Introduction to Dialectics

Faculty:
Fall 2025: September 1, 2025 – December 19, 2025
Schedule: Fri 20:00 – 23:00 CET | 2:00 – 5:00 PM EDT
Subject: PHIL
Level: 300
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS
Max Enrollment: 22
Language of Instruction: Russian
Prerequisites: No
This course is devoted to the study of dialectics as a philosophical methodology that allows studying historical and social reality through the lens of logic. Common sense does a good job of defining phenomena and categorizing their qualities and quantities, but it is much less capable of grasping their fundamental, often revolutionary, transformations, such as the precipitous turns from liberalism to fascism, from fear to sadism, and from peace to war. Even if common sense notices such transformations, it encounters yet another barrier: one must perceive that the new phenomenon does not replace the old one but contains it within itself as an unconscious layer.
We will address dialectics as a theory of reflection, aiming to see how by reflecting themselves, ideas pass into life. Although one often thinks that dialectics was invented by Hegel, in fact it had existed earlier as one of the philosophical methodologies. We will be reading works by Plato, Aristotle, Schelling, Hegel, Marx, Kojève, Vygotsky, Adorno, Marcuse, Ilyenkov, Lacan, and Žižek, along with the contemporary scholarship which applies dialectics to social analysis.
Guidelines for the Statement of Purpose:
Craft a reflective statement of purpose explaining your interest in the Smolny Beyond Borders online course. Your statement’s clarity and substance will significantly influence our selection. Convey your motivations and aspirations for this course succinctly but thoroughly. Kindly write your statement in the course’s Language of Instruction.