We will publish texts in German and English here.
Our writing focuses on topics and interpretations neglected by the mainstream media and academic research. We aim to provide a deeper insight into the nature of social and political processes, such as social radicalization, the disappearance of the middle class, the worldwide impact of the war in Ukraine, the social consequences of developing the new generation of AI, etc. In addition to standard analytical essays, we publish intellectual portraits of important but less-known contemporary thinkers, selected book reviews, and guest contributions. Some of the texts published here could almost be considered ‘journalistic’, and some may resemble journal articles; we do not dogmatically confine ourselves to any particular genre (why set up a Substack if you stick to what you did before in tightly preconfigured settings?).
For the sake of transparency: we are neither members of any political parties in Germany or Russia nor do we participate in political movements. This is important because we certainly do not claim or provide political neutrality..
Sebastian Edinger has obtained his PhD in philosophy at the University of Potsdam. He has received two fellowships from the German Research Foundation (DFG) while working on his dissertation and as a postdoctoral researcher. His main academic interests, which are hardly representative of his range of intellectual interests, are philosophical anthropology and contemporary social and political philosophy, the intellectual history of Europe, legal philosophy, and the philosophy of psychology. As the blog’s co-author, he will also write on some of his other fields of interest, mainly geopolitics, demographics, intelligence research, artificial intelligence, academic life, current politics, and current non-academic political writers (some may say, the ongoing culture wars).
Note for German readers - Für deutschsprachige Leser: Meine deutschsprachigen Texte werden ausschließlich in der traditionellen Rechtschreibung erscheinen.
Alexey Zhavoronkov holds PhDs in Classical Philology (Lomonosov Moscow State University) and Philosophy (Humboldt University Berlin). He is a former Senior Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a DFG fellow at the Goethe University Frankfurt. His key interests are Ancient Greek philosophy, history of German philosophy, political philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of science, legal philosophy, and topics related to Russia. As the blog’s co-author, he will primarily write on the ongoing transformations of Russia’s politics, cultural and academic life caused by the country’s growing isolation after the invasion of Ukraine. He will also cover some broader topics, such as social radicalisation, crisis of the public sphere, political apathy, forms of pseudo-conservatism, and concepts of exception and exceptionalism in various sciences.