Militant primitivism of F.I. Girenok and the logic of “cultural” self-awareness

Abstract

The article analyzes the speech of F.I. Girenok at the Philosophical Council in 2022. The author identifies two components in Girenko’s position. The first is primitivism in thinking. The author examines the logic of sociocultural primitivism in its many historical manifestations, highlighting its ideal-typical form. The logic of primitivism is revealed as a response to the negatively understood complexity of sociocultural existence. The second component is “cultural” self-awareness. The author reveals the logic of this type of self-awareness, contrasting it with “postcultural-intercultural” self-awareness. At the same time, the logic of the sociocultural development of humanity is affirmed as moving in a “postcultural” direction. The author reveals a negative version of “cultural” self-awareness as a closure on one’s system of ultimate ideas about the world. Girenko's philosophical position is considered as a combination of an extreme version of primitivism with an extreme version of “cultural” self-awareness.