The Ontological and Aesthetic Overcoming of the Philosophy of Wilhelm Windelband in the Silver Age

Abstract

In Russia, the Neo-Kantianism of the Baden school was extensively studied and exceedingly influential, in terms of both its strengths (e.g., its justification for a unity of worldview) and its weaknesses (e.g., its relativistic model of truth and its rejection of ontology). The present article outlines the two ways of overcoming W. Windelband’s philosophy. The first is an ontological overcoming via the idea of all-​​unity and sophiology, which replaces Windelband’s concept of a folk soul. The second is an aesthetic overcoming via the recreation of reality in creativity, the work of free theurgy. The two approaches are shown to produce an unresolved conflict between the sophianity of the being and the recreation of the latter.