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Neoplatonic tendencies in Russian philosophy

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Abstract

The Absolute is a basic and fundamental issue for philosophy as such. I present different concepts of the Absolute (substantialism, energetism, escapism, methodologism). We can say that contemporary European philosophy “orphaned” the neo-Platonic tradition. Thereafter Russian philosophy developed in an intensive and turbulent as well as relatively uniform fashion, in view of the well-established Neo-Platonist context. This makes Russian philosophy not only part of a lasting universally acknowledged tradition; not only has Russian philosophy continued to develop currents of thought abandoned by modern European philosophiers, but it is also heir to a philosophical tradition of particular quality and value in the universal history of thought.

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Notes

  1. This understanding of the Absolute is by no means usurpatory or superficial. It is used by Hegel, specifically in relation to Thales (Hegel 1994, p. 243).

  2. An important inspiration for these classifications is the study by Igor Evlampiev, И. И. Евлампиев (2000), especially vol. 1, pp. 9–11.

  3. Worth recalling here are two fragments from a remarkable book about Hegel by Ivan Il’in: Hegel „appears to imbue all content with a «certain kind of madness»; he speaks about everything, even the most commonplace, in a way that makes it show the observer a new, unusual, as if internally contradictory and hardly comprehensible side: here the extraordinary accompanies the ordinary, simplicity reveals complexity, motionless order is marked by turbulence and chaos, and accessibility by insurmountable difficulty; all common concepts begin to move in surprising ways; thought appears transferred to a different dimension, taken aback and mistrustful of itself and its content”; Hegel, Il’in writes further,”…was one of the greatest intuitionists in philosophy, and as such insisted on contemplative immersion in a subject not only to total self-oblivion, but also to the point of forgetting about having forgotten about oneself. Accounts from such immersions will not be external descriptions anymore, but in a sense the contemplated object itself speaking about itself, for itself and from itself. Given such a concentration on energy, attention, and insight, Hegel knew of no issue that in his eyes would not remain in the most active and direct relation to final issues” (Il’in 2004).

  4. Cf. Т. П. Короткая (1994, pp. 7, 12) (the autor even claims that denial of Kantianism is a basic feature of Russian philosophy). See also: Frank (2001, p. 39) (“Russian philosophy is at constant war with Kantianism and all forms of subjective idealism”).

  5. An alternative development path would be marked by the following “key” personages: Aristotle in the Antiquity, Scholastics in the Middle Ages, Descartes and Kant in the modern era.

  6. Cf. Зеньковский (1999, т. 1, pp. 385–388); Berdaev (1999, p. 117).

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  1. Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, 3, Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, 00-927, Warsaw, Poland

    Janusz Dobieszewski

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Dobieszewski, J. Neoplatonic tendencies in Russian philosophy. Stud East Eur Thought 62, 3–10 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9103-1

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