Reading Russian Philosophy and Max Scheler Together: The Problem of the Other I
https://doi.org/10.30727/0235-1188-2019-62-2-127-141
Abstract
The article explores the parallels between the theory of sympathy developed by Max Scheler and the understanding of the foreign I in Russian philosophy. Russian philosophy has been developing the topic of foreign psychic life since the 1880s, and it regards Scheler’s theory as unable to raise above the level of emotional contagion. True sympathy is possible, when the Other is already present to the I, or, according to Nikolay Lossky, there is an original gnoseological difference between “the lived” (perezhivaniye) and “the observed” (predmet nablyudeniya). Russian philosophy emphasizes the hermeneutical aspect of the problem – the original division and the search for understanding, as does Vasily Rozanov, who also shifted the accent from the general to the individual, particular and even intimate. Semyon Frank pointed out that the feelings of another person will only form a shell of meaningless observation, if not connected to the living knowledge through the human ability to resonate with something transcendent. And Russian philosophy assumes the fact of the original collectiveness of consciousness. This is the impulse given to it by the philosophy of Sergei Trubetskoy and developed in the philosophy of Russian neo-Kantianism, with Ivan Lapshin depicting a creative person, taking up the collective function of experimenting over the psyche to create and expand the map of human feelings.
About the Author
A. A. Tchikine
Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Alexander Tchikine – Ph.D. in Philosophy, Research Fellow at the Department of Modern Western Philosophy.
References
1. Berdyaev N. (1937) Chelovecheskaya lichnost’ i sverkhlichnostnye tsennosti [Human personality and super-personal values]. In: Sotsial’nye zapiski [Social proceedings]. Vol. 43. Paris (in Russian).
2. Berdyaev N. (2008) Russkaya ideya [Russian idea]. Saint Petersburg: Azbuka-klassika (in Russian).
3. Dahm H. (1981) Russian Philosophy: Traditional and Contemporary Accounts. Studies in Soviet Thought. Vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 165-173.
4. Ehlen P. (2012) Semyon L. Frank: Filosof khristianskogo gumanizma [Semyon L. Frank: philosopher of Christian humanism]. Moscow (Russian translation).
5. Frank S.L. (1990) Nepostizhimoye [The unfathomable]. In: Sochineniya [Works]. Moscow: Pravda (in Russian).
6. Frank S.L. (1995) Predmet znaniya. Dusha cheloveka [The subject of knowledge. The soulf of man]. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).
7. Gornfeld A.G. (1912) Literatura i geroizm [Literature and heroism]. In: O russkikh pisatelyakh [On Russian writers]. Vol. 1. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).
8. Gurvitch G. (1949) Les tendances actuelles de la philosophie allemande: E. Husserl, M. Scheler, E. Lask, M. Heidegger. Paris: Vrin.
9. Khomyakov A.S. (1867) Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy [The complete collected works]. Vol. 2. Praha (in Russian).
10. Lapshin I.I. (1900) O trusosti v myshlenii [On cowardice in thinking]. Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii [The issues of philosophy and psychology]. Vol. 5 (55), pp. 63-127 (in Russian).
11. Lapshin I.I. (1914) O perevoploshayemosti v khudozhestvennom tvorchestve [On dramatic identification in artistic creativity]. In: Voprosy teorii i psikhologii tvorchestva [The issues of of theory and psychology of creativity] (vol. 5, part 1, pp. 161-262). Kharkov (in Russian).
12. Lapshin I.I. (1924) Oproverzheniye solipsizma [Refutation of solipsism]. In: Uchyonyye zapiski Nauchnogo instituta v Prage [Proceedings of the Scientific institute in Praha]. Vol. 1, no. 1. Praha (in Russian).
13. Lapshin I.I. (1999) Filosofiya izobreteniya i izobreteniye v filosofii: Vvedeniye v istoriyu filosofii [Philosophy of invention and invention in philosophy: Introduction into the history of philosophy]. Moscow: Respublika (in Russian).
14. Lossky N.O. (1906) Obosnovaniye intuitivizma [The grounding of intuitivism]. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).
15. Lossky N.O. (1991) Istoriya russkoy filosofii [History of Russian philosophy]. Moscow: Sovetskiy pisatel’ (in Russian).
16. Perpeet W. (1971). Einftihlungsasthetik. In: Historisches Worterbuch der Philosophie. 2. Band (D—F). Basel: Schwabe.
17. Rozanov V.V. (1996) Oponimanii [On understanding]. Moscow: Tanais.
18. Rozanov V.V. (2013) “Legenda o velikom inkvizitore” F.M. Dostoyevskogo [F.M. Dostoevsky’s the Grand Inquisitor]. In: Sochineniya [Works]. Vol. 3. Moscow: Progress-Pleyada.
19. SchloBberger M. (2005) Die Erfahrung des Anderen. Gefuhle im menschlichen Miteinander. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
20. Shklovsky V.B. (1990) Gamburgskiy shchyot. Stat’i - Vospominaniya - Esse (1914-1933) [Hamburg reckoning. Papers - Memoirs - Essays (1914— 1933)]. Moscow: Sovetskiy pisatel’.
21. Tikhonova E.V. (2010) Problema “chuzhogo Ya” v russkoy filosofsko- prikhologicheskoy mysli [The problem of the “foreign I” in Russian philosophical and psychological thought]. Veche. Zhurnal russkoy filosofii i kul’tury [Veche. The journal of Russian philosophy and culture]. Vol. 21, pp. 82—93. Saint Petersburg.
22. Trubetskoy S.N. (1994) Sochineniya [Works]. Moscow.
23. Vengerov S.A. (1911) Geroicheskiy kharakter russkoy literatury [Heroic nature of Russian literature]. In: Sochineniya [Works]. Vol. 1. Saint Petersburg.
24. Vvedensky A.I. (1892) O predelakh i priznakakh odushevleniya. Novy psikhofiziologicheskiy zakon v svyazi s voprosom o vozmozhnosti metafiziki Aleksandra Vvedenskogo [On the limits and signs of animation. New physcho-physiological law in relation to the issue of possibility of Alexander Vvedensky’s metaphysics]. Saint Petersburg.
25. Vvedensky A.I. (1901) Filosofskie ocherki [Philosophical essays]. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).
26. Vvedensky A.I. (1996) Stat’i po filosofii [Papers on philosophy]. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).
Review
For citations:
Tchikine A.A. Reading Russian Philosophy and Max Scheler Together: The Problem of the Other I. Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences. 2019;62(2):127-141. https://doi.org/10.30727/0235-1188-2019-62-2-127-141
Email this article 