Philosophy as element of Russian scientific system: historical aspects of problem

The article offers a rational reconstruction of the history of the development of Russian philosophy as a scientific discipline. The relevance of this reconstruction is due to the need for a new self-determination of philosophy in the structure of scientific knowledge. This need is caused, on the one hand, by the world-wide transformations of science as a cognitive, social and cultural phenomenon, on the other hand, by the fact that Russian science is undergoing a period of reforms that pose urgent questions for Russian philosophy to fix its features, functions and tasks as a scientific discipline in new conditions. The article shows that philosophy appears in Russia as part of an integral system of rational knowledge, or rather as part of a kind of socio-cultural project of such system. This system inherits the Ch. Wolff’ project. It is characterized by the absence not only of the modern differentiation of sciences, but also of the later opposition between philosophy and science. In a short time by historical standards, the emancipation of natural science disciplines begins, seeking to privatize the status of scientific knowledge. However, since the beginning of the XIX century, it is not self-determination in opposition of science acquiring its modern face, but the socio-political context that determines the fate of Russian philosophy, setting various forms of its institutionalization. This dependence persists in the twentieth century, when the role in the Soviet socialist project returns philosophy to the central place in the structure of scientific knowledge, as it was in the Wolff’ system, while discrediting it as a scientific activity. It is proved that since the end of the 1950s, Russian philosophy has begun to partially rebuild itself as a scientific discipline, creating prerequisites for the retention of academic and university philosophy after the collapse of soviet ideology.