Russian Religious Philosophy Research Articles

Проблема бессознательного в европейском теизме и спиритуализме XIX в. и русская религиозная философия

European theism and spiritualism of the XIX century and Russian religious philosophy are examples of a non-psychoanalytic tradition of studying the unconscious, the study of which is of scientific interest. The issue of the influence of European philosophy on Russian philosophy has been considered in many aspects, but the influence on the doctrine of the unconscious has not been studied. The aim of this article is to study the influence of the views of European theists and spiritualists of the XIX century on the problem of the unconscious on Russian religious philosophy. The novelty lies in the fact that, firstly, an assessment is given of the nature of the influence of European theism and spiritualism of the XIX century on Russian religious philosophy on the issue of the unconscious; secondly, the difference in the interpretation of the unconscious in religious philosophy of the XIX – first half of the XX century and psychoanalytic philosophy is shown. It is shown that European theism and spiritualism of the XIX century had a significant influence on the interpretation of the unconscious in Russian religious philosophy, however, domestic thinkers also, when studying the unconscious, focused their attention on the moral and ethical aspect of personal existence and considered the unconscious in a broad historical and philosophical context. In addition, the fundamental elements in the interpretation of the unconscious in Russian religious philosophy and European theism and spiritualism are the psychological understanding of the unconscious and the personal nature of the interaction between man and God (in accordance with the views of theistic philosophy).

Социально-культурная сфера русского мира. Междисциплинарный подход

The article is a continuation of fundamental research of the Russian world. This paper presents the development of the fluctuation “core” of the socio-cultural sphere of the organizational and managerial system of the Russian world. Based on the synthesis of beatitudes, gifts and fruits from the Holy Scriptures related to the ideal world, the spiritual and moral values of the material world are compared by the method of parallelism. As a result, a conceptual model of the progressive process of personal and social development on the path to truth has been developed. In the future, the model was verified with the principles of acmeology, praxiology, compliance with goals and objectives, systems of “God-manhood” and “unity”. In this regard, the work used an interdisciplinary approach, which synthesized the ideas of Russian religious philosophy, theology and modern achievements of the science of personal and social development. Consequently, a conceptual model of the socio-cultural phenomenon of Russian civilization has emerged, asserting its distinctive identity in the context of inter-civilizational dialogue.

В.С. Соловьев и цивилизационный выбор России

The attention is focused on the idea that the modern phase in the Russian philosophical and social thinking is characterized by the discourse on civilizational choice of Russia. Therewith, addressing the Russian religious and philosophical tradition is deemed to be relevant. The central personality of the Russian religious philosophy is Vladimir S. Solovyov – the ideological founder of the all-unity philosophy. His contemplation on multiple topics became significant for the Russian society of his time as well as of the modern days. It is stipulated, that one of the central topics for the Russian society is the problem of correlation of western and eastern elements of spiritual culture and historical development of Russia. Contemplation on this problem based on the creative heritage of Vladimir Solovyov makes his standpoint relevant in the current stage. The opinion that Solovyov's solution to the “East-West” dichotomy is based on the acknowledgement of universal christian values as the highest factor of historical development is being sustained. This allowed the founder of the all-unity to stipulate the highest ideals of spiritual and moral perfection as a goal of the progress of the society, to highlight the threat of spiritual crisis, to anticipate catastrophic events of the following historical period. The universalistic approach of Vladimir Solovyov presumes the inclusion of Russia into the context of the European Christian culture. The philosopher assumed for Russia a task of “global synthesis” of western and eastern values in global scale. Detailed ways of solving this task were utopian. The conclusion is made that the relevance of the philosopher's standpoint for the present is constituted by the vision of main tendencies in spiritual and social life. The all-unity philosophy is deemed to be productive to justify the general Russian identity of the present.

Russian religious philosophy of language and linguistic oriented discourse of J. Lacan

Russian religious philosophy of language and linguistic oriented discourse of J. Lacan

RUSSIAN PAINTING OF THE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURY AS A REFLECTION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY (REVIEW OF A MONOGRAPH BY KOPTSEVA N.P., KOLESNIK M.A., LESHCHINSKAYA N.M., SAMARINA D.N. “RUSSIAN CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE FINE ARTS OF THE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURIES.

The article is a review of the collective monograph authored by the Siberian Federal University scholars — Koptseva N.P., Kolesnik M.A., Leshchinskaya N.M., Samarina D.N. “Russian cultural identity in the Fine Arts of the 19th — early 20th century”. The researchers examined the features of Russian cultural identity construction in the works by V.G. Perov, I.Ya. Bilibin, M.V. Nesterov and B.M. Kustodiev. The relevance of the book lies in the fact that it is the first of its kind in the series of scientific art criticism and cultural literature “Russian Culture”. The scientific novelty of the monograph consists in the philosophical and art criticism analysis of religious philosophy as a source of cultural identity, in the substantiation of new theoretical concepts such as area-critical and area-romantic styles. The results of the presented work contribute to the study of the process of constructing Russian cultural identity from the standpoint of God-seeking in works of fine art of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The practical value of the book lies in the systematization of the basic content of Russian cultural identity and the establishment of a connection with the key concepts of Russian religious philosophy, including the ideas of Russian Orthodoxy, Slavophilism, the concept of Sophia — the Wisdom of God in the interpretation of V.S. Solovyov, the application of the sociology of imagination in the study of mythology, symbolism, semiotics of signs, visual perception of painting. The results of the research outlined in the book can be used in teaching courses on the history and theory of Russian culture as well as in the creation of special courses and programmes based on the relationship between culture, philosophy, Religious Studies and literature.

Sobornost as a non-sociological category

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the concept “conciliarity” (“sobornost”) and is motivated by its incorrect, in the author’s opinion, use in modern sociological literature. Having put forward the understanding of sobornost as a transcendent / socially loaded category as the main dilemma, the author gives an ambiguous solution to it. It is shown that the concept of sobornost, the appearance of which in Russian religious philosophy and, more broadly, Russian culture, is traditionally associated with the name of A. S. Khomyakov, is deeply rooted in the religious-mystical experience of the latter and requires careful handling. Sobornost, in its authentic understanding, is the divine grace that descended upon the meeting of believers and mystically transformed it. This concept belongs to the theological picture of the world; bringing it into sociological analysis is incorrect, and its use in socio-political discourse is unwholesome, since it sets false guidelines and values. At the same time, the vulgarization of the notion of “sobornost” present in many works can be explained not only by a superficial and / or tendentious reading, but also by the inherent deep ambivalence of this concept, the obvious gaps between its authentic content and latent mental constructs embedded in it and analytically revealed by a certain research perspective. “Sobornost” was born as a social, in its basic intuitions, category, and in its historical development it returns to these intuitions. The presence of a certain connection between the deeply mystical authentic content of “conciliarity” and its social projections, as well as its subsequent sociologically inevitable secularization, turns the concept under consideration into an extremely curious object of terminological analysis.

В.Д. Кудрявцев-Платонов о духовных дарованиях в апостольской церкви

The archival text of the Russian religious philosopher, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Viktor Dmitrievich Kudryavtsev-Platonov (1828–1891) “On extraordinary spiritual gifts in the Apostolic Church” is published; publication is based on a manuscript from the archival collection of Victor Kudryavtsev-Platonov (RSL, F. 823, cardboard 2, storage unit 2). In this early work, Kudryavtsev-Platonov examines and characterizes the “extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit” described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, notes their differences from the “ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit”, arranging this consideration according to their significance: the gift of the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, the gifts of prophecy, discernment of spirits (the first row of spiritual gifts), the gifts of faith, healing, miracles, tongues, interpreting tongues (the second row of spiritual gifts). Among the essential signs of the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, Kudryavtsev-Platonov considers the preservation of the clarity of human consciousness and freedom (during the action of such gifts). The archival publication is preceded by a brief introduction describing the difference between continuationism and cessationism, referring the position of Kudryavtsev-Platonov to the latter.

Владимир Соловьев и Вячеслав Иванов: принципы философской герменевтики и традиция диалогов Платона

The article is dedicated to the problem of comparative study of the hermeneutics principles in religious-philosophical and literary-critical discourse of Vladimir Solovyov and Vyacheslav Ivanov. It is shown that Plato’s dialogue traditions in the works of Ivanov were intellectual reflections and expressed “Plato’s turn” in hermeneutical tradition of text interpretation that outlined in Russian religious philosophy. Special comparative study of this problem had not been conducted. It is proved that Ivanov’s interest to Plato’s dialogues derived from various sources. Solovyov’s works and translations of Plato’s works in Russia played a major role in it. Solovyov was a translator and commentator of Socratic dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher. His introductory chapters made for Plato’s dialogue translations, his literary and philosophical criticism are considered in the article. Materials form Ivanov’s personal archive are analyzed and they show that he was interested in Plato’s dialogues “Timaeus”, “Phaedrus” and others. His articles, lectures, under-investigated materials and the books “Dionysus and Pre-Dionysianism” (1923) and “Dostoevsky. Tragedy-Myth-Mysticism” (1932) are considered. A.F. Losev’s works on ancient philosophy and his research on Solovyov and works of F. Schleiermache, H.G. Gadamer and became the object of the comparative analysis. It is shown that Plato’s dialectics and dialogues became major source for development of philosophical hermeneutics principles for Solovyov, Ivanov and Losev. It is shown that a myth in Solovyov’s, Ivanov’s and Losev’s works as well as in Plato’s dialogues becomes a category of thinking, a way of religious-philosophical perception, a form of artistic representation of the image-symbol and a basis of hermeneutical dialectic understanding. Solovyov and Ivanov’s view on Plato and Platonism is important for studying the development of hermeneutic ideas in Russian philosophy and literature studies.

Этика – война – медицина: научный портрет проблемы в современных публикациях

Background: The search for the meaning of war, the justification of violence, the acceptance of guilt and other moral problems worried Russian thinkers of the 19th century. Russian religious philosophy considers morally justified only war in defense of the highest spiritual shrines, which I.A. Ilyin, N.A. Berdyaev, L.P. Karsavin, A.A. Kersnovsky and others call the defense of the home-land, life and peace. Aim: To assess research interest in the problems of ethics of war, ethics of military medicine, biomedical ethics in the intellectual field of open databases of scientific publications and offer a predictive plot of this scientific direction. Materials and methods: A comparative analysis of open databases of scientific publications RSCI, NEB, CyberLeninka was carried out. The study of literature sources in the problem field under consideration made it possible to determine the directions of the research search using vectors – keywords "ethics", "war", "military medicine". Publications from the open CyberLeninka data-base were used and analyzed as a model scientific network database. Quantitative (number of publications) and qualitative (annota-tions) indicators were studied. To identify attitudes towards the ethical problems of war, a sociological survey of medical university students was conducted, N = 154, average age of respondents (19.2 ± 1.9) years. Standards of confidentiality and autonomy were respected for respondents. Results: An analysis of the distribution of scientific publications by area of the international OECD classifier demonstrates the in-terest of researchers in the problem field of "Philosophy, ethics, religious studies" in 2020–2024. In all search options (using the key-words "War and Ethics", "War and Medicine", "Military Medicine") there are a larger number of publications in this area than in other social or sociological sciences. In the search query "war and ethics", there were 2 times more such publications than others. A pilot sur-vey of future doctors confirms the interdisciplinary connection between the ethics of war and medicine. Conclusion: The study demonstrates modern scientific interest in the ethics of war when studying problems related to war and mili-tary medicine. It would be of interest to conduct a more detailed study of the relationship between the ethics of war and medical ethics (bio-ethics) as an element of the ethical training of future doctors for professional activities in extreme conditions of peace and war.

Спиритуализм в истории русской религиозной мысли: ключевые оценки и трактовки

The article presents a critical review of the assessments of Modern Spiritualism in Russian philosophical historiography and positions it as a certain kind of natural theology. The author positions spiritualism as a special religious philosophy and outlines the reasons why it was considered as a practice without any philosophical significance. The article considers philosophical characteristics of Spiritualism given by Russian religious philosophers and offers some critical remarks on historiography's opinion about Spiritualism as a kind of "positivism". The author suggests, that spiritualism should be investigated in the perspective of the history of philosophical and theological thought of the early New Modern period. The article deals with analogies between the themes of early modern natural theology and the problems spiritualists were deeply interested in. It touches upon the discussions about the nature of the soul, especially, the questions of its corporeality and possible annihilation. Early modern discussions about witchcraft should be studied as a key issue, which links natural theology and spiritualism. The article proposes to compare seventeenth-century "witch-hunts", aimed to prove the existence of the spirit world, and nineteenth-century investigations of mediums. The importance of Leibnizianism and pneumatological teachings of the eighteenth century as precursors of spiritualist religious and philosophical thought is also pointed out. The article proposes to investigate Spiritualism not only as a subject for Orthodox apologetics’ criticism, but also as a special kind of Christian apologetics that emerged in the early Modern period and aimed at proving the immortality of the soul while refuting the arguments of materialist critics. Both Russian spiritualists and Russian philosophers (V.S. Soloviev, N.Y. Grot, L.M. Lopatin) were interested in "mediumistic phenomena". It is argued that the spiritualists of the late 19th century sought to overcome «positivist» limitations, and were not satisfied with the Kantian solution, which put a barrier to the cognition of the "real" world. The study of Spiritualism in the perspective of Christian natural theology makes it possible to grasp the main reason for the interest of Russian philosophers in Spiritualism and its’ "psychic phenomena" – the potential opportunity to find new arguments in favor of the immortality of the soul.

Altruism in the interpretation of Russian religious philosophy

Introduction. A number of Orthodox philosophers, among them K.N. Leontiev, criticized New European altruism, and N.A. Berdyaev generally rejected it, calling it “the teaching of bourgeois-democratic morality, the middle-general morality of well-being, the morality of quantities”. P.A. Florensky, N.O. Lossky, V.S. Soloviev, on the contrary, called altruism active love and Christian agape. L.N. Tolstoy believed that the good of people lies in unity and solidarity, and F.M. Dostoevsky called for active and selfless love, which is capable of transforming and purifying. This position of Russian religious philosophers arouses research interest in the author of the article. Thus, the purpose of the work is to conduct a comparative analysis of a number of concepts of Orthodox thinkers who interpreted the concept of altruism differently, but at the same time expressed similar opinions in relation to this ethical category. Methodology and sources. The author uses the hermeneutic method, which allows one to immerse oneself in the study and interpretation of the texts of Russian religious philosophers, which helps to create a voluminous hermeneutic circle of Russian culture, highlighting its features. Results and discussions. The author's approach to the study of culture and interpretation of cultural meanings through the analysis of ethical categories can be called original. A similar approach may be useful to researchers in the field of cultural philosophy as a possible method when studying a particular sociocultural system. Analyzing the concepts of Russian religious philosophers using a similar method helps the author highlight the value foundations of Russian culture. Conclusion. Altruism as a cultural phenomenon and ethical category, once on the soil of Russian culture, acquires a completely different meaning and fullness.

Solidarization of Russian Society: a Historiographical Analysis

Introduction. At present the relevance of the problem of solidarity of Russian society is associated with the attempts of the countries of the Greater West to solve accumulated problems through building an image of the enemy, which makes it possible to consolidate national economies and effectively fight opposition forces within the country. In modern Russian philosophy, a number of approaches to developing the concept of solidarity of Russian society have developed. Despite this, many aspects of this problem still remain insufficiently studied. Thus, this study analyzes various approaches to defining the solidarity of society, which were formed in Russian philosophy; identifies the essential properties of solidarity, and substantiates the thesis about the need to form new tools and mechanisms of social order that will allow for the solidarity of society. The purpose of the presented research is a historiographic analysis of the concept of solidarity in relation to Russian reality. Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of this study is the principle of unity of the historical and logical, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. There were used as sources the works of classics of Russian philosophical thought who developed the concept of solidarity (I.S. Aksakov, N.Ya. Danilevsky, etc.), as well as the works of modern Russian thinkers, such as Yu.V. Shkudunova, A.A. Efanov, allowing to identify the main aspects of the problem of solidarity of Russian society. Results and discussion. The authors of this article conducted a historiographical analysis of the concept of “solidarization”. During the analysis, the main essential properties of solidarity were identified, such as procedurality, value orientation, ideology, and complexity. The relevance of the traditions of Russian religious philosophy for the development of the problem of solidarity is also shown. The authors consider the solidarity of society as a set of political, economic and sociocultural processes aimed at uniting society around an integral system of values expressed by a single social ideology. Conclusion. The modern world is in a phase of political turbulence, which has a direct impact on all fundamental aspects of society. Their impact can be seen especially clearly in the example of Russian reality. In these conditions, the survival of Russia depends on the degree of unity of society as a guarantee of national security.

Relevance of Lev Karsavin’s Ideas on State Cultural Policy

The article substantiates the expediency of using domestic philosophical heritage in the development of concepts and other normative documents of Russia’s cultural policy in the current situation. At present, Russian society has gained an understanding of the need to abandon the strategy of catch-up modernization and to implement socio-cultural development on the ways of deepening the country’s traditional spiritual values and its own historical vision of the multipolarity of the world. The ideas of the Russian religious philosopher L.P. Karsavin concerning such fundamental aspects of cultural policy as the peculiarities of the development of state ideology, the design of culture and state cultural programmes, the vocabulary and language of cultural studies are considered. Special attention is paid to Karsavin’s understanding of Russian culture as having Orthodox origins and developing on the basis of Orthodoxy. Attention is drawn to the importance of ensuring the unifying and living, creative character of Russian culture, the conditions of equality of different cultures and, at the same time, the presence of a hierarchy of interpenetrating cultural spheres. The development of some of L.P. Karsavin’s ideas by his followers is outlined, including the need to clarify the Christian meaning of atheism and to overcome the “irreconcilable” antagonism between religious and atheistic worldviews. The study outlines a line of enrichment of cultural theory with little-known works by L.P. Karsavin and A.A. Vaneev, which, according to the authors of the article, opens prospects for further development of new approaches to understanding the essence of cultural policy.

Сердце, душа и разум как философские понятия в мировоззрении П.Д. Юркевича

The article examines the epistemological views of Pamphil Danilovich Yurkevich, a prominent representative of Russian religious philosophy. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is wrong to perceive the soul as a mechanical device, which can only be affected mathematically by stimuli from the outside world. It is the heart that is the organ of holistic knowledge and the key element connecting with the soul. Yurkevich categorically disagrees with the modernist point of view that the justice that society is trying to establish through laws is created solely by the mind of people and that these laws relate only to issues of property and any external freedoms. The philosopher believes that it is unacceptable to equate the reasonableness of an act with its moral dignity: “reasonable” does not at all mean “moral” from the standpoint of Christian love. The author of the article concludes that the philosophy of the heart, of which P.D. is an outstanding representative. Yurkevich helps a person bring genuine moral consciousness into the world, find the perfect combination between intuition, reason and feelings, as well as reveal their true values and establish a deeper connection with themselves and the world around them.

Понятие трансцендентального в системе трансцендентального монизма В. Д. Кудрявцева-Платонова

The aim of the article is to clarify the meaning of the concept of "transcendental" in the epistemology of the most prominent representative of Russian ecclesiastic-academic philosophy of the second half of the 19th century, Christian philosopher V. D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov, as well as the relationship of this concept in the interpretation of the Russian religious philosopher to the philosophical tradition of transcendentalism established by I. Kant. The core of Kudryavtsev's entire epistemology is the concept of transcendental monism presented in his work "Metaphysical Analysis of Empirical Cognition". In the process of reconstruction of the mentioned concept it is shown that it has two planes: ontological and epistemological. Transcendental monism as an epistemological concept is the subject of conceptual and comparative analysis in the article, by means of which similarities and differences between Kudryavtsev's and Kant's epistemology are established. On the basis of this comparison it is concluded that Kudryavtsev, denying only the subjective character of cognitive forms, overcame Kant's transcendental idealism. Then the epistemological views of V. T. Krug and F. A. Trendelenburg are analysed as basic positions for Kudryavtsev's transcendental monism in order to identify its links with the tradition of Kantian transcendentalism. According to the results of the analysis, the ideas of Krug, Trendelenburg and Kudryavtsev are compared, which shows the points of convergence between the philosophers, namely, the transcendental for them appears in connection with the a priori, that is, with that which has an inexperienced origin, but lies at the basis of possible experience. It is established that Krug, Trendelenburg and Kudryavtsev endeavoured to overcome the gap between thinking and the external world in the process of cognition, which had arisen in Kantian transcendental idealism. Hence, it is concluded that the concept of "transcendental" in Kudryavtsev's theory of cognition is linked to the tradition of Kantian transcendentalism through the concept of apriorism. Finally, it is concluded that Kudryavtsev's epistemology is an example of Christian philosophy incorporating the concept of the transcendental in its connection with Kantian transcendentalism, and may become a model for new attempts to construct a Christian epistemology.

The Philosophy of creativity: conceptual approaches of V.S. Solovyov and N.A. Berdyaev

The object of this paper is creativity as a cultural philosophical and historical-philosophical phenomenon. The subject of the research is the substantiation of the essence of creativity by Russian religious philosophy on the example of the doctrine of V.S. Solovyov and N.A. Berdyaev. The aim of this research is to identify and articulate the key semantic constructs of creativity from the positions of the above-mentioned thinkers. The article also explores ideas about the nature of creativity and the specific features of a creative subject through the prism of relevant concepts of a socio-humanitarian orientation. A brief historical and philosophical excursion into the understanding of the ontological essence of creativity is carried out, modern ontological concepts of creativity are revealed and an existentially oriented concept of creativity is proposed. The theoretical basis of the research is the original works of V.S. Solovyov and N.A. Berdyaev, as well as various commenting scientific sources. The methodological foundation of the research is a comparative analysis and a method of contextual vision of creativity. The main result of the conducted research is the articulation of key aspects of the understanding of creativity by V.S. Solovyov and N.A. Berdyaev. It is shown that for the first philosopher, the central task of creativity is the spiritualization of the material world through the realization of the unity of Goodness, Truth and Beauty, while the second thinker considers the main mission of creativity to be the establishment of a fundamentally different spiritual being by the subject. The scientific novelty of the research also lies in the comparative characterization of the concepts of creativity of these thinkers in terms of essence, tasks, meaning, material, sources, functions, result and other structural aspects.

Философия природы в мировоззрении В.Ф. Эрна

The article presents the natural philosophical views of the bright representative of Russian religious philosophy Vladimir Fedorovich Ern. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the Russian philosopher opposes two mutual-ly exclusive worldview positions in understanding nature: meonism and ontologism. Meonism manifested itself in radical rationalism, which perceives nature exclusively as dead schemes; utilitarianism, which regards na-ture only from the point of view of momentary practical benefit; cardinal pantheism, which is engaged in mixing nature and God, without actually recognizing their subjectivity; solipsism, for which nature is just a bundle of sensations; and even Kantianism, for which the gap between phenomena and noumena is absolutely fatal. The main epistemological task of the genuine philosophy of logism, according to V.F. Ern, is the elimination of separation from Nature as Being. The most important source of the logistic worldview of nature is the Orthodox East, according to V.F. Ern. The same truth is revealed in nature as in the Holy Scriptures, and the truth can be extracted from nature even without a written revelation. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the philosophy of nature by V.F. Ern remains relevant in the modern world. The Russian thinker paid great at-tention to the search for the philosophical origins of human interaction with nature. In the modern world, a per-son faces serious environmental problems, but this is only a consequence of various variants of meonism, dis-closed in detail by V.F. Ern in his works.

«Хвала труду» Ивана Ильина как манифест российской модерности

The article presents the results of a study of alternative versions of modernization. Along with the widespread identification of the modernization process with the Westernization of non-Western societies, the concept of multiple modernization by Shmuel Eisenstadt is analyzed. Russian religious philosophy, being in opposition to the processes that constitute the essence of the Western type of modernization, in particular the transformation of technology from a means of human existence into the goal of his existence, contains examples of a positive reaction to the transformative labor activity of people. Ivan Ilyin in his work “Praise to Labor” demonstrates a special way of demonstrating the value of everyday work as the realization of “God's idea”.

АКСИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ОСНОВЫ МЕТОДА Д. И. ЧИЖЕВСКОГО В ЕГО РАБОТАХ О Г. С. СКОВОРОДЕ И Н. В. ГОГОЛЕ

In 1920s, D. Čyževsky developed his methodology under the influence of German phenomenology (E.Husserl) and Russian religious philosophy (S.Frank).The scientist was engaged in the study of Skovoroda’s and Gogol’s works practically all his life. Čyževsky’s book about Skovoroda (“Philosophy of Scovoroda”, 1934) and his works about Gogol still retain scientific value. Submitted article discusses the problem of Čyževsky’s methodology, how Čyževsky analyzes the religious issues of work of art. We explore Čyževsky’s works on Skovoroda and Gogol. In addition, the study shows that Čyževsky’s “history of spirit” was based on the method of “spiritual typology”, which made it possible to study the spiritual history of mankind, following the facts of the history of literature.

«Философы всегда будут восхищаться Кантом…»

The topics of this issue, devoted to the tercentenary of Immanuel Kant’s birth, focus on his practical philosophy, most notably on the problems of free will in the light of the debates at the end of the eighteenth century; on the concept of human dignity and its reflection in daily life and in the main legal documents of the Russian Federation; on the possibility of deriving positive duties from the categorical imperative; and on the relevance of Kantian ethics to modern-day realities. The issue of the reception of Kant’s philosophy in Russia is also discussed, using as an example the article by Russian religious philosopher Alexey Vvedensky in the historical context of Kant’s early reception and subsequent fate in the twentieth century.