Interpretation of «organic function» of culturein V.S. Solovyov’s conception of All-Unity–Divine Humanity

Abstract

V.S. Solovyov’s cultural position is conceptualized in the context of an organically cosmic worldview, which is reflected in the collective creativity of 19th – early 20th century Russian thinkers. That position is a response to the historical need for a mature self-awareness of a social subject in the face of an apocalyptic alternative between self-destruction or self-regeneration of humanity at the level of moral freedom. It is noted that this need was initiated by the industrial revolution of the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries, which radically changed a person’s place in the world due to the development of artificial energy sources. In this regard, a comparative analysis of the reflection of this need in West European positivism and Russian organicism in the 19th century is carried out in the context of the task of overcoming the mechanistic paradigm that reigns supreme in European culture of the 17th –18th centuries and the transition to the positions of an organically active worldview. The essence and significance of this transformation in this worldview is revealed as a return to the «organically nurtured» (N.A. Berdyaev) worldview, but at a qualitatively new and active, not intuitive, level, implying the responsibility of the thinking subject for all life forms in accordance with the level of their organization. The essence of an organically active worldview, which is based on the theoretical dialectics of German classical philosophy, is emphasized. As a result of a comparative analysis, it was found that Russian thinkers who deeply and interestedly mastered German classical philosophy, as well as new trends in Western philosophy of the 19th century, were able to dialectically comprehend the relevance of an organically-active world outlook on the basis of their native culture, making it a concrete and organic worldview within the philosophy of Russian cosmism. The significance of Soloviev’s teachings is revealed in the collective work of developing a philosophical and anthropological project of Russian cosmism aimed at constructively resolving the apocalyptic alternative through a «common cause», the content of which on the scale of each national culture is determined by its «organic function».