Gaidar Institute Press invites to an open discussion of Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a prominent British philosopher, mathematician and social activist, one of the founders of 20th century analytic philosophy, creator (with Whitehead) of the seminal work «Principia Mathematica».

Since the outbreak of World War I, Russell has been active in public life, always remaining a fearless fighter for free speech and a pacifist, for which he was even imprisoned in Britain. In the 1930s, when Europe became a battleground for fascist and communist ideologies, and the world was again on the brink of war, Russell decided to found a new science of society to make sense of the traumatic events of the time and to some extent predict the future. Thus came «Power» (1938), a book that Russell considered one of the most important of his long career. In it, he essentially proposes his own version of sociological science, independent of the continental projects of the time, and for it he finds it necessary to find a basic concept - like the concept of «energy» in physics.

Power, in its various versions, becomes for Russell just such a concept, allowing him to establish, he thought, a new science. In opposing the totalitarian quest for domination, Russell, a lifelong classical liberal, seeks to show that political enlightenment, human understanding, and reason can preserve and restore peace.

The discussants are:

• Dmitry Kralechkin,candidate of philosophical sciences, translator of the book.
• Irina Dudenkova,candidate of philosophical sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of MSSES.
• Vladislav Kalinin, MA in sociology, Head of the Public Governance and Social Change Program MSSES.