I think I would not err in saying that Dvoretskii's chronicle of our times, The Man from Outside, is stimulating unusual interest on the part of theater companies and audiences. It has been produced on two Moscow stages, something that is quite rare. It is playing in Leningrad, Kiev, Vilnius, Arkhangelsk, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Kuibyshev, Murmansk, Novokuznetsk, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Sverdlovsk, Simferopol, Stavropol, and other cities. Judging by the reviews, the play and its productions are successful everywhere. It is as hard (...) to get a ticket to Moscow's Malaia Bronnaia Theater as to Spartacus at the Bolshoi or Hamlet at the Taganka. (shrink)

The function of rationality in A Theory of Justice (1971), which is of paramount importance for John Rawls’ (1921–2002) project, is often criticised as ambiguous.David Gauthier, for example, claims that Rawls develops principles for recipients who essentially share his intuitions of morality, without managing to prove theirvalidity. In Political Liberalism (1993), Justice as Fairness (2001) and other writings Rawls himself embarks upon the task to throw more light on this issue, making the Kantian distinction between ‘rational’ and ‘reasonable’. I intend (...) to demonstrate that in A Theory of Justice the formulation and the compliance with the principles of justice are based on the interaction between the rationality, represented in the idea of the good, and the sense of justice of individuals. (shrink)

This work analyzes the problem of the development of John Locke’s ideas on toleration, in particular the grounds of separation of church and state. The first part examines Locke’s arguments regarding the prerogatives of the magistrate towards ‘indifferent things’ and the religious sphere. I distinguish between three stages in the development of Locke’s view on toleration: a suspicion toward the plea for it (the Two Tracts); an implicit non-verbalized distinction between church and state, and support for toleration (An Essay on (...) Toleration); and toleration as a political right (A Letter Concerning Toleration, the Two Treatises and the later letters). The second part focuses on the definition of ‘commonwealth’ in A Letter Concerning Toleration. I outline two fundamental sets of interdependent arguments that Locke uses for the separation of church and state. The third part is dedicated to the sphere of the church and the dimensions of the duty of toleration. The relation between Locke’s views on toleration and political practice explains the shift between the three stages, and is explored throughout the paper. (shrink)

Author's ideas on the end of the world and afterlife.

The article examines and extends work bringing together engineering ethics and Science and Technology Studies, which had built upon Diane Vaughan’s analysis of the Challenger shuttle accident as a test case. Reconsidering the use of her term “normalization of deviance,” the article argues for a middle path between moralizing against and excusing away engineering practices contributing to engineering disaster. To explore an illustrative pedagogical case and to suggest avenues for constructive research developing this middle path, it examines the emergence of (...) green chemistry and green engineering. Green chemistry began when Paul Anastas and John Warner developed a set of new rules for chemical synthesis that sought to learn from missed opportunities to avoid environmental damage in the twentieth century, an approach that was soon extended to engineering as well. Examination of tacit assumptions about historical counterfactuals in recent, interdisciplinary discussions of green chemistry illuminate competing views about the field’s prospects. An integrated perspective is sought, addressing how both technical practice within chemistry and engineering and the influence of a wider “social movement” can play a role in remedying environmental problems. (shrink)

Today the same old question arises again and again: why did many of the "work-situation novels" of the postwar period fail to survive their time? In what way were they vulnerable? What was their Achilles heel? In speaking of this, Anastas'ev even attempted to classify the weaknesses of works of that kind: first, standardized conflicts; second, the exceedingly insignificant nature of the work-situation problems themselves. ….