Soloviev Vladimir, philosopher: biography, writings

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Vladimir Solovyov was one of the greatest Russian religious thinkers of the late 19th century. He became the author of several concepts and theories (about God-manhood, pan-Mongolism, etc.), which are still studied in detail by Russian philosophers.

Early years

The future philosopher Soloviev Vladimir Sergeevich was born on January 28, 1853 in Moscow, in the family of the famous historian Sergei Solovyov (the author of the multi-volume History of Russia from Ancient Times). The boy studied at the 5th gymnasium, and later entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. From his youth Solovyov read the works of German idealists and Slavophiles. In addition, radical materialists had a great influence on him. It was their passion that led the young man to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, however, after the second year he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology. Impressed by materialistic literature, young Vladimir Solovyov even threw icons out of the window of his room, which made his father extremely angry. In general, his reading circle then consisted of Khomyakov, Schelling and Hegel.

Sergey Mikhailovich instilled hard work and productivity in his son. He himself every year systematically published according to thathis "History" and in this sense became a clear example for his son. Already in adulthood, Vladimir wrote every day without exception (sometimes on scraps of paper, when there was nothing else at hand).

University career

Already at the age of 21, Solovyov became a master and assistant professor. The work he defended was en titled The Crisis of Western Philosophy. The young man decided to get a degree not in his native Moscow, but in St. Petersburg. What point of view did Soloviev Vladimir defend in his first scientific work? The philosopher criticized the then popular positivism in Europe. After receiving his master's degree, he went on his first major foreign trip. The novice writer visited the Old World and the countries of the East, including Egypt. The voyage was purely professional - Solovyov became interested in spiritualism and Kabbalah. In addition, it was in Alexandria and Cairo that he began work on his theory of Sophia.

Returning to his homeland, Solovyov began teaching at St. Petersburg University. He met and became close friends with Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The author of The Brothers Karamazov chose Vladimir Solovyov as the prototype for Alyosha. At this time, another Russian-Turkish war broke out. How did Solovyov Vladimir react to it? The philosopher almost went to the front as a volunteer, however, at the last moment he changed his mind. His deep religiosity and aversion to war affected him. In 1880 he defended his dissertation and became a doctor. However, due to a conflict with the rector of the university - MikhailVladislavlev - Solovyov did not receive a professorship.

Cessation of teaching activities

The turning point for the thinker was 1881. Then the whole country was shocked by the murder of Tsar Alexander II by the revolutionaries. What did Solovyov Vladimir do under these conditions? The philosopher gave a public lecture in which he stated that it was necessary to pardon the terrorists. This act clearly demonstrated the views and convictions of Solovyov. He believed that the state had no right to execute people, even in retaliation for murder. The idea of Christian forgiveness made the writer take this sincere but naive step.

The lecture led to a scandal. It became known at the very top. The Minister of the Interior, Loris-Melikov, wrote a memorandum to the new Tsar Alexander III, in which he urged the autocrat not to punish the philosopher in view of the latter's deep religiosity. In addition, the author of the lecture was the son of a respected historian, once the rector of Moscow University. Alexander in his response called Solovyov a "psychopath", and his closest adviser Konstantin Pobedonostsev considered the offender to the throne "insane".

After that, the philosopher left St. Petersburg University, although no one formally fired him. Firstly, it was a matter of hype, and secondly, the writer wanted to focus more on books and articles. It was after 1881 that the period of creative flowering began, which Vladimir Solovyov experienced. The philosopher wrote non-stop, as for him it was the only way to earn money.

Monk Knight

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Solovyov lived in monstrous conditions. He did not have a permanent home. The writer stayed in hotels or with numerous friends. Household inconsistency had a bad effect on he alth. In addition, the philosopher regularly kept a strict post. And all this was accompanied by intense training. Finally, Solovyov poisoned himself with turpentine more than once. He treated this liquid as healing and mystical. All his apartments were soaked with turpentine.

The writer's ambiguous lifestyle and reputation inspired the poet Alexander Blok to call him a monk-knight in his memoirs. The originality of Solovyov was manifested literally in everything. The writer Andrei Bely left memoirs about him, which, for example, say that the philosopher had an amazing laugh. Some acquaintances considered him Homeric and joyful, others - demonic.

Soloviev Vladimir Sergeevich often went abroad. In 1900, he returned to Moscow for the last time to submit his own translation of Plato's works to the publishing house. Then the writer felt bad. He was transferred to Sergei Trubetskoy, a religious philosopher, publicist, public figure and student of Solovyov. His family owned the Uzkoye estate near Moscow. Doctors came to see Vladimir Sergeevich, who made a disappointing diagnosis - "kidney cirrhosis" and "atherosclerosis". The writer's body was exhausted from overload at the desktop. He did not have a family and lived alone, so follow himhabits and no one could influence Solovyov. The Uzkoye estate became the place of his death. The philosopher died on August 13, 1900. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his father.

God-humanity

The key part of Vladimir Solovyov's legacy is his idea of God-manhood. This theory was first expounded by the philosopher in his "Readings" in 1878. Its main message is the conclusion about the unity of man and God. Solovyov was critical of the traditional mass faith of the Russian nation. He considered the customary rites "inhuman".

Many other Russian philosophers, like Solovyov, tried to comprehend the then state of the Russian Orthodox Church. In his teaching, the writer used the term Sophia, or Wisdom, which was to become the soul of the renewed faith. In addition, she has a body - the Church. This community of believers was to be the core of the future ideal society.

Soloviev in his "Readings on God-manhood" argued that the Church is going through a serious crisis. It is fragmented and has no power over the minds of people, and new popular, but dubious theories, positivism and socialism, are claiming its place. Solovyov Vladimir Sergeevich (1853-1900) was convinced that the cause of this spiritual catastrophe was the Great French Revolution, which shook the usual foundations of European society. In 12 readings, the theorist tried to prove: only a renewed church and religion can occupy the resulting ideological vacuum, where at the end of the 19th century there were manyradical political theories. Solovyov did not live to see the first revolution in Russia in 1905, but he correctly sensed its approach.

Sofia Concept

According to the idea of the philosopher, the principle of unity of God and man can be realized in Sophia. This is an example of an ideal society based on Christian love for one's neighbor. Speaking about Sophia as the ultimate goal of human development, the author of the Readings also touched upon the issue of the universe. He described in detail his own theory of the cosmogonic process.

The book of the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (10th reading) gives a chronology of the origin of the world. In the beginning there was the Astral Age. The writer associated her with Islam. The solar epoch followed. During it, the Sun, heat, light, magnetism and other physical phenomena arose. On the pages of his works, the theorist connected this period with numerous solar religious cults of antiquity - belief in Apollo, Osiris, Hercules and Adonis. With the advent of organic life on Earth, the last, Telluric epoch began.

Vladimir Solovyov paid special attention to this period. The historian, philosopher and theorist highlighted the three most important civilizations in human history. These peoples (Greeks, Hindus and Jews) were the first to offer the idea of an ideal society without bloodshed and other vices. It was among the Jewish people that Jesus Christ preached. Solovyov treated him not as an individual, but as a person who managed to embody all human nature. Nevertheless, the philosopher believed that people have much more material thandivine. Adam was the embodiment of this principle.

While talking about Sophia, Vladimir Solovyov adhered to the idea that nature has its own single soul. He believed that humanity should become like this order, when all people have something in common. These views of the philosopher found another religious reflection. He was a Uniate (that is, he advocated the unity of churches). There is even a point of view that he converted to Catholicism, although it is disputed by biographers due to fragmentary and inaccurate sources. One way or another, Solovyov was an active supporter of the unification of the Western and Eastern churches.

Beauty in Nature

One of the fundamental works of Vladimir Solovyov was his article "Beauty in Nature", published in 1889. The philosopher examined this phenomenon in detail, giving him many estimates. For example, he considered beauty as a way of transforming matter. At the same time, Solovyov called for the appreciation of the beautiful in itself, and not as a means to achieve another goal. He also called beauty the embodiment of an idea.

Soloviev Vladimir Sergeevich, whose brief biography is an example of the life of the author, who touched almost all spheres of human activity in his work, in this article also described his attitude to art. The philosopher believed that he always had only one goal - to improve reality and influence nature and the human soul. The debate about the purpose of art was popular at the end of the 19th century. For example, Leo Tolstoy spoke on the same topic,which the writer indirectly polemicized. Solovyov Vladimir Sergeevich, whose poems are known less than his philosophical works, was also a poet, so he did not talk about art from the outside. "Beauty in nature" significantly influenced the views of the intelligentsia of the Silver Age. The importance of this article for their work was noted by the writers Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely.

The Meaning of Love

What else did Vladimir Solovyov leave behind? God-manhood (its main concept) was developed in the series of articles "The Meaning of Love", published in 1892-1893. These were not separate publications, but parts of one whole work. In the first article, Solovyov refuted the idea that love is only a way of reproduction and continuation of the human race. Further, the writer compared its types. He compared in detail maternal, friendly, sexual, mystical love, love for the Fatherland, etc. At the same time, he touched on the nature of egoism. For Solovyov, love is the only force that can force a person to step over this individualistic feeling.

The assessments of other Russian philosophers are indicative. For example, Nikolai Berdyaev considered this cycle "the most wonderful thing that has been written about love." And Alexei Losev, who became one of the main biographers of the writer, emphasized that Soloviev considered love a way to achieve eternal unity (and, therefore, God-manhood).

Justifying the Good

The book Justification of the Good, written in 1897, is Vladimir Solovyov's key ethical work. The author planned to continue this work in two more parts and,thus, to publish a trilogy, but did not have time to implement his idea. In this book, the writer argued that goodness is all-encompassing and unconditional. First of all, because it is the basis of human nature. Solovyov proved the truth of this idea by the fact that all people from birth are familiar with the feeling of shame, which is not brought up and not instilled from the outside. He named other similar qualities characteristic of a person - reverence and pity.

Good is an integral part of the human race, because it is also given from God. Solovyov, explaining this thesis, mainly used biblical sources. He came to the conclusion that the entire history of mankind is a process of transition from the realm of nature to the realm of the spirit (that is, from primordial evil to good). An illustrative example of this is the evolution of the ways in which criminals are punished. Solovyov noted that over time the principle of blood feud disappeared. Also in this book, he once again spoke out against the use of the death pen alty.

Three Conversations

Over the years of his work, the philosopher wrote dozens of books, lecture courses, articles, etc. But, like every author, he had the last work, which eventually became a summing up of a long journey. Where did Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov stop? "Three Conversations on War, Progress and the End of World History" was the title of a book he wrote in the spring of 1900, shortly before his death. It was published after the author's death. Therefore, many biographersand researchers began to consider it as a creative testament of the writer.

The philosophy of Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov, concerning the ethical problem of bloodshed, is based on two theses. War is evil, but even it can be just. As an example, the thinker cited the example of Vladimir Monomakh's warning campaigns in the Polovtsian steppe. With the help of this war, the prince was able to save the Slavic settlements from the devastating raids of the steppes, which justified his act.

In the second conversation on the topic of progress, Solovyov noted the evolution of international relations, which began to be built on peaceful principles. At that time, the most powerful powers really sought to find a balance among themselves in a rapidly changing world. However, the philosopher himself did not see the bloody world wars that broke out on the ruins of this system. The writer in the second conversation emphasized that the main events in the history of mankind took place in the Far East. Just then, European countries were dividing China among themselves, and Japan embarked on a path of dramatic progress along the Western lines.

In the third conversation about the end of world history, Solovyov, with his inherent religiosity, argued that, despite all the positive trends, evil remains in the world, that is, the Antichrist. In the same part, the philosopher first used the term "pan-Mongolism", which later began to be used by his numerous followers. This phenomenon is the consolidation of Asian peoples against European colonization. Solovyov believed that Chinaand Japan will join forces, create a single empire and drive out outsiders from neighboring regions, including Burma.