Presentation of a New Book by Vladimir Kantor in the House of A.F. Losev

On 17 September 2019 the presentation of the book of the head of IL for the Study of Russian-European Intellectual Dialogue V.K. Kantor took place.In the House of A.F. Losev, the ordinary professor at the Higher School of Economics Vladimir Karlovich Kantor presented his new book “Demythologization of Russian Culture. Philosophical Essays”

Abstract
In his new book, V.K. Kantor considers one of the most important philosophical problems. The entire history of the culture of mankind, including Europe and Russia as a legitimate part of Europe, is permeated with myths as the structure-forming clamps of consciousness. Myth plays an ambiguous role. It is important as a tool in the hands of the philosopher, for example Plato, and becomes disastrous, having mastered the consciousness of the crowd. According to M. Mamardashvili, there are no problems in the myth, everything is clear, and that is why it is in such demand by ignorance. The task of the philosopher is to make the world anew incomprehensible, which is possible only by asking himself and the world questions, but not trusting myth as knowledge. We are accustomed to some mythical interpretations of, say, Pushkin, Chernyshevsky, so that a person of mass culture does not even want to look for other meaning. Myth is alleged to be given forever and does not require verification. In the book, the author tries to disenchant several myths: Pushkin, Gorky, Turgenev, Kerensky; Katkov and Chernyshevsky, rejected by mass literary criticism, as well as the phenomenon of revolution, accompanied with dozens of glorifying and cursing texts, songs and paintings. Without myths, life is harder, but it is a human life.

The presentation was attended by the deputy dean of Philosophy faculty of Moscow State University Alexei Pavlovich Kozyrev, and the graduate student of MSU Philosophy faculty Anna Makarova.