Research and Education Center for Religion, Philosophy and Culture Studies
The Research and Education Center for Religion, Philosophy and Culture Studies was founded in 2011 at the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SUAI) on the initiative of the honored worker of science of the Russian Federation, member of the International Academy of Higher Education and Humanitarian Academy of Russia Federation, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Valery Mikhailovsky (1941-2011).
Since 2012, the director of the Center is the Head of the Faculty of Humanities of SUAI and the 014 Vice-Rector for International Affairs of SUAI, Doctor Konstantin V. Losev.
The main purposes of the Center are:
• Study of the logical and conceptual structure of the ontological interdependence of theological, philosophical and scientific knowledge.
• Study of the ethical implications of the theological, philosophical and scientific knowledge in the context of their relationship.
• Study of the cultural and linguistic context of the formation of theological, philosophical and scientific forms of knowledge and models of their returns to cultural and linguistic practices in regional and civilizational context.
• Investigation of the role of the East Christian and West Christian theology in the continuity of the philosophical and historical traditions from antiquity to modern times.
• Combining scientific research carried out in these areas.
In accordance with these tasks a vast field of research has been allocated including the following subjects:
• Conceptual framework of philosophy and theology: unity and difference.
• The problem of scientific positivism and materialism in philosophy and theology: rational and logical analysis of the project of formation and development of modern scientific knowledge.
• The positivist and materialist critique of philosophy and theology: argumentative strategies and their logical and philosophical analysis.
• ethical and political discourses in philosophy, theology and science: knowledge, ideology and moral principles.
• Cultural and linguistic artifacts of theological, philosophical and scientific knowledge.
• Formation of modern European science in the context of philosophical and theological knowledge: disciplinary division, conceptual structure and filiation of concepts.
• German classical philosophy as a universal project of onto-theo-logical knowledge: its origins and influence on contemporary forms of philosophy, theology and science.
• Problems of patrology: cultural and historical context of the formation at the crossroads of ancient philosophy and science, as well as western and eastern forms of religious practices.
• The problem of rational theology in the western medieval scholasticism.
• The problem of natural religion and natural law in philosophy and theology.
• The philosophical, scientific, moral and legal aspects of contemporary Western and Eastern tradition of theological thought.
Currently, the Center develops its activities in four main directions.
