“Rationality in Belarusian thinking”

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A scientific magazine “Rationality in Belarusian thinking” was published in Belastok on the basis of the international scientific publication. The publication is dedicated entirely to the issue of Belarusian philosophical thought. Eurobelarus.info interviewed the Chief Editor of the magazine Andrey Shuman regarding the goals, potential and perspectives of science periodicals.

“What is so unique about this scientific magazine?”

“This is the first English language scientific publication, an issue of this magazine is of an international level and is dedicated to the issues of the Belarusian Philosophy. The unique nature of this specific issue is that in our country there are no scientific magazines of an international level. In general, Belarusian science is just as disorganized as let’s say public politics. Belarusian science exists in its own locked in and hermetic environment, it is broken into a certain number of topical communities… I may talk about the problem of scientific communications here, as well as scientific discourse in Belarus. So far communications are constructed around certain connections, acquaintances, and so forth, our communications lack publicity. The image of the Belarusian science abroad is correspondent de facto it is not formed at all. What I mean is that it is hard to say that European scientists are widely aware of the Belarusian science. This means in fact that there is a significant and obvious white spot in the image of our country. It seems that there are enough of negative features in this image: authoritarian regime, non-democratic rule. However scientific sphere could become one of the positive features of the image of Belarus in the rest of the world.

The publication is dedicated to Belarusian Philosophy and to particular features of its philosophical tradition. At the same time a number of articles are dedicated to the perspectives for development of these traditions and to researches, i.e. whether it is feasible to transform this philosophical tradition and what its drawbacks and benefits are…

This is an experiment, a pilot project that has no analogies. The project in a cover of international magazine, dedicated uniquely to one subject, to Belarusian Philosophy”.

“How would you describe the main message of the magazine?”

“On one hand, this publication is an attempt to re-touche the white spot, the gap in the awareness of our foreign colleagues regarding the Belarusian philosophical tradition. On the other hand, it is an attempt to encourage communication between the Belarusian scientists among themselves, given the lack of such high standards, in particular, among philosophers, humanitarians, has no perspectives in elaboration of certain serious substantial projects, has not perspectives of content. We hope this project would signify the beginning of the collecting of experience which would allow us to implement serious follow-up bilingual projects at the international level in Belarus”.

“Is English the only language for this publication?”

“The issue is that the magazine of the international level in the West has to meet certain criteria. As a rule, it should be published in English, with only few exceptions, some articles may be published in French, German, and other European languages. However as a rule they are all issued in English only and the editorial staff has to include scientists that are well-known authorities at the international level; also authors from various countries should be published there. Our editorial staff includes Polish scientists, in particular, Jan Walinski, a Professor of the Jagelonski University.

There are no magazines of the international level in our country that would comply with the criteria listed above. We still have not formed a representation, in another words, there are no Belarusian scientific schools, movements. Therefore the branding of the Belarusian science remains disorderly, impulsive and disorganized.”

One may familiarize oneself with the publication here, here,all articles are published with a free access. With regard to the hard copy of the printed issues within the project, they are disseminated among the interested readers, i.e. among European scientists and other interested parties.