Issue #34

Abstract: Van Ess, Josef. Theology and Society in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries of the Hijra. Volume I. History of Religious Thought in Early Islam / transl. from German by P. Kazaku; ed. by I.R. Nasyrov. — Moscow: Sadra, 2021. — 632 p. The work of the famous German Islamic scholar Josef van Ess, the most fundamental work on the intellectual history of early medieval Muslim society, is published in Russian for the first time. The first volume is devoted to the formation of religious thought in Islam, the explanation of images and concepts (prophet, Quran, Shiites, Qadarites, Murjiites, Sufis, etc.).
Friedman M. Philosophy at a Crossroads: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger / transl. from English by V.V. Tselishchev. — Moscow: Canon+ ROOI “Rehabilitation”, 2021. — 352 p. Michael Friedman examines the confrontation of three major figures of the philosophical world in 1929 in Davos (Switzerland) and how their views developed, giving rise to analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. The book explains how the common neo-Kantian background was replaced by deep philosophical and political disagreements, leading to the emergence of Heidegger’s existential analytics and Carnap’s logical positivism.
Hacking I. Why is there a Philosophy of Mathematics at all? / transl. from English by V.V. Tselishchev. Series: Library of Analytical Philosophy. — Moscow: Canon+ ROOI “Rehabilitation”, 2020. — 400 p. Ian Hacking’s book returns to the basics: proof and the relationship of mathematics to nature. The author asks questions about what makes mathematics mathematics, where proof came from, how the distinction between pure and applied mathematics arose. It is shown that the phenomenon of proof lives and develops in accordance with the practices of its time, country and language.
Campbell J. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Transl. from English by O. Chekchurina. — St. Petersburg: Piter, 2021. — 544 p. A book by American anthropologist Joseph Campbell on mythology and the monomyth. The author analyzes the universal path of the hero in myths of different cultures, linking it with psychoanalysis and Eastern wisdom. Campbell argues that myth teaches a person to accept the dark aspects of existence (death, suffering) as part of the fullness of being. The review also discusses parallels with the works of V. Propp, A.F. Losev, Fr. Nietzsche and O. Spengler, as well as the influence of the book on the creators of “Star Wars”.