Philosophical Travelogy as a Cultural and Political Research Method

Abstract

This article is devoted to new books written by Alexey Kara-Murza, a Russian philosopher and political scientist. Kara-Murza is the author of numerous works on the philosophy of Russian history and culture and Russian social thought, successfully working in the original genres of philosophical travelogy and philosophical local history. Russian-European and Russian-Italian cultural interactions have been the subject of Alexey Kara-Murza’s scientific interest for many years. The new monographs explore the political circumstances as well as the key biographical voyage plots to Italy of the outstanding Russian thinkers Pyotr Chaadaev (1824–1825), and Vladimir Solovyov (1876). According to Alexey Kara-Murza, these trips determined the intellectual identity of the two Russian authors as well as the spiritual and philosophical horizon of their work. Kara-Murza consistently develops a central thesis about the intellectual relationships between Europe and Russia. He interprets the dialogue of cultures as a story of creativity, and comprehends the journey as a special way of the philosophical reception of culture and creative self-identification. Kara-Murza’s cultural and political studies in his philosophical travelogy genre, as well as the method he developed which helped the philosopher reconstruct the intellectual experience of Russian thinkers in the context of the history of Russian and European culture, are critically analyzed in this article.