NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE IN RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE, AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

Alexander Dobrokhotov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Льво́вич Доброхо́тов; born 8 September 1950) is a Russian philosopher, historian of philosophy, historian of culture, and university professor. He specialises in the history of Russian culture, history of philosophy, metaphysics, Russian philosophy, ancient and medieval philosophy, Kant and German Idealism, and philosophy of culture.

From 1967 to 1972, Alexander Dobrokhotov was an undergraduate student in philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University. From 1972 to 1975, he was a graduate student in philosophy at the Department of Western Philosophy History, Faculty of Philosophy, at Moscow State University. In 1978, he defended his PhD dissertation titled 'Parmenides' Teachings on Being’. In 1990, he defended his second dissertation titled 'The Category of Being in Ancient Philosophy of the Classical Period’.

Alexander Dobrokhotov started his academic career as a historian of Ancient Greek Philosophy and as an interpreter of Parmenides' and Heraclitus’ theories of being. His studies resulted in several books, one of which, ‘The Category of Being in Classical West-European Philosophy’ (1986), summarises his main ideas.

From 1988 to 1995, Dobrokhotov was the chair of the Department of Cultural History of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. From 1995 to 2009, Alexander Dobrokhotov was the chair of History and Theory of World Culture of the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University. From 1995 to 2015, Alexander Dobrokhotov taught at the Graduate School of European Cultures (VSHEK) which is an international training and research centre at Russian State University for the Humanities (VSHEK was established in April 2007 and replaced the Institute of European Cultures). From 2009 until today, Alexander Dobrokhotov is also a professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), at the School of Cultural Studies (in the autumn of 2020, merged with the School of Philosophy and named the School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies). He teaches various courses on philosophy, philosophy of culture, metaphysics and theology, history of Russian culture. In 2010, he became a tenured professor at HSE. While still a lecturer at the HSE, for political reasons he is temporarily residing in the UK.  2022 to present - Visiting Senior Research Fellow  in the King’s Russia Institute, within the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy  at King’s College  London.