Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Prolegomena zur Historiosophie" verfügbar.

I attempt to answer thequestion about the place of Eurasianism in theRussian intellectual tradition. I reconstructits historiosophical assumptions as well thepolitical ideology following from them. I sharethe opinion of certain historians thatEurasianism is interesting for a variety ofreasons, but I disagree with those who see init nothing more than a synthesis of standardideas often found in the history of Russianthought. Eurasianism''s originality includes itsacknowledgment of the positive contribution ofthe Mongols to the history of the Russianstate, the radicalism of its critique (...) of theWest, the innovativeness of its theory ofrevolution, as well as the absence, unusual forRussian thinkers of the period, of aneschatological sensitivity. (shrink)

In den »Prolegomena«, von Moses Heß 1841 als der zukunftsträchtige Durchbruch zu einer neuen Epoche des Denkens erkannt und aufgenommen, unternahm der polnische Kosmopolit und Michelet-Schüler Cieszkowski bereits vor Marx den Versuch einer kritischen Aufhebung der Hegelschen Geschichtsphilosophie in die »Philosophische Tat«. Cieszkowskis Forderung, den Standpunkt der bloßen, von Hegel auf ihren Höhepunkt getriebenen begreifenden Reflexion auf die bisherige Geschichte zu verlassen und an die »wirkliche Realisierung der erkannten Wahrheit«, d.h. an die tätige und vernunftgeleitete Gestaltung der »Zukunft« zu gehen, (...) unterscheidet sich allerdings von der Marx' schen Forderung nach der revolutionären Veränderung der Welt. Rüdiger Bubner arbeitet diesen Unterschied in seiner Einleitung systematisch heraus. Jan Garewicz erläutert in seinem Nachwort im Rekurs auf das Gesamtwerk, weshalb Cieszkowski den vom ihm geforderten Umschlag der Theorie in die Praxis nicht als einen Schritt der Abkehr von der Philosophie, sondern als deren Vollendung begriff. (shrink)

This intellectual history study locates the philosophy of history of Pierre-Simon Ballanche (1776-1847) within the intellectual, religious, and social life of ...

The second French revolution of 1830 reconfirmed--at least in the hearts of Europe's liberal intellectuals--the final advent of the long-awaited political and cultural millennium. The first revolution, which Napoleon had perverted, would now be restored by the mass of people now first and fully conscious of their rights. Along with "Young Germany," the "Young Hegelians" expectantly searched out the first signals of this irresistible new tide of freedom, and among them, August von Cieszkowski was the first to decode the millennial (...) doctrine concealed in Hegel's philosophy. (shrink)

As you know, the foundations of modern historiography of religion were laid by Hegel. "Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion," which he read at the University of Berlin, represent not only a unique system of philosophy of religion, but, equally important, is also an example of a profound historiosophical study of the religious phenomenon. However, unfortunately, this part of the Hegelian heritage remains largely unexplored in the national philosophic and religious studies literature.

The paper discusses the perception of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s work by Yuly Aykhenvald (1872–1928), a famous literary critic of the first quarter of the twentieth century. It shows that Aykhenvald’s attitude toward Dostoevsky had undergone a certain evolution from a rejection via demands to “overcome” him to his recognition as one of the “spiritual leaders” of the thinking Russia alongside Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy. Yet Aykhenvald still had some controversy with Dostoevsky, above all over philosophy of history. The ques­tion of Russia’s (...) destiny and its relation to the West is addressed by Aykhenvald following the same algorithm that is used in the article by Thomas G. Masaryk (to which Aykhen­vald was reacting), namely through the prism of and in dispute with Dostoevsky. The pa­per proves that Aykhenvald focuses not on interpreting or analyzing Masaryk’s ideas, but on refuting the views of the Eurasianists and that Eurasian ideas are the very philosophi­cal context that serves as a background for his argument with Dostoevsky. In refuting Dostoevsky’s views on Europe and justifying his own historiosophic view of the entire world as a unified Europe, Aykhenvald eventually comes to the paradox that Dostoevsky, being the “denier of Europe”, is the “intercultural cross-link” that ties Europe and Russia even more closely together. In this way, Dostoevsky’s work turns out to be a starting point for Aykhenvald’s own historiosophic framework, which brings him closer to both Russian interpreters of the Silver Age (Vikentii V. Veresaev) and the European philosoph­ical and political tradition (Thomas G. Masaryk). (shrink)

August Ciszkowski was a philosopher, an author of economic treatises, a man dedicated to social activities, and a politician. His first book in philosophy Prolegomena zur Historiosophie came out in Berlin 1838. The author intended it to be a venture to overstep the Hegelian philosophy. But at the same time it represents the author’s own system – “the philosophy of action”. The book won a wide response in Poland and ha a notable impact on philosophic debates in Germany and Russia. (...) Not this book though, but Our Father should be considered the work of Cieszkowski’s life. (shrink)

This article addresses the writing of the history of Russian philosophy from the first of such works—Archimandrite Gavriil’s Russian Philosophy [ Russkaja filosofija , 1840]—to philosophical histories/textbooks in the twenty-first century. In the majority of these histories, both past and present, we find a relentless insistence on the delineation of “characterizing traits” of Russian philosophy and appeals to “historiosophy,” where historiosophy is employed as being distinct from the historiographical method. In the 1990s and 2000s, the genre of the (...) history of Russian philosophy has grown increasingly conservative with regards to content, with histories from this period demonstrating an almost exclusive Orthodox focus. This conservatism, in turn, has contributed to widespread contention in recent years over the status of these philosophical textbooks—disagreements that often lead to either (1) further appeals to “historiosophical” methods; or (2) denials of the domestic philosophical tradition altogether, where the response to the query “Is there philosophy in Russia?” is emphatically negative. This article argues that the contemporary disputes over the development and preservation of the Russian philosophical canon are in many ways part of a larger debate over the roles of Orthodoxy and the history of philosophy in post-Soviet philosophical thought. (shrink)

On trouve reunies dans ce volume les communications faites au Colloque international de Nancy, les 15-16 octobre 2010, portant sur La philosophie de l'histoire des XIXe et XXe siecles. Le colloque organise par le Centre de Recherche sur les Cultures Litteraires Europeennes (CERCLE) a eu vocation a rapprocher les historiosophies polonaises et russes dans le contexte de la pensee philosophique europeenne en commencant par le slavophilisme et l'occidentalisme, en passant par les theories de progres et les conceptions eschatologiques, et en (...) finissant par les courants dissidents du XXe siecle opposes a l'ideologie communiste dominante. Il s'agissait d'une part d'etudier les ressemblances et les differences entre la reflexion metahistorique des deux peuples qui ont evolue dans les circonstances historiques parfois tres differentes, mais dont les histoires sont etroitement liees. D'autre part, tout en essayant de cerner les relations entre les philosophies de l'histoire et la realite politique, sociale et culturelle de l'epoque, on cherchait a elucider la facon dont les Polonais et les Russes se definissent a la fois les uns par rapport aux autres, par rapport a l'Occident et au monde. Une attention particuliere a cette derniere question peut nous permettre de repenser la pertinence des historiosophies polonaise et russe dans le monde contemporain, ainsi que leur apport a la pensee universelle. (shrink)

The history of the phrase absolute music has been studied by many theorists of music and music historians, while historians of philosophy proved to be rather reluctant to such syncretic concept. However, absolute music is exactly the case of non-philosophical appropriation of a philosophical category, which fits theoretical framework of the studies in intellectual history. Initial exploration on the synthesis of history of philosophy and musicology and music history has shown that the conceptual field of intellectual history enables the transition (...) from abstract ideas to concrete social history of thought. It is proved that "absolute music" is not an authentic concept of music culture of the nineteenth century, but rather a good invention of new musical hermeneutics, which defined a period in the development of music and paradigm of concepts that characterized autonomy of musical form. The subject of historical and philosophical studies of the phrase "absolute music" lies in transformation of a philosophical term into a unit of aesthetic discourse, and later its reincarnation in the concept of musical historiosophy. Both philosophical and musicological approaches to the history of absolute music are based on the assumption that only theoretically relevant assertions and judgments appeal to the hermeneutic reconstruction and generalization, whereas political and social references of the discourse of absolute music can be left aside. So futher research shall focus on possibilities of how to reach the concrete social background of that form of thinking which employs the idiom absolute music. (shrink)

The historiography of religion is the branch of religious studies, which is on the verge of the history and philosophy of religion. With regard to these latter, it has common and special features. If history studies the origin and development of religion in its states and forms, if the philosophy of religion is intended to give a theoretical understanding of the essence and meaning of religion as such, then the historiosophy of religion is a doctrine of the historical nature (...) of the phenomenon of religiosity taken in integrity with its essence. In this sense, the historiosophy of religion can be called the phenomenology of religious studies. (shrink)

The paper examines the role of poetry in decoding of archetypes of the collective unconscious, aiming to study the purpose of poetry in development of philosophy of national idea of peoples appearing on the current historical arena. The author draws a conclusion that firstly, poets are no myth-makers. They merely convey the meaning of historical imperatives to people through a myth. That is why the myth contents are of invariant nature. The myths which came from Poet's sacral pen are truly (...) eternal - at least until there exist communities which spiritual analogs they are. Likewise, these myths are never abandoned and denied, demythified, verified and falsified by any peripetia of social processes and intellectual progress: they get reactualized rather. Secondly, each people can get a national idea as a program for their being in history only through comprehension of a poetic myth under the notions of historiosophy, philosophy of history and philosophy of culture. With no systematic philosophical synthesis, the poetic Myth mostly becomes a tilting-yard of primitive politicking and intellectual fraud. Today Ukraine has found no adequate solution to this topical issue though there are persons to rely on, specifically the historiosophic heritage of V. Lypynskyi, D. Dontsov, I. Boichenko, S. Krymskyi and M. Popovych. (shrink)

The author clarifies Herzen's historiosophy—that is, his view of the character and meaning of the historical process.

The article analyzes the socio-cultural and theoretical origins of the Russian philosophy of history. These origins determined the development of the philosophy of history as a special feld of philosophical knowledge. This process took place in the second half of the 19th century, a significant factor of which was the split within the cultural and spiritual unity of Russian society on the wave of Alexander II’s reforms associated with the abolition of serfdom. In this period the subject-matter of the philosophy (...) of history was defned. In the author’s opinion, the subject-matter of the philosophy of history includes: 1) the historical process in its universal human dimensions and in “past – present – future” movement, 2) the life of society in historically concrete forms of the organization of human community, 3) historical epistemology. The article shows why the philosophy of history, formed in this research feld, was established in the public consciousness and intellectual context as historiosophy, i.e. knowledge of spiritual senses, the beginning and end of history. This philosophical-historical paradigm excluded the oppositions, on the one hand, between philosophical knowledge and historical science and, on the other hand, between the philosophy of the history and social philosophy. As the main ideas of the Russian philosophy of history during that period, the author considers the idea of the integrity of historical existence as an “organic life” and the idea of the variability of the historical process, interpreted as the constant inclination of history to “permanent improvisation”. The author pays special attention to the development of the concepts of “transitional form” and “chaos,” which provide the acceleration of the progressive movement of history and the possibility of an active and responsible participation of an individual and masses in it. The attention to this problem introduced the spiritual and moral component into the ontological basis of the historical process as well as the concept of necessity and chance, freedom and violence, revolution and evolution into the conceptual apparatus of philosophical and historical knowledge. As a result, simultaneously with the metaphysical principles, the principles of concrete historical and axiological analysis were integrated into the methodology of the philosophy of history. This approach to the analysis of the historical process has preserved its heuristic potential to the present day. (shrink)

Many different serious challenges like catastrophes, conflicts, wars humanity often has to face make both historical science and philosophy of history (historiosophy) very actual branches of knowledge. It is necessary to take care of their theoretical basis thoroughly. That is why development of human rational approach to historical process must be considered as an important problem of philosophical discourse. The aim of our research is to prove the expediency of moderate rational comprehension of historic process. The research methodology can (...) be explained as critical rationalism in the meaning of tending to use our rational abilities actively. Research results: Having analyzed the theory of cognition by famous Polish thinker and artist Leon Chwistek, the author of the treatise underlines the value of the so-called “strict thinking”. Undoubtedly, the usage of the latter is really able to improve a process of scientific exploration. At the same time, we should to avoid the absolutization of our rational potential: it is obvious enough one just cannot comprehend all the facts connected with the object of our study. Actually, there is plenty of historical facts, and it is impossible to take into consideration all of them with the help of our sensory cognition and to think all of them over as well. Thereby, rationalism as a belief in our intellectual potential must the moderate and even the modest one. Conclusions. The moderate rationalistic position would help scientists to be careful while making their conclusions. Such reasonable approach presents a theoretical instrument of more or less successful and adequate comprehension of history and of its principles – the only possible way of rational studying of historical process. (shrink)

The first published essay by V.N. Ilyin about the culture of the Italian Renaissance introduces readers to the Renaissance concept of the author and his more general historiosophical views. This vibrant emotional text, full of philosophical and theological inspirations, transfers the readers to fifteenthcentury Florence, to the very heart of the Renaissance flourishing under the Medici dynasty. Ilyn reflects on the masterpieces of Fra Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Benozzo Gozzoli, and other outstanding representatives of the Quattrocento. In connection with Florentine (...) Renaissance history, the author raises such important issues as the continuity of Renaissance and medieval culture, the relationship between Christianity and paganism. The ideas expressed in this essay oppose the most influential Enlightenment view of the Renaissance as a period of a sharp break with the medieval worldview, an epoch of a shift from theocentric values to anthropocentric values, and the rebirth of paganism. Ilyin does not share the idea of a confrontation between medieval and Renaissance epochs, classic or Christian culture. His historiosophy is based on the idea of continuity. Constantly throughout the text, the author’s thought turns from the protagonist of the essay – Florence – to the history of his native Russian land from the epoch of John III to Soviet times. The philosopher reflects on the influence of Italian culture on the Russian world and on the historical gap caused by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The fate of his homeland is intertwined by Ilyin with far-magnificent Florence, which transforms in this essay into a metaphysical city, representing the ideal of beauty that saves and calls to spiritual transfiguration. (shrink)

Introduction. The work one of the main problems of the philosophy of history — the problem of the driving forces of the historical process. The author identifies specific driving forces of history, put forward in historiosophy. The methodological aspects of the formation of the philosophy of history as a whole, determined by the problem of the driving forces of history, are shown. The purpose of the article is to show driving forces issue in forming the problem field of (...) class='Hi'>historiosophy. Methods. The author uses the following general scientific methods: modeling, structural-functional, systemic and comparative analysis; movement from abstract to concrete and from concrete to abstract. Scientific novelty of the research. The author identifies problems existing in the philosophy of history and gives an analysis of these problems. The author shows that the one of the most important problem that integrates other historiosophical issues is the problem of the driving forces of history. The specific driving forces of history are identified and analyzed in historiosophy. It is shown that, methodologically, the problem of driving forces in history plays a special role in the philosophy of history in a number of aspects: conceptual, integrative, test, and the aspect of complementarity. Results. The author shows that the problem of driving forces in history solves a number of problems in historiosophy. Firstly, each specific driving force makes it possible to create new theories in the philosophy of history. Secondly, it forms a special picture of historical dynamics. Thirdly, it allows us to consider various factors of history as the main ones in a system of other parameters, thereby finding their true place in analyzing the historical process. Fourth, it demonstrates the need to jointly analyze various driving forces to create a common historical picture. Conclusions. The work examines only a few specific driving forces of history, but they must continue to be identified. The author has identified four aspects that reveal the special methodological role of the driving forces problem of history in historiosophy. In fact, more of them can be identified. (shrink)

The question of the Russian man – his past, present and future – is the central one in the philosophy of history. Unfortunately, at present this area of philosophy is not suffciently developed in Russia. Partly the reason for this situation is the lack of understanding by researchers of the role played by Russian classical literature and its philosophizing writers in historiosophy. The Hunting Sketches, a collection of short stories by I.S. Turgenev, is a work still undervalued, not fully (...) considered not only in details but also in general meanings. And this is understandable because it is the frst systematic encyclopedia of Russian worldview, which is not envisaged by the literary genre. To a certain extent, Turgenev’s line is continued by I. Goncharov, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky, A. Chekhov. This article examines the philosophical nature of The Hunting Sketches, its structure and content. According to author’s opinion, stories can be divided into ten groups according to their dominant meanings. Thus, in The Hunting Sketches the main Russian types are depicted: “natural man,” rational, submissive, cunning, honest, sensitive, passionate, poetic, homeless, suffering, calmly accepting death, imbued with the immensity of the world. In the image and the comments of the wandering protagonist, Ivan Turgenev reveals his own philosophical credo, which he defnes as a moderate liberalism – freedom of thought and action, without prejudice to others. (shrink)

A neglected Young Hegelian, Cieszkowski published prolifically in economics and philosophy, but the work most influential on the Hegelians was his Prolegomena Zur Historiosophie . Rejecting the conservative interpretation of Hegel, it denied that the end of history had been reached, celebrated the will as transcending thought, and anticipated a future in which being and thinking would find their syntheses in praxis. At once a critique of Hegel and a development of Hegelianism, his work is most notable for its millennial (...) optimism. (shrink)

The author advances the thesis that Max Horkheimer’s philosophy is a social one, the constitutive element of which is historiosophy. Contrary to the interpretative stereotype, dominating the philosophical literature, the Author strives to prove that Max Horkheimer’s philosophical point of view—that he calls the critical theory—is distinguished by its uniformity, because albeit the critical theory evaluated under the influence of the 20th-century Europe turbulent history, left its identity intact. The Author thinks that the identity of the critical theory has (...) two major indicators: 1. a visible criticism of the founding father of the Frankfurt philosophical school throughout his intellectual development towards the socio-historical circumstances that deprives the intellectual unity of autonomy and suppresses an independent thought and 2. the inconsolable thirst of changing things into better ones. Three stages of the development of Horkheimer’s philosophical conception have been depicted and briefly characterized in the article: prewar (the forming of the evidence of the critical theory), wartime (thehistoriosophical conception depicting the auto destruction of enlightenment) and postwar (the prediction of “an administered world”). (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.3 (2001) 543-564 [Access article in PDF] Eduard Gans and the Crisis of Hegelianism Warren Breckman In a 1834 report on the development of economic associationism in France, Johannes Schön detected an echo in Germany, the stirrings of a debate over the "modern Associationswesen." This discussion, he believed, would be crucial to the future of the "national economy." 1 Schön was an astute (...) observer, for the German discussion of associationism in the early 1830s was indeed but a faint echo of the French; and insofar as the idea of association was addressed by prominent social writers in those years, it was generally greeted with suspicion. This was the case, for instance, with the liberal thinker Robert von Mohl, whose influential 1835 tract on the social question criticized the notion of proletarian associationism. Conversely, by the early 1840s, association was on many tongues as a panacea for the social ills of the age. By 1840 Mohl himself had embraced the "Assoziationsprinzip" as an antidote to the atomized condition of modern social life. 2Among the relatively small number of German writers who did champion association in the 1830s, the claims for its significance were already grandiose. Moses Hess's Die heilige Geschichte der Menschheit (1837) and August von Cieszkowski's Prolegomena zur Historiosophie (1838) both linked social solidarity to millenarian expectations of a new age of humanity. Even before Hess or Cieszkowski, the first German book on Charles Fourier, by one S. R. Schneider, bore the title Das Problem der Zeit und dessen Lösung durch die Assoziation (1834), while another, by Fr. Hr. Tappehorn, was headed Die vollkommene Association, als Vermittlerin der Einheit des Vernunftstaates und der Lehre Jesu (1834). Yet the enormous importance assigned to associationism [End Page 543] in these titles exposes the ambiguity of the idea itself. For if, as one historian has claimed, "free association can be regarded in principle as the central organizational form of modern or industrial society," 3 there was no agreement on its nature. Should the right of association be understood as liberal or socialist, individualistic or collectivist? Is free association the core idea and mode of interaction of a pluralistic and competitive civil society, or is it the principle of unification that will overcome pluralism and competition? These fundamental questions were to preoccupy nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century debates in areas as diverse as revolutionary theory, labor union activism, and the regulation of business cartels. However, in the 1830s, under the pressure of the newly perceived social question, the stirrings of industrialization in Germany, and the revival of democratic politics in the July Revolution, these issues first appeared with a force that drew the attention of intellectuals.Perhaps no German intellectual of the 1830s so perfectly embodies the implicit tensions of the idea of associationism as the Hegelian philosopher of law, Eduard Gans (1797-1839). A student of the Heidelberg legal scholar A. J. Thibaut, Gans later came to be considered by Hegel as one of his most brilliant followers. Once Gans became a professor in the Juristic Faculty at the University of Berlin in the mid-1820s, it was he, not Hegel, who taught a generation of students the intricacies of Hegelian political philosophy. Gans died in 1839 at the age of 42, felled at a luncheon by a stroke while in mid-sentence, a victim, according to the Hallische Jahrbücher, of his own passion for discussion. This volubility is more than evident in his oeuvre, which includes a multi-volume study of inheritance law in world history, dozens of essays on legal philosophy and political and legal issues in his native Prussia and Europe, a popular memoir, and an edition of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. He was instrumental, moreover, in creating the Society for Scientific Critique in 1826, the Hegelian "counter-academy" established in response to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences' decision to exclude Hegel, and he was a founder of Die Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik, the organization's journal and the main organ of Hegelianism. At... (shrink)

In this article dedicated to Lev P. Karsavin’s creative path, I focus mainly on the evolution of the thinker’s religious–philosophical ideas. I consider the reasons that prompted the professional historian to choose the path of a free philosopher, defending an argument about the interrelation of Karsavin’s historiosophical ideas and the key provisions of his metaphysics. The article assesses the philosopher’s legacy in the context of the problem of Russian religious metaphysics as an independent and significant intellectual tradition that has shaped (...) Russian cultural history among other spiritual–intellectual practices. In denoting the perspective of Karsavin’s activity, the author suggests key tasks in studying the philosopher’s work. These include, on the one hand, revising the corpus of Karsavin studies, and on the other hand, polemicizing with already existing interpretations of his work in Karsavin studies both in Russia and abroad. This strategy allows the author to conduct reinterpretations of Karsavin’s personological, onto-epistemological, and cultural–historical understandings that constitute the theoretical core of his religious metaphysics. (shrink)

The essay broadens the understanding of Ortega's thought by elaborating his historiosophy, which is crucial to fully comprehend his popular work, 'The Revolt of the Masses'. The author argues that Ortega's famous sociological framework (based on the interplay between the elites and the masses) is very often trivialized due to the lack of knowledge about his anthropological assumptions, upon which the model of the evolution of culture is constructed. Utilizing the already existing literature (inter alia a synthetic work by (...) K. Polit), the essay reconstructs three philosophical crises in European thought that can be ultimately depicted as a suggestive sinusoid of social attitudes operating throughout the history of Western Civilization between the two boundary lines of the primary 'belief'. The belief is in fact a trust in the first data people have to adopt before they start to think philosophically: the priority of the object or the subject (historically: fides or ratio). The sinusoid shows the cyclical change of the first data people tended to accept and reveals a certain cultural mechanism: every culture is first developed by the inspired generation of individuals who structure reality in some way and then fight for the dissemination of their framework. After they prevail and the culture is accepted on a mass level, a process of degradation starts - this is because the culture gradually looses its link with the vivid circumstances that once constituted the stimulus for the founding generation. As a result, the culture becomes gradually more formal and distant from 'real life' - the elites do not innovate anymore, perceiving their world view as well-established and the masses are able only to renovate what is inherited. In the long run this leads to 'vital disorientation', which must force the next great generation of individuals to structure reality anew. 'The Revolt...' perceived in this way receives another layer of understanding. The popular interpretation of the book is that mass men, knowing their inherent rights (thanks to democracy) and having leisure time (technological advance) enter the public stage and want to be ruled by somebody of their sort. The author highlights that, apart from these two, a third factor is present: the long-term socialization of the culture of 'pure rationalism'. The mass man already feels that it does not correspond fully to his daily experience and becomes disoriented as a result. In consequence, the time of mass movements has come (that will be organized in accordance with the radicalized principle of either rationalism or irrationalism), until the elites harness the revolted masses again. The final part of the essay suggests the possible Eastern European dimension of Ortega's predictions about postmodern Europe and indicates that his intuitions were sufficiently accurate to foresee the emergence of some main currents in the contemporary humanities and sciences. (shrink)

The law of force as a political consequence of naturalism: on the example of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Jean‐Jacques Rousseau rejected the Enlightenment ideas of reason, equality and progress. He experienced the charm of physical vigour and male causative power. He preached the apotheosis of primal instincts and the cult of strength. Rousseau’s historiosophy disavowed the optimistic vision of the Enlightenment and became its main competitor. The philosopher questioned the existing civilization; on its debris he wanted to restore the natural order (...) based on biologically conditioned inequalities. (shrink)

The aim of this thesis is to describe contemporary cultural problems in Europe using the category of historiosophy developed by Feliks Koneczny. The author discusses the division of civilisations in Europe as described by Koneczny and his ‘historical laws’ which concern mutual relations between these civilisations. Nowadays, Europe is an area where five civilisations mix. One of them has appeared in Europe due to the mass migration of the Muslim population. According to Koneczny, there can be no synthesis between (...) civilisations and only a mixture of civilisations can emerge which will lead to an anti-civilisational status or a war. The current situation in Europe requires serious correction. The paper refers to a multi-civilisational phenomenon that was the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its two main pillars were a strong identity of the state and respect for civilisational minorities. The model of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth seems to be the best solution for the present problems of the European Union. (shrink)

Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (1865-1935) served as the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Erets Israel during the period of the British mandate. Rav Kook was a polymath, equally talented as a Talmudic legalist and rationalist philosopher, on the one hand, and as a mystic and poet, on the other. Today, we would say that he was both "left and right hemisphere." The present collection brings together in English translation Rav Kook's contributions to the field of Jewish history, though perhaps "historiosophy" (...) would be the better word. Rav Kook joins the ranks of those great Jewish thinkers who preceded him in interpretation of history: Maharal of Prague, Moses Hayyim Luzzatto and Zadok Hakohen of Lublin. If Rav Kook's philosophy were to be summed up in a single word, it would be: Kelaliyut or universality. Whereas most of us are held captive by individual events, Rav Kook has a great gift for the overview of history. He brings this gift to bear in his ability to provide perspective on the modern rebirth of Israel against the backdrop of mankind's ongoing spiritual evolution. In the latter regard, his vision has sometimes been compared to that of Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobido, or more recently Ken Wilber. Contained in this collection are Rav Kook's eulogy for Herzl and Rav Kook's remarks at the opening of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The essays are placed in historic context and provided with copious scholarly endnotes. (shrink)

У статті досліджено ґенезу історіософської думки в Україні на трьох хронологічних відрізках. Перший – це зародження в ХІХ ст. історіософських концепцій М. Костомарова, П. Куліша, В. Лесевича, І. Франка та ін. Їх спільною рисою є національне бачення історії з елементами духовності. На другому хронологічному відрізку, у ХХ ст., українська національна історіософська думка трансформувалась у поглядах М. Грушевського, Д. Чижевського, Д. Донцова та М. Шлемкевича. Їм властива залученість наукових підходів до тлумачення історичного процесу, роздуми над подіями ХХ ст. та вплив на (...) формування національної історії та нації загалом. На третьому хронологічному відрізку сучасна історіософська думка представлена такими дослідниками, як В. Артюх, В. Кислюк, О. Прінцак, В. Потульницький, для яких характерна не лише класифікація та систематизація здобутків історіософів минулого, а й рефлексія над національними історіософськими концептами. Розкрито цінність концепту історіософії не лише в теоретичній ретроспективі, а й у площині практичної її значущості для розвитку української держави. У підсумку проведеного дослідження автор дійшов висновку, що національна історіософія не лише виконує функції віддзеркалення історичних подій, їх тлумачення та значення для сьогодення, а й формує ціннісно-смисловий потенціал для стратегії подальшого розвитку України. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the “Orthodox intelligentsia” project by N.A. Berdyaev. The question of the possibility of its existence was raised by Berdyaev in the article “Does Freedom of Thought and Conscience Exist in Orthodoxy?” (1939), published in defense of G.P. Fedotov in the situation of his conflict with the St. Sergius Institute. The aim of the paper is to identify what ideological foundations underlie Berdyaev’s project of a new spirituality, the bearer of which should be the intelligentsia. The (...) author of the paper applies the methodology of intellectual history, which allows considering Berdyaev’s “Orthodox intelligentsia” project as a way of substantiating the creative meaning of Orthodoxy and the need to reform the church community on a different meaning of sobornost, which should include the values of Christian humanism. The article examines Berdyaev’s historiosophic arguments that allow him to affirm the spiritual and cultural significance of the phenomenon of the intelligentsia as the true bearer of humanized creative Orthodoxy. The author concludes that Berdyaev brings the idea of creativity in Christ closer to the cultural tasks of the intelligentsia and insists that an Orthodox intelligentsia is possible only through an inner spiritual reform of Orthodoxy as a religious tradition and the church as a social institution. (shrink)

The category of the meaning of history has long existed in European philosophy as one of its fundamental themes, which has undergone many collisions during its development. The last century has been marked by a radical revision of approaches to this theme both in the philosophy of history and in the tradition of intellectual history. In the twentieth century, Kant’s historical criticism was taken by German thought to its logical conclusion in such a way that the assertion of the meaning (...) of history has actually suffered a fiasco in the field of rationalist philosophy. The purpose of this article is to attempt to show how the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, witnessing the spiritual and political crisis of European and Russian culture, seeks a solution to this problem within the philosophy of history, reformulating the problem of the meaning of history in a metaphysical way. To do this, he investigates theologically the foundations on which the historiosophic projects of the New Age are built, and tries to resolve the contradictions in the understanding of Christian revelation that are revealed in them. Returning the question of the meaning of history to its theological source allows Berdyaev to reconcile the contradictory hopes of philosophers of history for the realization of the personal freedom of its subjects with the existence of a universally meaningful sense in it. (shrink)