Alexander N. Chumakov


Alexander N. Chumakov is a Russian philosopher, theoretician of science, scientific community organizer, and specialist in the fields of philosophy and the theory of globalistics.

Biography

Alexander N. Chumakov was born in 1950 to a fisherman's family of Severnoe village, Caspian District, Astrakhan region, USSR. In 1972, he graduated from an industrial, technical college in the city of Khadyzhensk in Krasnodar Krai. Between 1972 and 1975, he worked as a bore-hole drilling master in the nuclear testing areas in Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya. In 1975, he was accepted into the preparatory division of the Department of Philosophy of Moscow State University, from which he graduated cum laude in 1981. He also completed his postgraduate studies at MSU, receiving his Candidate of Sciences in 1984 and his Doctor of Sciences in 1991. Chumakov's doctoral dissertation was on the topic of "Social and Philosophical Aspects of Global Problems." Since 1990, Chumakov has been the leading research fellow and head of the group "Global Studies" at the Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. He became a full professor in 1993, and since 2008, has worked as a professor of the Department of Global Processes at MSU. He currently teaches several specialized courses at the university, including a course entitled "Globalistics". Since 2009, Chumakov has also worked as the chair of the Department of Philosophy at the Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

Scientific achievements

There are four main schools philosophical thought in post-Soviet Russia, namely, Marxism, postmodernism, liberal Orthodoxy, and globalism. Alexander Chumakov is the leading Russian spokesman for globalism, which he writes "represents a secular stream of thought that aims to formulate a worldview transcending the division between Russia and the West by providing a new philosophical basis for their integration and ultimate unity." A book review of his book, Philosophy of Globalization, writes that Chumakov "devoted his career in philosophy to the study of globalization and authored more than 550 scientific works and seven scholarly books that have been published in Russian, English, German, French, Chinese, Polish and Czech."
In his writings, Chumakov "formulated the fundamental principles, which constitute the philosophical foundation of globalistics as a special field of philosophical knowledge." His analysis of globalization reveals that it "represents an objective historical process and does not depend on the positive intentions of separate countries or nations." It centers on the conceptual triad of culture, civilization, and globalization, which in Chumakov's works "are analyzed as fundamental characteristics of various cultural civilizational systems, characteristics that are closely connected with each other." Chumakov argues that real and productive dialogue among different nations is possible because the universal character of civilization serves as the unifying factor for humanity, "while cultural diversity is the basis of differentiation of various countries and nations."

Scientific organizing activity

Chumakov has devoted a great deal of time to administrative and organizational activities in the fields of philosophy, culture, and education. Since 1991 he has served as the first vice-president of the Russian Philosophical Society. He has also been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Professors of Philosophy since 2012, as well as an acting member of the Presidium of Russian Ecological Academy since 2013.
In 2003, Chumakov organized a philosophical action that had great cultural significance in Russia and was widely publicized by the Russian media. During the 1920s the Soviet government expelled hundreds of prominent Russian intellectuals from the newly created Soviet Union, including many philosophers. Most of them were transported by boat to Germany and Turkey. In Russian historiography, this event is known as the "philosophers' ships." Eighty years following the event, Chumakov organized a symbolic return of the "philosophers' ships" back to the motherland, which became open to freedom of expression and independent investigation of truth. To this end, he rented a ship, the Maria Ermolova, which sailed on route from Novorossiysk to Istanbul and back to Novorossiysk with hundreds of Russian philosophers on board to take part in the XXI World Congress of Philosophy in Istanbul in 2003.
Chumakov participated in the last six World Congresses of Philosophy, in Brighton in 1988, in Moscow in 1993, in Boston in 1998, in Istanbul in 2003, in Seoul in 2008, and in Athens in 2013. Throughout the events, he delivered scholarly presentations, including plenary addresses, and also served as chair of various roundtables, panels, and sections. Chumakov was also one of the initiators and main organizers of the Russian philosophical congresses that have taken place every three years, starting in 1997 and up to the latest in 2015, which took place in Ufa.

Honors and awards

Chumakov was named laureate in the 2003 Russian publishers' "Book of the Year" contest in the nomination category of "Encyclopedist". He was awarded for the publication of his international encyclopedia, Global Studies, which had been published in Russian and English languages.
In 2004, he was also named laureate of the international award named after N. K. Ba'bakov, bestowed by the "for great accomplishments in resolving the problems of stable development of the power engineering and society."
In 2006, Chumakov received a diploma for co-authoring the fourth edition of the textbook "Philosophy", one of the "300 best textbooks for higher education in honor of the 300th anniversary of Saint-Petersburg."
In 2015, Chumakov became Doctor Emeritus of the Bashkir State University. In 2015 Chumakov also became a recipient of the International Gusi Peace Prize.

Main publications

Books

Monographs

Russian
Russian
English

English