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“The tragedy” of German philosophy. Remarks on reception of German philosophy in the Russian religious thought (of S. Bulgakov and others)

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Abstract

The article deals with Bulgakov’s critique of Hegel’s monistic system. For Bulgakov, Hegelian monism is an example of philosophical reductionism which aims at reducing the question of Being, the latter expressed by a proposition and constituted by the inseparable unity of three elements (person as hypostasis, its meaning and the essence of Being), to its second principle. Contrary to Hegel, Bulgakov claims that no philosophy can begin with and as itself—it has to be initiated with a datum. This is in fact where the tragedy of German philosophy, and each monistic philosophy, starts.

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Notes

  1. The title of this article alludes to S. N. Bulgakov’s book written during his stay in Crimea, when he worked on his last philosophical texts, before he entered his “theological” period in the 1930s. The fruit of the years spent in the South of Russia were basically two philosophical works The Tragedy of Philosophy (Tragedija filosofii) and Philosophy of Names (Filosofija imeni). My reflections focus on the first one. Let us add that it was published in German in Darmstadt in 1917.

  2. Cf. Bulgakov (1998), p.11. Humboldt’s words: „die Sprache ist das Bildende Organ der Gedanken”, „es gibt keine Gedanken ohne Sprache, und das menschliche Denken wird erst durch der Sprache”.

  3. Russian language has abstractum of „I,” self, „jajnost,” English selfhood, German Ichkeit.

  4. Cf. Hlysty, in de Lazari (1999), vol. 2. pp. 373–375.

  5. Let us notice that A. Kojève, Hegel’s commentator, arrives at such conclusion and not only such question. He states directly: “Hegel was really God.”. Kojève (1999) p. 396.

  6. Cf. Bulgakov (2001); Florenskij (2003); Berdjaev (1952), pp. 59–60; Karsavin (1949). Also: Zenkovskij, Istorija russkoj filosofii (1949), pp. 435–474.

References

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Correspondence to Jan Krasicki.

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Translation reviewed and edited by E.M. Swiderski.

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Krasicki, J. “The tragedy” of German philosophy. Remarks on reception of German philosophy in the Russian religious thought (of S. Bulgakov and others). Stud East Eur Thought 62, 63–70 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9100-4

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