И этот механизм мог бы успешно действовать, когда бы доверенные от народа лица устранились вовсе от своей личности: когда бы на парламентских скамьях сидели механические исполнители данного им наказа; когда бы министры явились тоже безличными, механическими исполнителями воли большинства; когда бы, притом, представителями народа избираемы были всегда лица, способные уразуметь в точности и исполнять добросовестно данную им и математически точно выраженную программу действий.

Human Being bimonthly in co-operation with Novosibirsk State Economics and Management university ran a distant Round table discussion HUMANITIES: YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW. Scholars, especially philosophers and culturologists, discussed such subjects as the position of humanities in contemporary society, epistemological and societal changes being experienced by humanities and scholar community, the trends, problems and prospects of scholar knowledge and humanities research.

This article is based on a discussion held in Athens in April 2002, in the framework of a research visit, supported by the National Technical University of Athens, among the following participants: Alexander Pavlovits Ogurtsov (APO), Svetlena Sergeevna Neretina (SSN), and Michalis Assimakopoulos (MA) who translated and annotated the Russian text. The later wishes to thank his Russian teachers in philosophy, E.A. Mamchur and language, A.A. Nekrasova The translation was reviewed and emended by E.M. Swiderski, editor of SEET.