Welcome to the forum.

Are you a native Russian speaker? I ask because your English looks great. Feel free to use whatever stylistic choices you please.

10 years of studying English didn't pass for nothing, XD. I need it because too little literature is available in Russian. English is modern Latin.

Ten years of English certainly explains things! That's great.

I would have expected more literature to be available in Russian given the great literary tradition in your country. Here in the US we read many Russian authors, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and so forth.

I mean philosopical literature. It's difficult (almost impossible!) to find works of philosopher if they are not famous as Kant, Hegel, K. Marx, of course.
Thou sayst in US you read Russian authors? Then I ask thee, how thou findst works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? Which of them hast thou read?

Ah, yes, even in my country there seems to be a bias in favor of American scholars of philosophy.

Personally, I have not read any Tolstoy. I have read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Notes From the Underground. Brothers Karamazov awaits me at my desk. I am not very well read, though other members here know this material well. I am certain that your familiarity with Russian literature will be greatly appreciated, not only by me, but also by many other members on this forum!

Welcome Eudaimon, and peace also unto you. Do enjoy the forum.

Thanks a lot, this is what I'm doing now.

Welcome E,
I love the interconnectiveness of a computer and how an American and a Russian who have never met can unite in thoughts and words as easily as this. Surely computers Oneday will unite us all. I find happiness in simply that thought, the unity of One is the unity of All and wish you happiness equally as well.

=
MJA

I am glad to read this. Politicians would like to instil into us thought that overseas our foes are living. It's great that here we can be beyond petty interests of our governments and their "geopoliticses". If everyone could take part in communication like this, we should soon get rid of stereotypes concerning our folks.

Eudaimon, there is the work of Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff titled 'Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson', which I understand was originally written in Russian and Armenian. This work, although it is presented as a novel, forms the first of three volumes which treat the history of a misguided human perception that seeks satisfaction in illusionary experiences. In other words which values the experience of its own creations above all else.

As one steeped in Western education and philosophy, it can be very difficult to escape the filters applied by our history of thought. Gurdjieff succeeds in breaking this mould linguistically (He translated the book himself into English), philosophically and often quite humorously.

From the vantage point of Western Europe, where I am currently living, Russian philosophical pursuit appears to have shifted radically after 1917. I am not personally aware of a single ouvert philosophical treatise following that period. The discourse however seems to have continued in disguised forms in order to pass through censorship. Bulgakov, as an example, inverses waking experience and dream experience so that dreams describe reality and the waking experience becomes irrational. In this way he is able to carry on his philosophical pursuit right under the noses of the Soviet censors. I believe this a major clue in unearthing Russian philosophic expression of the 20th century.

Even if it is only amateur, I am deeply interested in Russian forms of expression. Yours is the country which bridges East and West philosophically, artistically and spiritually. How the distance between the two is to be bridged is of pivotal importance.

Dear Doorsopen, I think we don't need to divide the world. The nature of man is the same here in Russia as well as in Europe, the US or India. The difference is illusive; that's true that we have different languages and different cultures (although in Russia it is now quite the same as in the West). Thus, that is conditionality that divides us. As soon as one goes beyond it, he realises that in truth not only Russians, Americans, Europeans are equal, but Hindoos, Chinese and even savages as well. We all want to be happy and this is what unites. But we are different in our delusions concerning this.