Topic 17. RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY.

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Topic 17. RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY.

Study questions:

1. Peculiarities.

2. Russian philosophy during the period of Kievan Russia (the XI-XII centuries).

3. Moscow period.

4. Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov

5. Slavophils and occidentalists

6. Philosophy of Russian Cosmism

7. Philosophy of the Soviet era.

1. Peculiarities of Russian philosophy. The Russian philosophy as well as the Russian culture stands separate in the history of the world philosophy due to peculiarities in its development. These special features make the Russian philosophy different from both the Western and Oriental philosophies. Moreover, one can call it original, independent and even phenomenal. The birth and development of the Russian philosophy differs a lot from the Western scenario. In Russia people began to think of philosophy when Christianity was accepted as the principle religious faith at the end of the tenth century. It was the time that the essays of Church fathers were translated to the Church Slavonic language. That is why initially philosophy was subordinated to Church. Later, philosophy was gradually departed from Church. In Russia the process was much milder than in the West. However, the mix of theological and philosophic topics was clearly seen in the development of the Russian philosophy until the 20 th century.

Peculiarities of the Russian philosophy:

· Deep investigation of the human spirit, its revelation.

· The world is divided in two parts that are light and dark. The divine and anti-Christian stand very close to each other with no space between them. In the Western philosophy the world is divided in three parts that are “light”, “dark” and the intermediate Earth world. One should organize the relationship among them.

· In the Russian philosophy human acts acquire the absolute character. It makes the Russian philosophy more energetic and emotional.

· The Russian philosophy is unique by its unity, depth, omnitude and study of rather a specific range of problems, which are sometimes not clearly understood in the West.

· The Russian philosophy is widely spread among simple people.

In the Russian philosophy the emotional stands over the rational, “heart” over “reason”. The existent reality is thought to be personal absolute fate. Man merges with the outer world through his heart, i.e. love. That makes the Russian philosophy specific and more personal.

In the Russian philosophy the truth is connected with moral, religious and esthetic values. Much attention is paid to morality.

The Russian philosophy has a specific way of expressing philosophic thoughts that is art, literary criticism, journalistic genre, etc.

The topics of the Russian philosophy:

· Man

· Cosmism (the cosmos is understood as a single body)

· Morality

· The problem of the Russian historical development. Which way to choose: the East or West? (a deep specific problem of the Russian philosophy)

· Power and state

· Social justice and an ideal society

· The Future.

The principle stages in the development of the Russian philosophy run as follows:

1. The philosophy of the Kieval Russia. It was the period that the ancient Russian philosophy and early Christian Russian philosophy came into existence (the 11-12 th centuries);

2. The philosophy of the period that the Russian centralized state was developing. It acquired the name of Moscow period (the 14-17 centuries);

3. The philosophy of the 18 th century. Petersburg period.

4. The philosophy of the 19 th century.

5. The Russian and Soviet philosophy of the 20 th century.

2. The Russian philosophy of Kieval Russia. (the 11-12 th centuries). One of the earliest philosophic works of the period is considered to be “The Word of the Law and God’s grace” by Illarion, the Kieval metropolitan. It was created between 1037 and 1050 (during the times of Yaroslav the Wise). The first part of the “Word” develops the idea of refusing from the ideology of a nation and taking up the ideology of the world type that glorified the equality of all nations in the grace of Christianity. The second part glorifies Russia. Illarion holds that all nations are equal and the past pagans will soon have the prosperous future. The third part glorifies the Prince Vladimir, his father Svyatoslav and son Yaroslav. (The work of Illarion is one of the best of the Middle Age period not only in the Russian literature but also in the World collection of masterpieces. It is unique due to the patriotic ideas and wide universalism in the Christian meaning of the word. “The Word of the Law and God’s Grace” is a brilliant example of esthetic philosophy.)

Feodosiy Pecherskiy (app. 1036-1074), an abbot of the Kieval and Pecherskiy monastery, belongs to the philosophic type of man of faith. (There are a number of masterpieces kept until our days. These involve two messages to the Prince IzyaslavYaroslavovich, eight lections and a prayer. These works are full of sincere love to people and are excellent examples of epidictic eloquence of the 11 th century.)

They hold appeals to the most internal parts of a human soul and wide humane views. In his messages he pays much attention to the interrelation of man and the nature, the wisdom of the world order. “God is glorified by our deeds”, he says in his essay “The Word of Tolerance and Love”.

Kirill Turovskiy (1130-1182) is considered to be the most brilliant preacher during the time of Kieval Russia. He wrote such preachers as “Preach of a Human Soul and Body”, “Preach of a Blind Man and Lame Man”, etc. He says that the unity of Russia should not be based on lies and crimes. One can never do evil even if he aims at Good. (The aim and means, crime and punishment, confrontation of forces, which form man and society, will soon become the leading topics in the Russian literature and philosophy.) In the “Preach of Wisdom” Kirill Turovskiy connects perception and morality. Only a man of high morals and no pride can become the bearer of the deep true knowledge, only he will be able to teach others.

Vladimir Monomah (1053-1125) is one of the most outstanding men of culture in the 12th century. His book “Lections of Vladimir Monomah” is saturated with humanity, sympathy, aspiration to prevent a war, save people from Evil and remember the weight of sin. “Fear of God” is a simple remind of the necessity to follow good and reject evil in any form. Vladimir reflects upon man, beauty, harmony of the world, in the centre of which stands Lord of Creation – a reasonable man who enjoys all benefits on the Earth. Monomah asks everyone not to offend the poor, not to oppress the weak. He teaches us how to work without laziness and how to lead a war.

3. Moscow period.

The 14-15 th centuries was a period of centralization of Moscow state, the most important political and economic shifts. Meanwhile, one could watch a marvelous rise of national consciousness, concentration of spiritual social forces, and development of high moral personal features. We can single out such pharoses of the Russian culture as Sergey Radonejskiy, Epiphany the Wise, Andrei Rublev. During the period Hesychasm came to Russia. Hesychasm (Greek, quietness, silence) is a type of monastic life in which practitioners seek divine quietness through the contemplation of God in uninterrupted prayer. (Hesychasm was worked out by Makariy Egyptian and Iowan Lestvichik, early Christian hermits of the 5-7 th centuries.) Nil Sorskiy (died in 1508) is a most outstanding thinker of Hesychasm. In his biggest work called “Consuetudinary” he claims that one should start struggling with evil through cleaning up his own consciousness. He tells everyone to analyze consequences and their reasons because good acts can be turned into evil if one does good with no feeling of either time or moderation.

Maxim Greek (1470-1556) is an outstanding thinker of the 16 th century. He got his education in Italy where he got in touch with great representatives of Renaissance. In 1518 he came to Russia. Maxim Greek was invited to this country by the Great Prince Vasiliy the Third. Here he became a writer and philosopher. His creative works were many-sided. He wrote treatises, dialogues, stories and messages. His best works such as “Dialogue of Soul and Intellect”, “Intellect speaks to his Soul” tell us about a high mission of man on the Earth. Man should dedicate himself to spiritual activities. Man’s intellect is autocratic. However, he should learn how to manage his soul and body. Maxim Greek supports Socrates’ idea, which says that only people who know how to manage themselves can manage others. But to do that they should temperate three great sins that are “love for power, lust and greed”.

4. Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov.

Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) is an outstanding Russian philosopher. He bases his philosophy on the idea of unity. He says there are philosophical theories such as empiricism, rationalism, materialism, which can be characterized as one-sided. Meanwhile, the world is all united and internally connected. Solovyov believes that the source for everything that exists is the United Spirit. It embraces all forms of reality and consciousness. The world process should aim at uniting. The Universe should be collected piece by piece. It starts with minerals, moves to plants, afterwards animals come. And at last, we all meet the kingdom of human-beings called Kingdom of God. God is connected to the world through man. This function can be called the greatest mission of man on the Earth. When man manages to make the world and God connected he transforms into God man, while mankind moves to a new higher stage – God humanity.

Solovyov says that one should obtain complete knowledge to understand what unity means. Man should get true epistemological knowledge. The latter should cover all perceptive human abilities that include sensitive experience, rational reason, and religious outlook. The truth itself is called triune (material, formal, absolute) while its bearers are science, philosophy, and religion. The complete knowledge involves synthesis of religion, philosophy and science. Separately they are unable to compose the complete truth.

Theory of Sophia. The world created by God is not static. It constantly develops thanks to the World soul. The World soul or Sophia is an active creating body that bears and realizes in itself the idea of unity. The fragile and divine soul of the world does not only make evolution going in the nature but also keeps people closer to one another and contributes to creating the Kingdom of God on the Earth. The world soul can be perceived in two ways: by scientific perception and religion.
Transformation of humanity through religion. Man is not only united with Absolute he is also a builder and organizer of the Universe. That is why man can only realize himself in the society. Society is an “expanded personality”, while a personality is a “compacted society”. Cooperation of man and society is fulfilled in three stages. 1) A tribal stage of the humanity or a religious stage (in the past), 2) A national and universal stage of the humanity or a political stage (in the present), 2) A spiritual Universe stage or a prophetic period (in the future). During the last stage family, economics and politics will be built on moral principles. Man’s attitude to nature will also become more moral.

Mission of the Russian nation. Vladimir Solovyov is a genuine Russian philosopher. He participated in the social life. Solovyov thought over the Russian philosophy from the point of view of unity. He singled out three principle forces in the human history: the Muslim East, the Western civilization and Slavdom. In the Muslim East uniting forces dominate, while individual freedom is negated. In the Western civilization egoism and atomism predominate in life, science and art. It is only in Slavdom (especially in Russia) that the third divine force operates. It is the only force that can overcome the obstacles of the West and East. It is the Russian people who can implement the truth of God on the Earth. This is a special mission of the Russian people. The monastery, palace and village are our social bases in life which will never get ruined while Russia exists.

5. Slavophils and occidentalists. In the 18-19 th centuries philosophy became a separate direction in the development of the Russian culture. It is during the period the Russian philosophy fell under the influence of the Western philosophic thought. Moreover, the radical innovations of the Russian society took place during Peter the First modernizations in this country. The Russian tradition was treated contemptuously. People had high expectations from the Western contacts. At the same time there appeared cultural communities which reflected an inimitable historical way of development and the true Russian spiritual tendencies. The brightest representatives of these two directions were Slavophils and Occidentalists.

Slavophils (I. Kireevskiy, A Khomyakov, K. Aksakov, Y. Samarin) appeared in the 30-s – 40-s of the 19 th century. Slavophils stressed the distinctive character of the Russian cultural and religious development, tried to prove a special historical mission of the Russian people who had to give new ethical guidelines to the Western civilization. Slavophils’ theory developed the idea of integral spirit and synodical consciousness united by love. Collegiality, they believe, is a metaphysical principle. It allows groups of people, representatives of the Orthodox Church, to perceive the world as it is. Slavophils contradistinguish the inner freedom of man and external necessity. They defend the superiority of man’s freedom based on personal views. They think man’s actions should be specified by internal moral beliefs, not material ones. Man should listen to his conscience and struggle with striving to benefit.

Occidentalists appeared in the Russian culture in the 30-s 40-s of the 19 th century. This direction developed in tough disputes with Slavophils. Occidentalists criticized the patriarchal order of Russia. They tried to prove the necessity to develop orienting by the Western cultural values.

It can be divided in two principle directions that involve the radical democratic direction (Belinskiy V., Gertsen F., Ogarev N.) and the liberal direction (Cavelin K., Botkin V.). The central position was held by Granovskiy T. P. Chaadaev was their first theorist. They believed an educated man should love himself and his culture and respect foreign cultures. He should also have common sense and an ability to act legally and loyally.

6. Philosophy of Russian Cosmism. In the middle of the 19 th century the Russian thinker Nikolai Fedorov (1829-1903) founded a new philosophic direction, which acquired the name of the philosophy of the Russian cosmism. Cosmism is a philosophic direction that studies Cosmos, the world and man as one whole. Cosmism came into existence as an alternative for the mechanistic conception of the world order that says the existent reality is fractured into millions of things. On the surface they are connected to one another. Man has the right to reorganize the stagnant nature. The Russian cosmists were the first who raised the question of man’s place in Cosmos and the structure of cosmic processes. They made a breakthrough in the perception of the world order. The list of philosophers cosmists involves Fedorov N.F., Solovyov V., Bulgakov S.N., Berdyaev N.A., Florenskiy P.A. Such great thinkers as Umov M.A., Kholodniy N.G., Tsiolkovskiy K.E., Vernadskiy V.I., Chijevskiy A.I. contributed to the development of the theory.

The novelty of the Russian cosmism consists in the transition from technocratic values to humane. People should not aim at welfare but perfection of personality and development of culture. Cosmists criticize the technocratic civilization and remark that in such society a thing is considered to be more valuable than man. Man loses his connection with the nature. Spiritual relations among people are ruined. The state becomes militarized. Fedorov as well as Solovyov singles out drawbacks of the Eastern collectivism and the Western individualism. They believe people’s unity is not stable if it is based on external interests alone. An ideal society is a society of united people. Science and technique should be set under a reliable control of man and should develop according to humanistic principles.

In the philosophy of the Russian cosmism man and the world are equal and in need of each other. This is called cosmic consciousness. But you should not take it as nature can not exist without man. During evolution man learnt to create artificial nature and improve a personality. People start taking part in processes of cosmic range. At a certain moment Cosmos recognizes the need to be regulated by man. Creating man Nature (Cosmos) acquires a new marvelous opportunity of conscious evolution that is meaningful improvement and harmonization of the world. Man’s mission, cosmists believe, is to regularize the world order. People should be united not on the political but ecological basis.

The Russian scientist Chijevskiy A.I. collected statistical material from chronicles, ancient and medical books. He composed synchronic tables that covered data of over 1.5 millennia since the middle of the first millennium B.C. till our days. The tables showed periods of solar activity and rhythmic geophysical, biological and social phenomena on the Earth. Chijevskiy A.I. paid much attention to the fact that at the periods of high solar activity the Mongols and Turks lost a lot of cattle. During those years crops were attacked by locusts. Chijevskiy A.I. stated that history is an integral process. History is the result of many factors including cosmic phenomena. One of them is solar activity. However, the influence of cosmic phenomena is not direct. The sun never makes people do anything definite. It only initiates their activity and does not define in what field it will be applied. Chijevskiy A.I. could apply his knowledge about cosmic phenomena on practice. Thanks to it he could solve various practical issues. He could define the exact time of glacier melting, forecast harvest, warn about the coming epidemics, and take preventive measures against cardiovascular diseases and neuropsychic disorders.

The Russian cosmists believe that everything that exists become more and more complicated and perfect through evolution. Life and consciousness are good results of the process. The Russian philosopher Umov M.A. invented the anti-entropic sense of life and culture. He proved that during evolution all beings adjust to the changing world. While living beings develop natural conditions remain the same and stop suiting their needs. That makes animals adjust the outer world to their needs: birds make nests; beavers build ponds and home units.
Another specific feature of the philosophy of cosmists is the idea of “noosphere” (Greek “Nous” – reason, “sphera” – sphere). The term “noosphere” is suggested by the French philosopher Lerua E. Vernadskiy V. I. works out the corresponding theory. The main idea of the theory runs as follows: during the process of evolution man’s reformatory activities influence nature more than in the past. So, noosphere comes into existence, the sphere of reason, man’s life, his material and spiritual culture. Noosphere always expands and covers new fields including biosphere. Man starts influencing nature so much that people need, Vernadskiy says, to coordinate their actions toward it.

It is remarkable that cosmic tendencies are reflected in the works of such outstanding Russian writers as Odoevskiy V.F., Khlebnikov V.V., the Russian composers Chaikovskiy P.I., Skryabin A.N., Rakhmaninov S.V., the artists Nesterov M.V., Rerikh N.K. The panhuman importance of cosmism is very noticeable today when people are in search of new orients which will become a stable basis for successful progress of the society. Philosophers all over the world are busy with working out a new scenario of the development of the objective reality. They reconsider the former beliefs that the economic rise and high level of consumption are important by themselves. Now they develop the idea of natural variety and wholeness of nature. Thinkers support the views about the development of individual, social and cultural man’s features. We need to make unordinary decisions to move society out of crisis. Various cultures should communicate for good. The Russian cosmists may help a lot to develop the above ideas.

7. Philosophy of the Soviet Era. The destiny of the Soviet philosophy is full of contradictions and tragedies. Any attempt to analyze the Soviet philosophy is destined to fail because it will inevitably simplify this complicated process. There are still many details to be studied, much information to be taken from archives and personal collections to rethink the general facts and escape prejudices.

Today’s attitude to the philosophy of the Soviet era is rather ambiguous. Some philosophers place the Soviet philosophy on the top of the world philosophic development. Others believe that the Soviet philosophy is crushed and the achievements of the last decade do not deserve attention.
There are several stages in the development of the Soviet philosophy:

1. Primary (1920-1930s)

2. Stalinist (1930-1950s)

3. Mature (1960-1990s)

4. Post-Soviet (since 1991)

During the primary stage the atmosphere in this country could be described as pluralistic though it was the time of implementing a single state ideology. During those years the Soviet philosophers systematized Marxist philosophy, thought over natural dialectics, issues of materialistic dialectics and theory of perception. Later development of philosophy became dependant on the political needs. Marxist Leninist philosophy was gradually replaced by Marxist Leninist Stalinist one and after all it came to Leninist Stalinist philosophy. Philosophy was used as an ideological press to control spiritual life of the society. However, during those hard years many outstanding Russian philosophers managed to publish their works. There appeared three volumes of “History of Philosophy”. Scientists began to study the history of the Russian philosophy and the philosophy of other USSR peoples. Students again began to study Logics at Universities.
1960-1990s were prosperous for philosophic researches. This country was undergoing such processes as liberalization and pluralization of the Soviet society. Psychology, Ethics and Esthetics were divided from Philosophy. There appeared such sciences as Sociology, Axiology and Philosophy of Science. The results of the Russian philosophers were highly praised all over the world (Kedrov B.M., etc). Philosophers worked over historical philosophic issues (Oyzerman T.I., Kaminskiy Z.A., Bogomolov A.S., etc.). The outstanding thinkers of the period were Mamardashvilli, Losev, Asmus, Ilyenkov, Davidov.

The disintegration of the Russian state gave birth to a deep ideological crisis. Unshakable world view statements became strongly criticized. We need serious independent researches which would rethink and reconstruct the true fate of the Soviet philosophy.

Questions for self-control:

1. When did the first ideas about philosophy appear in Russia?

2. How did the separation of philosophy from the church take place in Russia?

3. List the main features of Russian philosophy?

4. What is the relationship between the emotional and the rational characteristic of n philosophy?

5. What is the problem of truth in Russian philosophy?

6. In what form is philosophical thought expressed in Russian philosophy?

7. List the problems and topics characteristic of Russian philosophy.

8. List the main stages of the development of Russian philosophy.

9. Tell us about the philosophy of Metropolitan Hilarion and his work «The Word of Law and Grace»

10. Tell us about the philosophy of Theodosius Pechersky, what did he say about God in his essay «The Word of Patience and Love»?

11. Tell us about the philosophy of Cyril Turovsky. What did he talk about in his works?

12. Tell us about the philosophy of Vladimir Monomakh. What did he teach in his book «The Instructions of Vladimir Monomakh»?

13. Give a description of the Moscow period in Russian philosophy.

14. What is Hesychasm? Who was its founder and how should one fight the evil from his point of view?

15. Tell us about the philosophy of Maxim the Greek. What did he talk about in his works?

16. Who is Vladimir Solovyov and what did he say about the existing philosophies?

17. What, according to Solovyov, is the world process and how is the unification of the world and God?

18. How, from the point of view of Solovyov, it is possible to achieve unity means and what is truth?

19. Tell us about "Sofia" V. Solovyov.

20. What is the meaning of the idea of Solovyov on the transformation of mankind on a religious basis?

21. What did Solovyov say about the mission of the Russian people?

22. Tell us about the reasons for the appearance in Russian philosophy of two directions: Slavophilism and Westernism.

23. Who are the Slavophiles? List the key representatives and tell about the essence of their philosophy.

24. Who are the Westerners? List the key representatives and tell about the essence of their philosophy.

25. What is the «philosophy of Russian cosmism»? Who is its founder and main representatives. What is cosmism?

26. What is the novelty of Russian cosmism?

27. Tell us about the interaction of man and the world in the Russian cosmism. What is the aim of man in terms of this philosophy?

28. What did the Russian scientist A.I . Chijevskiy? What did he say about solar activity and its effect on people?

29. What is the meaning of the anti-entropic essence of the life and culture of M. A. Umov?

30. Tell us about the theory of the noosphere in. I. Vernadsky. What is the problem of human space responsibility?

31. What is the value of the ideas of Russian cosmists for modern society?

32. List the main stages of the development of Soviet philosophy.

33. What happened at the initial stage of the development of Soviet philosophy?

34. Tell us about the Soviet philosophy of the period from the 1960s to the 1990s. List the main representatives of this period.

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