On June 7 - 11, 1999 in Yekaterinburg the Second Russian Philosophical Congress “The 21st Century: the Future of Russia in Philosophical Aspect” took place. It was timed to the celebration of the 275th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The sponsors of the Congress were the Russian Philosophical Society, the Ministry for General and Vocational Education of the RF, Ural State University, the Institute of Philosophy and Law of RAS, the Institute of Philosophy of RAS, the Institute of Man ofRAS.

About two and a half thousand theses were presented to the Congress. They were published in eight collections grouped in four volumes:

1. Ontology, gnoceology and the methodology of science, logic.

2. Social philosophy and the philosophy of politics.

3. Philosophical anthropology and the philosophy of culture.

4. The philosophy of spirituality, education and religion.

The work of the Congress went on in the format of three plenary sessions, 24 sections and 26 round tables.

Eleven talks were given at the plenary sessions. The most interesting of them are the report of the President of the Russian Philosophical Society, the director of the Institute of Man of RAS Academician I.T. Frolov “The Coming Century and Man's Prospects” and that of the Vice-President of the Russian Philosophical Society, the Director of the Institute of Philosophy of RAS, Academician V.S. Stepin “Search for New Values and the Strategy of Russia's Development”. These reports determined the atmosphere of the entire work of the Congress.

At the Congress a presentation was made of the journals “Problems of Philosophy”, “RPS Vestnik”, “Vetche”, “Philosophic Inquiries”, “Credo”, “Philosophy and Society”, “Common Sense”, “Categories” and many others.

There was also a presentation of Russia's book publishing houses. Of special interest was the literary-publishing agency “Academic Project” which presented to the attendees a beautifully designed encyclopaedical dictionary “The Philosophers of the 19th-20th Centuries Russia”, which contains the vitae curricula, the ideas and the titles of the major works of over 2200 national thinkers and scholars.

The presentation was followed by an exposition and sale of books and journals on philosophical problems by publishing houses.

The work of the section “The Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics” deserves special notice. The chairman was a world-known scientist, a professor of St. Petersburg State University Moisei Samuilovich Kagan, the academic secretary - the rector of the University of the Humanities in Yekaterinburg Lev Abramovich Zaks.

Two MEUH representatives participated in the work of the section - a professor of the Academy of Journalism, the chairman of the Revision Commission of the Russian Philosophical Society Mikhail Yakovlevich Saraf, and the author of this paper, a student of the Academy of Philosophy, a bachelor of engineering and technologies, a scientific worker of the Institute of Structural Macrokinetics of RAS Alexei Vladimirovich Yukhvid.

Mikhail Yakovlevich Saraf made a report “The Bases of Typologization of Cultures”. The following theses can be singled out.

Treating of culture as the system of reproduction of man and human relationships, the author believes that it’s historical types and the general trend of development are determined by the solution of the questions “who is to be considered man”. Depending on the answer fixed either in customs and traditions or in a law, or in the public ideal there is differentiation not only of cultural epoques but also of the correlations of sucultures within the framework of one type of culture.

Culture as the way of human existence realizes itself in the forms of collective and individual existence which can come into the sharpest contradictions. The forms of collective existence are largely well institutionalized and acquire the dominant significance as high culture. The forms of individual existence are much less structuralized but they are as significant.

The answer to the central question of culture is determined, in the author's judgment, by the following factors which act as type-forming: 1) the way of treating of nature; 2) the way of activity; 3) the way of similarity; 4) the way of thinking; 5) the way of understanding. One can show the clearly traceable relations among them of which the changes always happen at periods of changing of cultural epoques, or types of culture.

In conformity with the logic of these relations patterns can be built of the major elements of the system of a type of culture and hence the bounds of their own vector direction can be differentiated which are frequently absolutized.

Alexei Vladimirovich Yukhvid participated in the work of the sections “The Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics”, “The Philosophy of Education” as well as in the round table “The Philosophy and Psychology of Virtual Reality”. He gave a talk “The Philosophical Problems of Virtual Reality in Creativity, Art and Education. The Legal Aspects of the Use of Virtual Technologies”. Some theses of the paper are cited in the author's speech at the round table of MEUH Academy of Philosophy and Theology published in this issue. But besides them, the paper emphasized the following new and very important points.

Virtual reality in creativity and art. There is a possibility of creating an absolutely new kind of art — the International Virtual theater with the audience of scores of millions of people throughout the world.

Virtual reality in education. Virtual technologies open great possibilities for creative pedagogy.

Legal reglamentation of the use of the technologies of virtual reality. The time has come to start the development of the legal concept of the use of virtual technologies on the territory of Russia, to prevent them from being used for criminal purposes (zombiing, control over conscience, experimenting on psychology etc.). This concept must become the basis of the law determining the legal competence for using the technologies of virtual reality in Russia.

The cultural program of the Congress was very busy. It was implemented by the best Yekaterinburg tourist firm “Eurasia”. It organized the Congress participants visit to the boundary between Europe and Asia, a trip to Verkhoturye and acquainted them with the town places of interests.

One should also mention the cultural program arranged by the heads of the section “The Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics” for it’s participants. It was a trip to the residence of Eduard Rossel, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region.

Excursions to this building are very rare. Strict security measures are taken there, photo and video taking is forbidden, and adverts with pictures of the apartments of the residence are not released. The metal - searcher at the entrance reacted even to the lollipop foil in a visitor's pocket.

The guide came up and told us the story of the construction of the residence. On that spot earlier there had been an old delapidated building. It was restored and next to it another building was created - the main building of the residence. This way two problems were solved at a time - the preservation of a monument of architecture and the construction of the residence a governor is entitled to according to general Russian standards.

The building is remarkable for a rare magnificence of the interior. The marble stairs with impregnations of precious stones, huge crystal chandeliers, expensive canvases on the walls stunned the visitors.

The governor's study is on the second floor, it is finished in dark brown colors. For finishing the window-sills, cornices and ceilings gold and silver, marble, malachite and other precious stones had been used. The study is furnished by a special order.

In the study of the governor's assistant a supermodern system of telecommunication US-Robotics is installed which ensures communication in the form of tele-most with the representatives of the agencies of Russian and foreign authorities.

The audience-hall is equipped at the last word in technology - 3D sound, synchronous translation for each conference delegate, the facilities for working in the regime of tele-most, a transformable stage and what not. We were shown several expositions in the residence. We saw about fifty golden background old-believers icons, the creations of Ural masters: side-arms with incrustations of precious metals: various articles made of precious stones - jasper, malachite, emerald: ornaments of silver and gold and many other things.

The works of the prominent Russian sculptor Alexander Samvel were shown, too, who makes sculptures by a special technology out of porcelain. The collection dealt with the theme of Apocalypse. We were lucky to meet the sculptor himself and had an interesting talk which lasted for about an hour and a half.

In conclusion I'd like to state that the philosophical congress in Yekaterinburg opened the way for the development of Russian science, culture, education and outlined the main prospects of the evolution of the Russian state in the 21st century.

Yukhvid A.V. The Second Russian Philosophical Congress in Ekaterinburg // Интеллигент. Газета Московского Экстерного гуманитарного университета. - 1999. - №№ 5 - 7. - С. 12.