Russia Between East and West? Remarks on Comparison of Cultures

Abstract

The article continues the discussion between Westernizers and Slavophiles (and later Eurasianists). Differences between the traditional European philosophical thought and the Wisdom of the Russian mind are presented in metaphoric as well as in modern neuropsychological terms, e.g. the difference between the lefthemispheric type with the stress on the logical functions of the brain and the right-hemispheric model of the world for which creative possibilities of music and visual art are particularly important. The diglossia, i.e., a functional difference of Church Slavonic and the Old Russian language is supposed to be connected to the parallel existence of the two rows of religious and mythological symbols in the double faith. The possibility of a more adequate expression through non-verbal art forms is shown using the examples of S. Eisenstein’s and V. Kandinsky’s creative experiments. Also discussed are the differences between the Russian culture and other peoples (particularly those of the Western Europe) regarding the role of intuition, the institution of holy fools, the perception of time and history and the concept of a human being.