Russian philosophy

According to Nikolay Lossky, the characteristic features of Russian philosophy are: cosmism, sophiology (teachings about Sophia), sobornost, metaphysics, religiosity, intuitionism, positivism, realism (ontologism).

Nikolai Berdyaev also pointed out the striving characteristic of Russian thought "to develop for oneself a totalitarian, holistic world outlook, in which pravda–truth will be combined with pravda–justice".

[3] Professor Nina Dmitrieva notes that "Russian philosophical thought until the turn of the 19th–20th centuries developed mainly in the mainstream of literary criticism and journalism, with a primary focus on topical socio–political and ethical issues.

[4] As Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalia Vorobyova notes in her work "History of Russian Spiritual Culture", modern researchers postulate the absence of an original national Slavic–Russian philosophical system, considering the system of Russian philosophy as a phenomenon of Modern period.

[5] As Academician Dmitry Likhachev writes: "For many centuries Russian philosophy was closely connected with literature and poetry.

Some researchers, like Archpriest Dmitry Leskin, recognized the fact of its existence,[7] others denied, claiming only the presence of philosophical ideas and problems in ancient Russian literature.

Within the framework of the religious worldview, the question of human nature (Svyatoslav's Izbornik,[9] Kirill Turovsky, Nil Sorsky), state power (Joseph Volotsky) and universal values («The Word of Law and Grace» by Metropolitan Hilarion, who is sometimes called "the first ancient Russian philosopher") was resolved.

In addition to historiosophy (ethnogenesis as a punishment for the Tower of Babel), The Tale of Bygone Years also contains elements of religious philosophy: the concepts of property (hypostasis), flesh (matter), vision (form), desire and dream (imagination) are being developed.

Also in the ancient Russian state, translated literature of Byzantine philosophical monuments was widely circulated, the most important of which was the collection of sayings "The Bee" and "Dioptra" by Philip the Hermit.

Among the most famous authors who left philosophically significant works are Vladimir Monomakh, Theodosius Pechersky, Klim Smolyatich, Kirik Novgorodets, Kirill Turovsky and Daniil Zatochnik.

The central question that worried the polemicists was related to the role of the church in the state and the significance of its land holdings and decoration.

The problem of decorating churches and land was not directly related to philosophy, however, it served as an impetus for considering the problems of church possessions in the plane of biblical and patristic literature (in the polemics, Gregory Sinait and Simeon the New Theologian, John Climacus, Isaac the Syrian, John Cassian the Roman, Nil of Sinai, Basil the Great and others are cited) and ultimately led to the question of the meaning of the connection between faith and power, which was resolved on Russian soil in the idea of "charisma" of the ruler.

So Vitaly Dubensky compiled the florilegia "Dioptra, or the Mirror and the Reflection of Human Life in the Next World" in the Univ Monastery.

The reforms of Peter I contributed to the limitation of the power of the church and the penetration of Western philosophy into Russia through the emerging system of higher education.

The most popular Western innovation was deism, whose adherents were such key thinkers of the Russian Enlightenment as Mikhail Lomonosov and Alexander Radishchev.

In practice, the ideas of deism were expressed in anti–clericalism and the substantiation of the subordination of spiritual power to secular ones, for which the learned squad of Peter I advocated.

The philosopher saw the entire material world as controlled by Him, while man in his philosophy acted as a connecting link between God and nature, created by Him, but not perfect.

[15] Well-known philosophers of the early 20th century—the Golden Age of Russian philosophy—include Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Semyon Frank, Nikolay Lossky, Vasily Rozanov, Lev Shestov, and Gustav Shpet, among others.

[17] Following Chaadaev, projects for the construction of the kingdom of God on Earth were preserved, which acquired the features of Sophiology (Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Bulgakov) and Rose of the World (Daniil Andreev).

Through the latter, the traditions of Russian philosophy were revived in Soviet Russia, since Sergey Averintsev and Vladimir Bibikhin received spiritual succession from him.

At the beginning of his journey, Berdyaev adhered to Marxist views, participating in anti–government demonstrations and conducting correspondence with one of the leaders of the German Social Democracy, Karl Kautsky.

Developing in his teaching the theme of creativity and spirituality, Berdyaev pays great attention to the idea of freedom, which reveals the connection between God, the Universe and man.

The Russian people combine cruelty and humanity, individualism and faceless collectivism, the search for God and militant atheism, humility and arrogance, slavery and rebellion.

In history, such features of a national character as obedience to power, martyrdom, sacrifice and a tendency to revelry and anarchy were manifested.

Nevertheless, Berdyaev reminds, one should not forget about the polarization of the nature of the Russian man, capable of compassion and the possibility of bitterness, striving for freedom, but sometimes prone to slavery.

Gumilyov in a number of books – "Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth", "Millennium around the Caspian" and "From Rus to Russia" – using the Eurasian concept and supplementing it with his own developments, forms his concept of ethnogenesis, leading him to a number of conclusions, among which the largest the following are important: firstly, any ethnos is a community of people united by a certain stereotype of behavior; secondly, an ethnos and its stereotype of behavior are formed in specific geographic and climatic conditions and remain stable for a long period of time, comparable to the existence of an ethnos; thirdly, superethnic wholes are formed on the basis of a generalized stereotype of behavior shared by representatives of different ethnic groups of a single super–ethnic group; fourthly, the stereotype of the behavior of a superethnic integrity is a certain way of being that meets certain conditions of existence.

Such philosophers as Aleksey Losev, Sergey Averintsev, Vladimir Bibikhin enjoyed great popularity in the late Soviet period.

After the lifting of ideological prohibitions due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian philosophy found itself in a situation of uncertainty.

[24] It is indicative that the initially semi–underground Moscow methodological circle forms, forges and polishes the concepts demanded by contemporary period, at a time when the conceptual apparatus of the so–called "post–non–classical" (post–modernist) philosophy has already exhausted its capabilities.