The Philosophy of Sex and Gender in Russia

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The Philosophy of Sex and Gender in Russia

This presentation focuses on the main philosophical approaches toward analyzing the notions of "sex" and "gender" in Russia since the nineteenth century. I analyze the conceptions and ideas which were developed by Aleksey Khomyakov, Nicolai Chernyshevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Fedor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Solovyov and some other philosophers. Then, I discuss the concept of emancipation of women within the framework of Marxist-Leninist theory, which played a role in the state's "women's philosophy" in the Soviet period, and within the existing modern viewpoints. My methodology is based on concepts and guidelines developed in feminist philosophy. One of the goals, as put forward by feminist philosophy, is to discover the gender determinateness of the metatheoretical foundations of science and traditional Western humanitarianism and of philosophy. This problem can be quite successfully solved on the basis of Western philosophic studies. Russian philosophy, however, has not so far become a subject of feminist analysis either in Russia or in the West. Therefore, my research in this field could be considered rather novel.

This presentation focuses on the main philosophical approaches toward analyzing the notions of "sex" and "gender" in Russia. First of all, I mean the last century's philosophy of sex and the theology of gender, the concept of emancipation of women within the framework of the Marxist-Leninist theory of women's emancipation, which played the role of state "women's philosophy" in the Soviet period, and the existing modern viewpoints.

My methodology is based on concepts and guidelines, developed in the feminist philosophy and presented inter alia in the works of Genevieve Lloyd, ...

... middle of paper ...

...a and R.Tong.

Gender/Body/Knowledge: Feminist Reconstructions of Being and Knowing. (1989).Ed.Alison M. Jaggar and Susan R. Bordo.

Harding S. and Hintikka M. (eds) (1983). Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science.

Khomyakov A. (1988). About old and new. In Russian.

Kollontai A. (1909). Social basis of women's question. In Russian.

Lloyd G. (1984). The Man of Reason. The "Male" and "Female" in Western Philosophy.

Tolstoy, L. (1987). Collection of works, vol. 11. In Russian.

Solovyov V. (1988). Collection of works in two volums.. Moscow. t. 2. In Russian.

Solovyov V. (1911). Russia and Universal Chirch. Moscow. In Russian.

Voronina O. (1994). The Mythology of Women's Emancipation in the USSR as the Foundation for a Policy of Discrimination. In Women in Russia (ed. by A.Posadskaya ).

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