Why does a society need public philosophy?

Abstract

The present paper explores the nature of public philosophy and its mediatory role in contemporary society between academic professional philosophy and the ideologies professed by various political movements and parties. So, the importance of political philosophy in today's Russia keeps growing in view of vital goals, such as reaching the national consensus on issues of polity and government system, formulating an ideology that would be acceptable to the society as a whole, and finding an optimal trend of further development.