National Council for Eurasian and East European Research |
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National Council for Eurasian and East European Research |
About Programs Projects Papers Partners Links Subscribe Who We Are |
ASE Director:
Maxim Khomyakov
Doctor of Philosophic Science, Academician, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
Academic Director:
Boris Yemelyanov
Doctor of Philosophic Science, Academician, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and Russian Academy of Humanities
Address:
51, Pr. Lenina,
Yekaterinburg, 620083, RUSSIA
Web: www.ural.iriss.ru, e-mail: iunfo@ural.iriss.ru
Ural State University: Russian English
The issue of tolerance in modern civilization may seem well-studied or even resolved, but that is only at first glance. In fact, this is not true of intellectual thought in Russia and elsewhere. Ever since late 1960's, when the famous book by Harold Marcuse, Critique of Pure Tolerance, was issued, there have been incessant discussions about this issue in Western literature.
However, at the theoretic level it remains unsolved and seems to have much to do with the interplay of a few key concepts: Globalization, Multi-culturalism, and Tolerance. To be exact, the question is how the value of tolerance is changing in a new, multi-cultural society created by globalization (if it retains any value at all). This is an important question for the Western world, but it is equally important for Russia with its traditional multiplicity of cultures.
All those phenomena prove that tolerance is not just one of the traditional (and generally resolved) problems of Western intellectual thought and the Western world generally, but rather a new, global problem.
This treatment of the tolerance problem underlies academic studies of the Ural CASE. Over the eighteen months of its operation the CASE brought together scholars in different areas of social science to work on this problem, including philosophers, foreign affairs experts, journalists, religion experts, culturologists, philologists, psychologists, gender relations students, educators, etc. Sociologists are joining the CASE's research team in 2003. It is thus safe to say that the Ural CASE has created a truly multidisciplinary project. While being an important academic achievement, this result also indicates the significance and profundity of the problems tackled by the Center. In fact, as of now there are not many successful multidisciplinary projects.
As was pointed out before, tolerance is a general problem of the contemporary civilization, so the conceptual treatment of tolerance plays a major role in the project. This is why philosophical study of tolerance received major attention at the beginning of the implementation stage.
Within the international relations component the CASE formulates research objectives without falling into illusions: the humankind has entered the 21st century under the conditions of absolute prevalence of force over tolerance.
However, despite this rather pessimistic view, one must admit that international relations in the modern world are much more complicated than may sometimes appear. Studies of this particular aspect proceed from the firm conviction: honest attempts to comprehend this world in its complexity, while at the same time avoiding incompetent or simplified judgements, will lay some initial foundation for tolerance.
