Abstract
The last third of the 19th century saw a widespread dissemination of Indian philosophical concepts in the European cultural area. The concept of “karma” offered a significant ethical and ontological alternative to both materialistic philosophy and classical theism and attracted special attention of the general public. The article aims to characterize the interpretation of karma in Russian indology and theosophy in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, and to reveal the key similarities and differences of its’ comparative methodology. The materials of the Russian buddhologist F.I. Shcherbatskoy and one of the leaders of the theosophical current in Russia E.F. Pisareva represent main cases of the research. F.I. Shcherbatskoy and E.F. Pisareva looked forward to the neovitalistic concepts for justification of belief in the existence of spiritual evolution depending on internal rather than external factors. Indology and theosophy used European scientific concepts for a cultural translation of Indian philosophical concepts, but applied different bases of evidence (textual analysis and personal experience) and comparative methodology. Indology sought, as it is seen in the case of F.I. Shcherbatskoy, to unfold the basics of “eternal philosophy” – just like the tradition of intercultural philosophy did – while theosophy believed it had already been revealed in the works of E.P. Blavatsky and applied it as tool of European cultural criticism.
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