The Self-Cognition of Russian Culture: Pushkin in the Philosophical Experience of Semyon Frank

Abstract

This article is devoted to Russian religious thinker Semyon L. Frank’s philosophical interpretation of Alexander S. Pushkin’s work. The article identifies the place and significance of the Pushkin theme in Frank’s legacy. The author believes that Pushkin’s creative example was, for Frank, a key moment in the national culture’s self-cognition, defining its spiritual and moral ideal. In Pushkin’s work, Frank sees a synthesis of European rationality and mystical intuition that is characteristic of the Russian spiritual tradition. Frank endows Pushkin’s aesthetics with the features of religious gnosis, finding there an embodiment of his ideal of “living knowledge” or “wise ignorance.” The article expands on the thesis that Frank’s research on Pushkin is an important structural element in the development of his original metaphysical system. In a unique essayistic form, his articles on Pushkin represent an independent, complete version of Frank’s ontological aesthetics and philosophy of culture.