the philosophers who cherish the sweet dream of perpetual peace." Immanuel Kant (1795)
"[…]
more horrible than the death
sown by war in the material world
is the life it generates, almost
without exception, in the mind of
all human beings."
Fedor
Stepun (1916)
The relation between Russia and Germany maybe never were completely free of conflicts. Is it astonishing that the second quotation comes from a Russian Neo-Kantian with German roots, who served in the Russian army in the First World War - after he had started the journal "Logos" (Saint Petersburg / Tübingen) together with Max Weber and Georg Simmel in 1910? Maybe. On both sides Kant's 'dream' of perpetual peace was dreamed and confronted with a reality impected by war. The aim of the Russo-German philosophical Research Group is to show that there were positive disputes and cooperation besides political conflicts. The first ones we want to take up. Intellectual relations between Russians and Germans were our starting point and are meant to be a fututre issue, as well. We want to proceed the contacts between Russian and German thinkers and artists and build on a long tradition of intellectual exchange beyond the borders of nations and disciplines. Not least because it were philosophers and poets, like F. W. J. Schelling, F. M. Dostoyevsky, or B. Pasternak, whose real or notional dialogues raise our hopes that dreaming Kant's "sweet dream" is not for vain. About
us
The Russo-German
philosophical Research Group (RdpK) was
a group of students and graduates at
Humboldt-University, Berlin (2011-2018). We met
to plan academic collaborative or
individual projects,
to discuss our own texts and ideas.
Though we started as a reader circle
of Russian and German students with
philosophical interests, we were
neither confined to Russo-German
topics nor to philosophy.
We also helped you to organize (undergraduate) events and organized symposia, film screenings, lectures and more. Members: Ivan Boldyrev, Sascha Freyberg, Vera Kolkutina, Carina Pape, Willi Reinecke, Holger Sederström, Alexey Trotsak |
Collaborative
Projects
» Interdisciplinary Conference 2014230 years of answering the question:
What is enlightenment?
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