The Moods of the Historical Time: “New Renaissance” of V. Bibikhin and “Historical Anxiety” of P. Ricoeur

Abstract

The article offers a comparative study of the concepts of “historical mood” in the works of V.V. Bibikhin and P. Ricoeur. The efficiency of the comparative study can be founded by the common intellectual context, the common influence of such authors as Aristotle, Augustine, M. Heidegger, on P. Ricoeur and V.V. Bibikhin. It is also important to note that both philosophers combine the perspectives of the phenomenological method, historical hermeneutics and they both turn to the ontology of understanding. The article shows how the paradoxical nature of time leads to difficulties in interpreting the historical time, and explains the conceptual findings, that were proposed by Bibikhin and Ricoeur to overcome this paradox. Whereas Bibikhin prefers to comprehend time as the time of the present event, i.e. time-kairos or pora (in Russian), Ricoeur follows the logic of retrospective analysis of the time-narrative. Still, the time paradox can be solved by the appeal to the a priori perfectum (Bibikhin) or the time of memory (Ricoeur). Then it is explained how the phenomenon of the colouredness of the historical time is rooted in some fundamental mood: for Bibikhin it is joy and indignation, while for Ricoeur — anxiety and hope. The proposed analysis of the concepts of pora (in Russian), kairos, patina of time, new Renaissance, colour of time (Bibikhin) and intrigue, historical mood, historical anxiety, truth}, hope (Ricoeur) leads to the question that the fundamental philosophical task — as long as philosophy is associated with the striving for the truth — is to understand the historical time of the present.