Humanistyczne zakorzenienie vs. egzystencjalna bezdomność: debata Iwanow – Gerszenzon w świetle dylematów historiozofii nowoczesnej

Abstract

The paper revisits the dialogue between Vyacheslav Ivanov and Mikhail Gershenzon in order to present two essentially different orientations in the approach to humanistic heritage and its meaning in human life. The first of these two perspectives is represented by V. Ivanov who feels amongst the great works of culture “at home,” who praises their charms and spiritual-aesthetic riches. The second perspective – as evoked by Gershenzon – is more pessimistic, existentially inclined, filled with tragic awareness. It points out to the problem of crucial importance to the historiosophical self-awareness of modernity: the accumulation of cultural knowledge and the release of theoretical reflection have alienated the human being and cast it into existential homelessness. The paper further argues that (1) there exists an irreducible hiatus between culture and the reality with its power of negativity, and that (2) the ambassadors of culture, such as Ivanov, conceal this hiatus in an attempt to convince us that theoretical humanistic reflection intensifies our perception of the world, while in Gersenzhon’s historiosophical view it ruins the immediacy and spontaneity of life.