Moral Paradoxes of the Age of Turbulence

MGIMO University annually hosts an international conference held in the memory of Professor A. F. Shishkin, a distinguished soviet ethicist and the founder of the Department of Philosophy of the university. The latest 29th Shishkin Readings took place in MGIMO University on December 23, 2023, and was devoted to ethical issues in the age of ever-increasing turbulence. M. A. Shishkin and A. V. Shestopal greeted the participants, and V. S. Glagolev gave an opening talk on the requirements a modern person should meet and a moral compass in the turbulent social context. There followed plenary and breakout sessions moderated by senior lecturers of the Department of Philosophy D. S. Gorshenyov and I. A. Chuprova. PhD students, professors, and researchers shared their expertise and participated in keen discussions. Today’s turbulence transforms individual and social lives, massive changes in international affairs put forward new challenges which cannot be addressed without consideration of their ethical dimension. In their reports, speakers focused on negative and positive evaluations, the role of ethics as an academic discipline, moral aspects of digitalization and the rise of AI. Over the years the conference, by giving the floor to aspiring scholars, proved to be a good venue for bridging the gap between generations of academicians. Young researchers had a favorable chance to present and argue their studies before a competent audience coming from various academic fields.