On Sergey Khoruzhy’s topics

Abstract

Writing about Sergey Khoruzhy, Mark Kharitonov describes him as a historian of literature, a thinker, a religious philosopher, and Joyce’s translator and interpreter. Kharitonov reminisces about encounters and conversations with Khoruzhy and ponders his writings and public talks. Also mentioned is Khoruzhy’s television documentary about the Russian religious philosopher L. Karsavin: a renowned specialist in medieval history and a poet, Karsavin embarked on a teaching career at the University of Lithuania, achieved perfect fluency in the Lithuanian language and went on to create philosophical terminology in Lithuanian. According to Khoruzhy, local scholars referred to Karsavin as a ‘Lithuanian Plato.’ On the same television program, Khoruzhy mentioned Kharitonov’s novel that had recently become popular, expressing his appreciation of the book’s fragmentary structure (Kharitonov’s ‘candy wrappers’). The article also examines synergetic anthropology, an important concept for Khoruzhy. His model, abandoning the idea of the essence of man, describes him instead as a system of energies. Particularly analysed are Khoruzhy’s thoughts on escaping to virtual reality, which, he argued, entailed an easy kind of demise not unlike euthanasia.