Russian philosophy is a collective name for the philosophical heritage of Russian thinkers.
189-397: In philosophy , nihilism ( / ˈ n aɪ ( h ) ɪ l ɪ z əm , ˈ n iː -/ ; from Latin nihil 'nothing') is any viewpoint, or a family of views, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, namely knowledge , morality , or meaning . There have been different nihilist positions, including that human values are baseless, that life
378-425: A linguistic therapy. According to Ludwig Wittgenstein , for instance, philosophy aims at dispelling misunderstandings to which humans are susceptible due to the confusing structure of ordinary language . Phenomenologists , such as Edmund Husserl , characterize philosophy as a "rigorous science" investigating essences . They practice a radical suspension of theoretical assumptions about reality to get back to
567-427: A self causes suffering. Nonetheless, his critics called him a nihilist who teaches the annihilation and extermination of an existing being. The Buddha's response was that he only teaches the cessation of suffering. When an individual has given up craving and the conceit of 'I am' their mind is liberated, they no longer come into any state of ' being ' and are no longer born again. The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta records
756-489: A 'decentralization' of authorship, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and certain ideals and practices of humanism and the Enlightenment . Jacques Derrida , whose deconstruction is perhaps most commonly labeled nihilistic, did not himself make the nihilistic move that others have claimed. Derridean deconstructionists argue that this approach rather frees texts, individuals or organizations from
945-506: A conversation between the Buddha and an individual named Vaccha that further elaborates on this. In the sutta, Vaccha asks the Buddha to confirm one of the following, with respect to the existence of the Buddha after death: To all four questions, the Buddha answers that the terms "reappears somewhere else," "does not reappear," "both does and does not reappear," and "neither does nor does not reappear," do not apply. When Vaccha expresses puzzlement,
1134-407: A conversation with his teacher Ajahn Chah , comments that he is "Determined above all things to fully realize Nirvana in this lifetime...deeply weary of the human condition and...[is] determined not to be born again." To this, Ajahn Chah replies: "What about the rest of us, Sumedho? Don't you care about those who'll be left behind?" Ajahn Amaro comments that Ajahn Chah could detect that his student had
1323-485: A denial of truth, but as a denial of our ability to know truth. That is to say, it makes an epistemological claim, compared to nihilism's ontological claim. Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an objective truth or method to prove their claims, philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world that can not be separated from the age and system the stories belong to—referred to by Lyotard as meta-narratives . He then goes on to define
1512-408: A disproportion between what we want to value (or need) and how the world appears to operate." When we find out that the world does not possess the objective value or meaning that we want it to have or have long since believed it to have, we find ourselves in a crisis. Nietzsche asserts that with the decline of Christianity and the rise of physiological decadence , nihilism is in fact characteristic of
1701-545: A doctor diagnoses a disease based on the observed symptoms. Logic also investigates incorrect forms of reasoning. They are called fallacies and are divided into formal and informal fallacies based on whether the source of the error lies only in the form of the argument or also in its content and context. Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality , such as existence, objects and their properties , wholes and their parts , space and time , events , and causation . There are disagreements about
1890-634: A failure. Currently, there are several organizations that declare their continuity to the ideas of the Eurasians. The main ones among them are the Eurasian Youth Union , the International Eurasian Movement of the main ideologist of neo–Eurasianism, Alexander Dugin , and a number of other organizations. An extremely original and extraordinary contribution to the development of Russian philosophy belongs to Georgy Shchedrovitsky and
2079-444: A great variety of methods to arrive at philosophical knowledge. They include conceptual analysis , reliance on common sense and intuitions , use of thought experiments , analysis of ordinary language , description of experience , and critical questioning . Philosophy is related to many other fields, including the sciences, mathematics , business , law , and journalism . It provides an interdisciplinary perspective and studies
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#17328547234152268-461: A manifestation of will, truth as a manifestation of reason, beauty as a manifestation of feeling. The philosopher saw the entire material world as controlled by Him, while man in his philosophy acted as a connecting link between God and nature, created by Him, but not perfect. A person must bring it to perfection (up to spiritualization), this is the meaning of his life (movement to the Absolute ). Since
2457-697: A metaphysical foundation of ethics. The modern period in Chinese philosophy began in the early 20th century and was shaped by the influence of and reactions to Western philosophy. The emergence of Chinese Marxism —which focused on class struggle , socialism , and communism —resulted in a significant transformation of the political landscape. Another development was the emergence of New Confucianism , which aims to modernize and rethink Confucian teachings to explore their compatibility with democratic ideals and modern science. Traditional Japanese philosophy assimilated and synthesized ideas from different traditions, including
2646-517: A moral duty; and, finally, freedom imbued with the love of God. He argues that freedom is not created by God, and therefore God cannot be held responsible for the freedom that created evil. Primary freedom conditions the possibility of both good and evil. Thus, even God cannot foresee the actions of a person with free will, he acts as an assistant so that the will of a person becomes good. Existential views in Berdyaev's work are manifested in his thoughts on
2835-403: A morality that is strong or healthy, meaning that the person in question is aware that he constructs it himself, from weak morality, where the interpretation is projected on to something external. Nietzsche discusses Christianity, one of the major topics in his work, at length in the context of the problem of nihilism in his notebooks, in a chapter entitled "European Nihilism." Here he states that
3024-413: A negation of religious principles. Nihilism has, however, been widely ascribed to both religious and irreligious viewpoints. In popular use, the term commonly refers to forms of existential nihilism , according to which life is without intrinsic value , meaning , or purpose. Other prominent positions within nihilism include the rejection of all normative and ethical views ( § Moral nihilism ),
3213-501: A nihilistic aversion to life rather than true detachment. The term nihilism was first introduced to philosophy by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819), who used the term to characterize rationalism , and in particular Spinoza's determinism and the Aufklärung , in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism—and thus it should be avoided and replaced with
3402-463: A noticeable growth in the number of female philosophers , but they still remained underrepresented. Arabic–Persian philosophy arose in the early 9th century CE as a response to discussions in the Islamic theological tradition . Its classical period lasted until the 12th century CE and was strongly influenced by ancient Greek philosophers. It employed their ideas to elaborate and interpret the teachings of
3591-404: A number of conclusions, among which the largest the following are important: firstly, any ethnos is a community of people united by a certain stereotype of behavior; secondly, an ethnos and its stereotype of behavior are formed in specific geographic and climatic conditions and remain stable for a long period of time, comparable to the existence of an ethnos; thirdly, superethnic wholes are formed on
3780-460: A part of intellectual history , but it also investigates questions not covered by intellectual history such as whether the theories of past philosophers are true and have remained philosophically relevant. The history of philosophy is primarily concerned with theories based on rational inquiry and argumentation; some historians understand it in a looser sense that includes myths , religious teachings , and proverbial lore. Influential traditions in
3969-641: A person occupies an intermediate position between God and nature, his moral activity is manifested in love for another person, for nature and for God. The concept of all-unity was also used by Semyon Frank and Lev Karsavin . One of the central places in Russian philosophy is occupied by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). His philosophy was influenced by the views of Kant , Rousseau , Arthur Schopenhauer . Tolstoy's views were shared by many of his contemporaries ("Tolstoyans") and followers. Gandhi himself considered him to be his teacher. In his philosophy, Tolstoy recognizes
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#17328547234154158-571: A philosopher, theologian and translator Epiphany Slavinetsky . The most important figure within the Moscow Slavic–Greek–Latin Academy was Simeon of Polotsk . Simeon Polotsky was a figure of Russian culture, spiritual writer, theologian , poet , playwright, translator. He was the mentor of the children of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from Maria Miloslavskaya : Ivan , Sophia and Fedor . Founder of
4347-419: A restrictive truth, and that deconstruction opens up the possibility of other ways of being. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak , for example, uses deconstruction to create an ethics of opening up Western scholarship to the voice of the subaltern and to philosophies outside of the canon of western texts. Derrida himself built a philosophy based upon a 'responsibility to the other'. Deconstruction can thus be seen not as
4536-414: A return to some type of faith and revelation . Bret W. Davis writes, for example: The first philosophical development of the idea of nihilism is generally ascribed to Friedrich Jacobi, who in a famous letter criticized Fichte 's idealism as falling into nihilism. According to Jacobi, Fichte's absolutization of the ego (the 'absolute I' that posits the 'not-I') is an inflation of subjectivity that denies
4725-527: A tendency to revelry and anarchy were manifested. Speaking about the events of 1917, Berdyaev emphasizes that the liberal–bourgeois revolution in Russia was a utopia. The revolution in Russia could only be socialist. According to the philosopher, the Russian idea is rooted in the idea of the brotherhood of people and peoples, for the Russian people in their spiritual structure is religious, open and communitarian. Nevertheless, Berdyaev reminds, one should not forget about
4914-612: A variety of arguments. Deductive arguments are mainly studied by formal logic. An argument is deductively valid if the truth of its premises ensures the truth of its conclusion. Deductively valid arguments follow a rule of inference , like modus ponens , which has the following logical form : " p ; if p then q ; therefore q ". An example is the argument "today is Sunday; if today is Sunday then I don't have to go to work today; therefore I don't have to go to work today". The premises of non-deductive arguments also support their conclusion, although this support does not guarantee that
5103-615: A wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation . Indian philosophy combines the spiritual problem of how to reach enlightenment with the exploration of the nature of reality and the ways of arriving at knowledge. Chinese philosophy focuses principally on practical issues in relation to right social conduct, government, and self-cultivation . Major branches of philosophy are epistemology , ethics , logic , and metaphysics . Epistemology studies what knowledge
5292-444: Is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation upon which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure. He states that there is at least the possibility of another type of nihilist in the wake of Christianity's self-dissolution, one that does not stop after the destruction of all value and meaning and succumb to the following nothingness. This alternate, 'active' nihilism on
5481-489: Is a combination of different parts and attempts to identify what those parts are. An influential theory in this area claims that knowledge has three components: it is a belief that is justified and true . This theory is controversial and the difficulties associated with it are known as the Gettier problem . Alternative views state that knowledge requires additional components, like the absence of luck; different components, like
5670-510: Is a common issue in relation to the sources of knowledge and the justification they offer. It is based on the idea that beliefs require some kind of reason or evidence to be justified. The problem is that the source of justification may itself be in need of another source of justification. This leads to an infinite regress or circular reasoning . Foundationalists avoid this conclusion by arguing that some sources can provide justification without requiring justification themselves. Another solution
5859-534: Is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions. Historically, many of the individual sciences , such as physics and psychology , formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western , Arabic–Persian , Indian , and Chinese philosophy . Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers
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6048-561: Is a set of essential features shared by all parts of philosophy. Others see only weaker family resemblances or contend that it is merely an empty blanket term. Precise definitions are often only accepted by theorists belonging to a certain philosophical movement and are revisionistic according to Søren Overgaard et al. in that many presumed parts of philosophy would not deserve the title "philosophy" if they were true. Some definitions characterize philosophy in relation to its method, like pure reasoning. Others focus on its topic, for example, as
6237-449: Is abstraction conquering individuality. Kierkegaard, an advocate of a philosophy of life , generally argued against levelling and its nihilistic consequences, although he believed it would be "genuinely educative to live in the age of levelling [because] people will be forced to face the judgement of [levelling] alone." George Cotkin asserts Kierkegaard was against "the standardization and levelling of belief, both spiritual and political, in
6426-467: Is also concerned with the moral evaluation of character traits and institutions. It explores what the standards of morality are and how to live a good life. Philosophical ethics addresses such basic questions as "Are moral obligations relative?"; "Which has priority: well-being or obligation?"; and "What gives life meaning?" The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics , normative ethics , and applied ethics . Meta-ethics asks abstract questions about
6615-486: Is always by someone of some thing: it is always bound by perspective, and it is never mere fact. Rather, there are interpretations through which we understand the world and give it meaning. Interpreting is something we can not go without; in fact, it is a condition of subjectivity. One way of interpreting the world is through morality, as one of the fundamental ways that people make sense of the world, especially in regard to their own thoughts and actions. Nietzsche distinguishes
6804-479: Is an expression of the philosopher's love of wisdom and has the aim of improving one's well-being by leading a reflective life. For example, the Stoics saw philosophy as an exercise to train the mind and thereby achieve eudaimonia and flourish in life. As a discipline, the history of philosophy aims to provide a systematic and chronological exposition of philosophical concepts and doctrines. Some theorists see it as
6993-666: Is and how to acquire it. Ethics investigates moral principles and what constitutes right conduct. Logic is the study of correct reasoning and explores how good arguments can be distinguished from bad ones. Metaphysics examines the most general features of reality , existence, objects , and properties . Other subfields are aesthetics , philosophy of language , philosophy of mind , philosophy of religion , philosophy of science , philosophy of mathematics , philosophy of history , and political philosophy . Within each branch, there are competing schools of philosophy that promote different principles, theories, or methods. Philosophers use
7182-451: Is closely related to the disciplines of logic and linguistics. The philosophy of language rose to particular prominence in the early 20th century in analytic philosophy due to the works of Frege and Russell. One of its central topics is to understand how sentences get their meaning. There are two broad theoretical camps: those emphasizing the formal truth conditions of sentences and those investigating circumstances that determine when it
7371-408: Is concerned with meaning , understanding , or the clarification of language. According to one view, philosophy is conceptual analysis , which involves finding the necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of concepts. Another definition characterizes philosophy as thinking about thinking to emphasize its self-critical, reflective nature. A further approach presents philosophy as
7560-544: Is considered as a phenomenon of Russian intellectual culture rooted in the theological and didactic literature of Ancient Russia ( Kliment Smolyatich , Kirik Novgorodets , Kirill Turovsky and others are among the first Russian philosophers). According to Nikolay Lossky , the characteristic features of Russian philosophy are: cosmism , sophiology (teachings about Sophia) , sobornost , metaphysics , religiosity, intuitionism, positivism , realism ( ontologism ). Semyon Frank characterized Russian philosophy by pointing out
7749-402: Is different—in some sense diametrically opposed—to the usual definition (as outlined in the rest of this article). Nihilism is one of the main topics of Deleuze's early book Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962). There, Deleuze repeatedly interprets Nietzsche's nihilism as "the enterprise of denying life and depreciating existence". Nihilism thus defined is therefore not the denial of higher values, or
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7938-416: Is finished, today it is the precession of the neutral, of forms of the neutral and of indifference ... all that remains, is the fascination for desertlike and indifferent forms, for the very operation of the system that annihilates us. Now, fascination (in contrast to seduction, which was attached to appearances, and to dialectical reason, which was attached to meaning) is a nihilistic passion par excellence, it
8127-457: Is indeed the correct term for this stance, and some question whether Nietzsche takes the problems nihilism poses seriously enough. Martin Heidegger 's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced many postmodern thinkers who investigated the problem of nihilism as put forward by Nietzsche. Only recently has Heidegger's influence on Nietzschean nihilism research faded. As early as the 1930s, Heidegger
8316-437: Is its undoing: in its drive towards truth, Christianity eventually finds itself to be a construct, which leads to its own dissolution. It is therefore that Nietzsche states that we have outgrown Christianity "not because we lived too far from it, rather because we lived too close." As such, the self-dissolution of Christianity constitutes yet another form of nihilism. Because Christianity was an interpretation that posited itself as
8505-456: Is itself a borrowing from the Latin philosophia . The term philosophy acquired the meanings of "advanced study of the speculative subjects ( logic , ethics , physics , and metaphysics )", "deep wisdom consisting of love of truth and virtuous living", "profound learning as transmitted by the ancient writers", and "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge , reality , and existence , and
8694-436: Is like the stillness of death, where one can hear one's own heartbeat, a stillness like death, into which nothing can penetrate, in which everything sinks, powerless. One person can head a rebellion, but one person cannot head this levelling process, for that would make him a leader and he would avoid being levelled. Each individual can in his little circle participate in this levelling, but it is an abstract process, and levelling
8883-555: Is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some other highly regarded concepts are in fact meaningless or pointless. The term was popularized by Ivan Turgenev and more specifically by his character Bazarov in the novel Fathers and Sons . Scholars of nihilism may regard it as merely a label that has been applied to various separate philosophies, or as a distinct historical concept arising out of nominalism , skepticism , and philosophical pessimism , as well as possibly out of Christianity itself. Contemporary understanding of
9072-460: Is necessary to "inflict wounds on them, thereby consecrating his hand", while Nil Sorsky and Vassian Patrikeev insisted on the need exhortation, fighting with the word, not with the sword. The controversy between the Josephites and the non–possessors became an important example of the tension between the authorities and free–thinkers in the Russian state, which subsequently reappeared again and again in
9261-472: Is no God, everything is permitted' , or ' après moi, le déluge ' , provides a principle whose sincerity they try to live out to the end. They search for and experiment with ways for the self to justify itself after God has disappeared." Nihilism is often associated with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , who provided a detailed diagnosis of nihilism as a widespread phenomenon of Western culture. Though
9450-502: Is not a thing you can find, but rather a state where you experience the reality of non-grasping. In the Alagaddupama Sutta , the Buddha describes how some individuals feared his teaching because they believe that their self would be destroyed if they followed it. He describes this as an anxiety caused by the false belief in an unchanging, everlasting self . All things are subject to change and taking any impermanent phenomena to be
9639-475: Is presented by coherentists , who state that a belief is justified if it coheres with other beliefs of the person. Many discussions in epistemology touch on the topic of philosophical skepticism , which raises doubts about some or all claims to knowledge. These doubts are often based on the idea that knowledge requires absolute certainty and that humans are unable to acquire it. Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, studies what constitutes right conduct . It
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#17328547234159828-516: Is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth. Postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote briefly of nihilism from the postmodern viewpoint in Simulacra and Simulation . He stuck mainly to topics of interpretations of the real world over the simulations of which the real world is composed. The uses of meaning were an important subject in Baudrillard's discussion of nihilism: The apocalypse
10017-532: Is sometimes called "the first ancient Russian philosopher") was resolved. The ethical ideal is contained in the Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh. In addition to historiosophy (ethnogenesis as a punishment for the Tower of Babel), The Tale of Bygone Years also contains elements of religious philosophy: the concepts of property (hypostasis), flesh (matter), vision (form), desire and dream (imagination) are being developed. Also in
10206-418: Is sometimes understood as a proper science in its own right. According to some naturalistic philosophers , such as W. V. O. Quine , philosophy is an empirical yet abstract science that is concerned with wide-ranging empirical patterns instead of particular observations. Science-based definitions usually face the problem of explaining why philosophy in its long history has not progressed to the same extent or in
10395-553: Is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence or arbitrariness of human principles and social institutions . Nihilism has also been described as conspicuous in or constitutive of certain historical periods . For example, Jean Baudrillard and others have characterized postmodernity as a nihilistic epoch or mode of thought. Likewise, some theologians and religious figures have stated that postmodernity and many aspects of modernity represent nihilism by
10584-439: Is suitable to use a sentence, the latter of which is associated with speech act theory . Russian philosophy In historiography , there is no consensus regarding the origins of Russian philosophy, its periodization and its cultural significance. The historical boundaries of Russian philosophy directly depend on the philosophical content that a specific researcher sees in Russian intellectual history. Traditionally, since
10773-493: Is taking shape as an independent phenomenon, thus, in the era of Peter the Great . The reduction of Russian philosophy to the enlightenment paradigm has been repeatedly criticized in view of the reductivization of the Russian philosophical heritage of previous eras. Discussions about the origins and boundaries of Russian philosophy do not subside to this day, although in most modern historical and philosophical essays, Russian philosophy
10962-439: Is that actions are in tune with those duties and not what consequences they have. Virtue theorists judge actions based on how the moral character of the agent is expressed. According to this view, actions should conform to what an ideally virtuous agent would do by manifesting virtues like generosity and honesty . Logic is the study of correct reasoning . It aims to understand how to distinguish good from bad arguments . It
11151-412: Is that philosophy, and more specifically metaphysics , has forgotten to discriminate between investigating the notion of a being ( seiende ) and Being ( Sein ). According to Heidegger, the history of Western thought can be seen as the history of metaphysics. Moreover, because metaphysics has forgotten to ask about the notion of Being (what Heidegger calls Seinsvergessenheit ), it is a history about
11340-754: Is the Latin root word nihil , meaning 'nothing', which is similarly found in the related terms annihilate , meaning 'to bring to nothing', and nihility , meaning ' nothingness '. The term nihilism emerged in several places in Europe during the 18th century, notably in the German form Nihilismus , though was also in use during the Middle Ages to denote certain forms of heresy . The concept itself first took shape within Russian and German philosophy , which respectively represented
11529-468: Is the 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton . This book referred to natural philosophy in its title, but it is today considered a book of physics. The meaning of philosophy changed toward the end of the modern period when it acquired the more narrow meaning common today. In this new sense, the term is mainly associated with philosophical disciplines like metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Among other topics, it covers
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#173285472341511718-514: Is the passion proper to the mode of disappearance. We are fascinated by all forms of disappearance, of our disappearance. Melancholic and fascinated, such is our general situation in an era of involuntary transparency. From the 19th century, nihilism has encompassed a range of positions within various fields of philosophy. Each of these, as the Encyclopædia Britannica states, "denied the existence of genuine moral truths or values, rejected
11907-462: Is truth established?"; and "Can we prove causal relations?" Epistemology is primarily interested in declarative knowledge or knowledge of facts, like knowing that Princess Diana died in 1997. But it also investigates practical knowledge , such as knowing how to ride a bicycle, and knowledge by acquaintance , for example, knowing a celebrity personally. One area in epistemology is the analysis of knowledge . It assumes that declarative knowledge
12096-456: Is usually divided into formal and informal logic . Formal logic uses artificial languages with a precise symbolic representation to investigate arguments. In its search for exact criteria, it examines the structure of arguments to determine whether they are correct or incorrect. Informal logic uses non-formal criteria and standards to assess the correctness of arguments. It relies on additional factors such as content and context. Logic examines
12285-423: Is what Nietzsche calls passive nihilism , which he recognizes in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer . Schopenhauer's doctrine, which Nietzsche also refers to as Western Buddhism , advocates separating oneself from will and desires in order to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterizes this attitude as a "will to nothingness ", whereby life turns away from itself, as there is nothing of value to be found in
12474-556: Is whether beauty is an objective feature of entities or a subjective aspect of experience. Aesthetic philosophers also investigate the nature of aesthetic experiences and judgments . Further topics include the essence of works of art and the processes involved in creating them. The philosophy of language studies the nature and function of language . It examines the concepts of meaning , reference , and truth. It aims to answer questions such as how words are related to things and how language affects human thought and understanding. It
12663-555: The rabble or common masses. Later interpretations of nihilism were heavily influenced by works of anti-nihilistic literature , such as those of Fyodor Dostoevsky , which arose in response to Russian nihilism. "In contrast to the corrupted nihilists [of the real world], who tried to numb their nihilistic sensitivity and forget themselves through self-indulgence, Dostoevsky's figures voluntarily leap into nihilism and try to be themselves within its boundaries.", writes contemporary scholar Nishitani . "The nihility expressed in 'if there
12852-523: The Quran . Al-Kindi (801–873 CE) is usually regarded as the first philosopher of this tradition. He translated and interpreted many works of Aristotle and Neoplatonists in his attempt to show that there is a harmony between reason and faith . Avicenna (980–1037 CE) also followed this goal and developed a comprehensive philosophical system to provide a rational understanding of reality encompassing science, religion, and mysticism. Al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE)
13041-402: The interpretation, Nietzsche states that this dissolution leads beyond skepticism to a distrust of all meaning. Stanley Rosen identifies Nietzsche's concept of nihilism with a situation of meaninglessness, in which "everything is permitted." According to him, the loss of higher metaphysical values that exist in contrast to the base reality of the world, or merely human ideas, gives rise to
13230-457: The postmodern condition as characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimation by meta-narratives. This concept of the instability of truth and meaning leads in the direction of nihilism, though Lyotard stops short of embracing the latter. In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which
13419-548: The "Niederdorf" or "Niederdörfli"—in the Café Voltaire. The Dadaists claimed that Dada was not an art movement, but an anti-art movement, sometimes using found objects in a manner similar to found poetry . Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek ) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence , reason , knowledge , value , mind , and language . It
13608-420: The "things themselves", that is, as originally given in experience. They contend that this base-level of experience provides the foundation for higher-order theoretical knowledge, and that one needs to understand the former to understand the latter. An early approach found in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy is that philosophy is the spiritual practice of developing one's rational capacities. This practice
13797-535: The 18th century were Feofan Prokopovich and Stefan Yavorsky , Mikhail Lomonosov, Grigory Skovoroda , Russian Martinists, and "Inner Christians". The central works of Russian philosophers of the 18th century were "A Conversation of Two Friends" by Vasily Tatishchev, "Children's Philosophy" by Andrei Bolotov, "Knowledge Concerning Philosophy in General" by Grigory Teplov and "About Man, His Mortality and Immortality" by Alexander Radishchev. Schellingism appeared in Russia at
13986-559: The 1960s, a Nietzschean 'renaissance' began, culminating in the work of Mazzino Montinari and Giorgio Colli . They began work on a new and complete edition of Nietzsche's collected works, making Nietzsche more accessible for scholarly research. Vattimo explains that with this new edition of Colli and Montinari, a critical reception of Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche began to take shape. Like other contemporary French and Italian philosophers, Vattimo does not want, or only partially wants, to rely on Heidegger for understanding Nietzsche. On
14175-406: The 19th and 20th Centuries" (1946). Eurasianism is a philosophical and political movement advocating the rejection of Russia's European integration in favor of integration with Central Asian countries. The Eurasian movement, which emerged among the Russian emigration in the 1920s and 1930s, gained popularity by the beginning of the 21st century. The ideas of Eurasianism, practically forgotten by
14364-505: The 19th century, mystical and religious thinkers began to set the tone in academic and so–called free philosophy". As Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalia Vorobyova notes in her work "History of Russian Spiritual Culture", modern researchers postulate the absence of an original national Slavic–Russian philosophical system, considering the system of Russian philosophy as a phenomenon of Modern period . As Academician Dmitry Likhachev writes: "For many centuries Russian philosophy
14553-618: The 19th century, the "pre–Petrine" or "Old Russian" and "post–Petrine" or "Enlightenment" stages of the development of Russian philosophy have been distinguished. In modern historiography, a third, "Soviet" period is also distinguished. Starting from religious thought, Archimandrite Gabriel, the first historian of Russian philosophy, saw its origins in the didactic "Teachings" of Vladimir Monomakh , thereby directly elevating Russian philosophy to traditional ancient Russian scribes. A number of major historians of Russian philosophy, however, tend to view philosophy in stricter boundaries: Russian philosophy
14742-686: The 20th century, in connection with the dramatic events of Russian history, there is a division of Russian philosophy into Russian Marxism and the philosophy of the Russian diaspora. Some of the philosophers were exiled abroad, but some remained in Soviet Russia: Pavel Florensky and his student Alexei Losev . Through the latter, the traditions of Russian philosophy were revived in Soviet Russia, since Sergey Averintsev and Vladimir Bibikhin received spiritual succession from him. The most important place in Russian philosophical thought in
14931-412: The 5th century CE. Its focus was on religious topics and many thinkers used ancient philosophy to explain and further elaborate Christian doctrines . The Renaissance period started in the 14th century and saw a renewed interest in schools of ancient philosophy, in particular Platonism . Humanism also emerged in this period. The modern period started in the 17th century. One of its central concerns
15120-421: The Buddha and Nirvana by stating that a "Person who has attained the goal [nirvana] is thus indescribable because [they have] abandoned all things by which [they] could be described." The Suttas themselves describe the liberated mind as 'untraceable' or as 'consciousness without feature', making no distinction between the mind of a liberated being that is alive and the mind of one that is no longer alive. Despite
15309-408: The Buddha asks Vaccha a counter question to the effect of: if a fire were to go out and someone were to ask you whether the fire went north, south, east or west, how would you reply? Vaccha replies that the question does not apply and that an extinguished fire can only be classified as 'out'. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu elaborates on the classification problem around the words 'reappear,' etc. with respect to
15498-468: The Buddha was alive, some of which were viewed by him to be morally nihilistic. In the "Doctrine of Nihilism" in the Apannaka Sutta , the Buddha describes moral nihilists as holding the following views: The Buddha further states that those who hold these views will fail to see the virtue in good mental, verbal, and bodily conduct and the corresponding dangers in misconduct, and will therefore tend towards
15687-462: The Buddha's explanations to the contrary, Buddhist practitioners may, at times, still approach Buddhism in a nihilistic manner. Ajahn Amaro illustrates this by retelling the story of a Buddhist monk, Ajahn Sumedho , who in his early years took a nihilistic approach to Nirvana. A distinct feature of Nirvana in Buddhism is that an individual attaining it is no longer subject to rebirth. Ajahn Sumedho, during
15876-520: The Christian moral doctrine provides people with intrinsic value , belief in God (which justifies the evil in the world) and a basis for objective knowledge . In this sense, in constructing a world where objective knowledge is possible, Christianity is an antidote against a primal form of nihilism, against the despair of meaninglessness. However, it is exactly the element of truthfulness in Christian doctrine that
16065-495: The History of Being (1944–46), Heidegger tries to understand Nietzsche's nihilism as trying to achieve a victory through the devaluation of the, until then, highest values. The principle of this devaluation is, according to Heidegger, the will to power . The will to power is also the principle of every earlier valuation of values. How does this devaluation occur and why is this nihilistic? One of Heidegger's main critiques on philosophy
16254-792: The Reflection of Human Life in the Next World" in the Univ Monastery. Among the graduates of the academy were: the author of "Grammar" Melety Smotritsky (son of the first rector), archimandrite of the Kiev–Pechersk Lavra, the founder of the Lavra Printing House Yelisey Pletenetsky , polemicist writer, philosopher, author of "Apocrisis" Christopher Filalet and many others. The activities of the Ostrog School predetermined
16443-494: The Russian nihilist movement can be traced back to 1855 and perhaps earlier, where it was principally a philosophy of extreme moral and epistemological skepticism . However, it was not until 1862 that the name nihilism was first popularized, when Ivan Turgenev used the term in his celebrated novel Fathers and Sons to describe the disillusionment of the younger generation towards both the progressives and traditionalists that came before them, as well as its manifestation in
16632-753: The School at the Zaikonospassky Monastery, teacher of Sylvester Medvedev. Other important figures include Sylvester Medvedev and the Likhuda Brothers, Feofilakt Lopatinsky, Pallady Rogovsky. The most important figure in the framework of philosophy at the Smolensk Collegium was Gedeon Vishnevsky. Bishop Gedeon Vishnevsky was the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church , bishop of Smolensk and Dorogobuzh . The reforms of Peter I contributed to
16821-457: The absolute transcendence of God. A related but oppositional concept is fideism , which sees reason as hostile and inferior to faith. Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) posited an early form of nihilism, which he referred to as leveling . He saw leveling as the process of suppressing individuality to a point where an individual's uniqueness becomes non-existent and nothing meaningful in one's existence can be affirmed: Levelling at its maximum
17010-501: The ancient Russian state, translated literature of Byzantine philosophical monuments was widely circulated, the most important of which was the collection of sayings "The Bee" and "Dioptra" by Philip the Hermit. Among the most famous authors who left philosophically significant works are Vladimir Monomakh , Theodosius Pechersky , Klim Smolyatich , Kirik Novgorodets , Kirill Turovsky and Daniil Zatochnik. A wide controversy unfolded between
17199-454: The arguments of patristic literature, but also for monuments of Latin scholastic scholarship, which Dmitry Gerasimov, also known as Dmitry Scholastic, a member of the Gennadiy circle, began to translate. It is noteworthy that the reaction to heretics on the part of Joseph Volotsky and Nil Sorsky also differed radically: Joseph Volotsky insisted on the destruction of heretics, according to Joseph, it
17388-442: The basic limits of human understanding". Before the modern age, the term philosophy was used in a wide sense. It included most forms of rational inquiry, such as the individual sciences , as its subdisciplines. For instance, natural philosophy was a major branch of philosophy. This branch of philosophy encompassed a wide range of fields, including disciplines like physics, chemistry , and biology . An example of this usage
17577-567: The basis of a generalized stereotype of behavior shared by representatives of different ethnic groups of a single super–ethnic group; fourthly, the stereotype of the behavior of a superethnic integrity is a certain way of being that meets certain conditions of existence. Even before the beginning of the October Revolution , the philosophy of Marxism developed in Russia ( Georgy Plekhanov , Vladimir Lenin ). The main question in Soviet philosophy
17766-463: The beginning of the 19th century. In 1823, the Society of Wisdom is created. Contemporaries called Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900) the central figure of Russian philosophy. He criticized the philosophy that existed before him for abstractness and did not accept such extreme manifestations of it as empiricism and rationalism . He put forward the idea of positive total–unity, headed by God. He saw good as
17955-469: The beginning of the 20th century, the largest Russian philosophers, under the influence of social and political changes in the country, published three philosophical collections, which received a wide public response and evaluation from various political figures of that time. These compilations: Russian religious philosophy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries became a kind of synthesis between Slavophilism and Westernism. Following Chaadaev, projects for
18144-436: The beginning of the 20th century. It discusses topics such as ethnophilosophy , négritude , pan-Africanism , Marxism, postcolonialism , the role of cultural identity, relativism , African epistemology , and the critique of Eurocentrism . Philosophical questions can be grouped into several branches. These groupings allow philosophers to focus on a set of similar topics and interact with other thinkers who are interested in
18333-436: The character and vocation of the Russian people. "The Russian people are a highly polarized people, they are a combination of opposites", the thinker believes. The Russian people combine cruelty and humanity, individualism and faceless collectivism, the search for God and militant atheism, humility and arrogance, slavery and rebellion. In history, such features of a national character as obedience to power, martyrdom, sacrifice and
18522-560: The color red, can exist at different locations at the same time. This is not the case for particulars including individual persons or specific objects. Other metaphysical questions are whether the past fully determines the present and what implications this would have for the existence of free will . There are many other subfields of philosophy besides its core branches. Some of the most prominent are aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and political philosophy. Aesthetics in
18711-461: The conclusion is true. One form is inductive reasoning . It starts from a set of individual cases and uses generalization to arrive at a universal law governing all cases. An example is the inference that "all ravens are black" based on observations of many individual black ravens. Another form is abductive reasoning . It starts from an observation and concludes that the best explanation of this observation must be true. This happens, for example, when
18900-462: The connection between faith and power, which was resolved on Russian soil in the idea of "charisma" of the ruler. This philosophical problem was further developed in the epistolary legacy of Ivan the Terrible and Prince Kurbsky, in "The Lay of Voivode Dracula" by Fyodor Kuritsyn , as well as in the message of Ivan Peresvetov. In addition, Joseph Volotsky and Nil Sorsky went down in history in the course of
19089-614: The consequences of the general theories developed by normative ethics in specific situations, for example, in the workplace or for medical treatments. Within contemporary normative ethics, consequentialism, deontology , and virtue ethics are influential schools of thought. Consequentialists judge actions based on their consequences. One such view is utilitarianism , which argues that actions should increase overall happiness while minimizing suffering. Deontologists judge actions based on whether they follow moral duties, such as abstaining from lying or killing. According to them, what matters
19278-462: The construction of the kingdom of God on Earth were preserved, which acquired the features of Sophiology ( Vladimir Solovyov , Sergei Bulgakov ) and Rose of the World ( Daniil Andreev ). Religion and spiritual and moral regeneration were thought to be an important part of building a just society. In part, the ideas of sophiology are inherited by Bolshevism ( communism ) and cosmism ( noosphere ). In
19467-425: The denial of meaning, but rather the depreciation of life in the name of such higher values or meaning. Deleuze therefore (with, he claims, Nietzsche) says that Christianity and Platonism , and with them the whole of metaphysics, are intrinsically Nihilist. Postmodern and poststructuralist thought has questioned the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning,
19656-459: The destruction of Being. That is why Heidegger calls metaphysics nihilistic. This makes Nietzsche's metaphysics not a victory over nihilism, but a perfection of it. Heidegger, in his interpretation of Nietzsche, has been inspired by Ernst Jünger . Many references to Jünger can be found in Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche. For example, in a letter to the rector of Freiburg University of November 4, 1945, Heidegger, inspired by Jünger, tries to explain
19845-400: The emergence and application of formal logic , the focus on the role of language as well as pragmatism , and movements in continental philosophy like phenomenology, existentialism , and post-structuralism . The 20th century saw a rapid expansion of academic philosophy in terms of the number of philosophical publications and philosophers working at academic institutions . There was also
20034-478: The emergence of non-Vedic teachings, like Buddhism and Jainism . Buddhism was founded by Gautama Siddhartha (563–483 BCE), who challenged the Vedic idea of a permanent self and proposed a path to liberate oneself from suffering . Jainism was founded by Mahavira (599–527 BCE), who emphasized non-violence as well as respect toward all forms of life. The subsequent classical period started roughly 200 BCE and
20223-538: The equating of Russian nihilism with mere skepticism, instead identifying it as a fundamentally Promethean movement. As passionate advocates of negation, the nihilists sought to liberate the Promethean might of the Russian people which they saw embodied in a class of prototypal individuals, or new types in their own words. These individuals, according to Pisarev, in freeing themselves from all authority become exempt from moral authority as well, and are distinguished above
20412-475: The era, for which it was often wrongly characterized as a form of political terrorism . Russian nihilism centered on the dissolution of existing values and ideals, incorporating theories of hard determinism , atheism , materialism , positivism , and rational egoism , while rejecting metaphysics , sentimentalism , and aestheticism . Leading philosophers of this school of thought included Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Dmitry Pisarev . The intellectual origins of
20601-457: The existence of God. At its core, the deity is irrational and super–rational. Developing in his teaching the theme of creativity and spirituality, Berdyaev pays great attention to the idea of freedom, which reveals the connection between God, the Universe and man. He distinguishes three types of freedom: primary irrational freedom, that is, arbitrariness; rational freedom, that is, the fulfillment of
20790-414: The fate of country. As noted by the researcher Maria Varlamova, in Russia, Plato is a much more significant figure than Aristotle. Professor Nina Dmitrieva notes that "Russian philosophical thought until the turn of the 19th–20th centuries developed mainly in the mainstream of literary criticism and journalism, with a primary focus on topical socio–political and ethical issues. And in the last decades of
20979-407: The features that all entities have in common. Specific metaphysics is interested in different kinds of being, the features they have, and how they differ from one another. An important area in metaphysics is ontology . Some theorists identify it with general metaphysics. Ontology investigates concepts like being , becoming , and reality. It studies the categories of being and asks what exists on
21168-523: The first half of the 20th century is occupied by the work of Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), the most prominent representative of Russian existentialism . At the beginning of his journey, Berdyaev adhered to Marxist views, participating in anti–government demonstrations and conducting correspondence with one of the leaders of the German Social Democracy, Karl Kautsky . However, the young philosopher and thinker soon abandoned Marxism, becoming one of
21357-407: The first stage of communism). In the Soviet years, discussions about the nature of the ideal gained popularity (only "in the head" or not? David Dubrovsky – Evald Ilyenkov ), disputes about the nature of information. Mikhail Bakhtin develops the ideas of polyphony, dialogue and carnivalism. Such philosophers as Aleksey Losev , Sergey Averintsev , Vladimir Bibikhin enjoyed great popularity in
21546-401: The followers of Joseph from Volokolamsk (in the world – Ivan Sanin), nicknamed "Josephites", and Nil Sorsky (in the world – Nikolai Maikov), nicknamed the "Trans–Volga elders", or "non–possessors". The central question that worried the polemicists was related to the role of the church in the state and the significance of its land holdings and decoration. The problem of decorating churches and land
21735-605: The history of Russian philosophy, which was repeatedly banned. An important role in the formation of Russian philosophy was played by the Ostrog School, founded by Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky in his domain in Ostrog in order to strengthen the Orthodox faith and improve the quality of the work of the Orthodox clergy in polemics with the Uniates. In the Ostrog School, much attention was paid to
21924-471: The history of philosophy include Western , Arabic–Persian , Indian , and Chinese philosophy . Other philosophical traditions are Japanese philosophy , Latin American philosophy , and African philosophy . Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE with the pre-Socratics . They attempted to provide rational explanations of the cosmos as a whole. The philosophy following them
22113-544: The idea stems largely from the Nietzschean 'crisis of nihilism', from which derive the two central concepts: the destruction of higher values and the opposition to the affirmation of life . Definitions by philosophers such as Crosby (1998) and Deleuze (1962) focus on extreme critiques of nihilism like those asserted by Nietzsche. Earlier forms of nihilism, however, may be more selective in negating specific hegemonies of social, moral, political and aesthetic thought. The term
22302-517: The idea that all human ideas are therefore valueless. Rejecting idealism thus results in nihilism, because only similarly transcendent ideals live up to the previous standards that the nihilist still implicitly holds. The inability for Christianity to serve as a source of valuating the world is reflected in Nietzsche's famous aphorism of the madman in The Gay Science . The death of God, in particular
22491-411: The ideas of deism were expressed in anti–clericalism and the substantiation of the subordination of spiritual power to secular ones, for which the learned squad of Peter I advocated. Also, the philosophy of Russian Enlightenment adapted many of the ideas of Freemasonry ( Nikolay Novikov ). Grigory Teplov compiled one of the first Russian philosophical dictionaries. Important Russian philosophers of
22680-420: The importance of a strong state and strict laws. Buddhism was introduced to China in the 1st century CE and diversified into new forms of Buddhism . Starting in the 3rd century CE, the school of Xuanxue emerged. It interpreted earlier Daoist works with a specific emphasis on metaphysical explanations. Neo-Confucianism developed in the 11th century CE. It systematized previous Confucian teachings and sought
22869-419: The indigenous Shinto religion and Chinese and Indian thought in the forms of Confucianism and Buddhism, both of which entered Japan in the 6th and 7th centuries. Its practice is characterized by active interaction with reality rather than disengaged examination. Neo-Confucianism became an influential school of thought in the 16th century and the following Edo period and prompted a greater focus on language and
23058-725: The initiative of Fyodor Rtishchev , operated in Moscow since 1648 and was located in the Andreevsky Monastery, built at the expense of Rtishchev at the foot of the Sparrow Hills. The Rtischevskaya School was the first in Moscow to officially include courses in philosophy and rhetoric . The head of the Rtishchevskaya School was appointed a native of the Kiev Fraternal School , a participant in book research in Russia,
23247-415: The inseparability of rational and moral meanings inherent in Russian thinkers, inherent in the word pravda . Nikolai Berdyaev also pointed out the striving characteristic of Russian thought "to develop for oneself a totalitarian, holistic world outlook, in which pravda–truth will be combined with pravda–justice ". According to Professor Andrei Sukhov, no other philosophy contains so many reflections on
23436-483: The interconnectedness of all things. Latin American philosophy during the colonial period , starting around 1550, was dominated by religious philosophy in the form of scholasticism . Influential topics in the post-colonial period were positivism , the philosophy of liberation , and the exploration of identity and culture. Early African philosophy, like Ubuntu philosophy , was focused on community, morality, and ancestral ideas. Systematic African philosophy emerged at
23625-525: The late Soviet period. In the late Soviet and post–Soviet period, the ideas of the Moscow–Tartu Semiotic School were widely recognized. After the lifting of ideological prohibitions due to the collapse of the Soviet Union , Russian philosophy found itself in a situation of uncertainty. While maintaining the existing structure of philosophical education, the process of mastering that part of
23814-493: The latter. The culmination of the path that the Buddha taught was nirvana , "a place of nothingness ... nonpossession and... non-attachment ...[which is] the total end of death and decay." Ajahn Amaro , an ordained Buddhist monk of more than 40 years, observes that in English nothingness can sound like nihilism. However, the word could be emphasized in a different way, so that it becomes no-thingness , indicating that nirvana
24003-513: The levelling process are stronger for it, and that it represents a step in the right direction towards "becoming a true self." As we must overcome levelling, Hubert Dreyfus and Jane Rubin argue that Kierkegaard's interest, "in an increasingly nihilistic age, is in how we can recover the sense that our lives are meaningful." From the period 1860–1917, Russian nihilism was both a nascent form of nihilist philosophy and broad cultural movement which overlapped with certain revolutionary tendencies of
24192-469: The limitation of the power of the church and the penetration of Western philosophy into Russia through the emerging system of higher education. The most popular Western innovation was deism , whose adherents were such key thinkers of the Russian Enlightenment as Mikhail Lomonosov and Alexander Radishchev . It was at this moment that atomism and sensationalism fell on Russian soil. In practice,
24381-551: The manifestation of cognitive virtues instead of justification; or they deny that knowledge can be analyzed in terms of other phenomena. Another area in epistemology asks how people acquire knowledge. Often-discussed sources of knowledge are perception , introspection , memory , inference , and testimony . According to empiricists , all knowledge is based on some form of experience. Rationalists reject this view and hold that some forms of knowledge, like innate knowledge , are not acquired through experience. The regress problem
24570-471: The methodological school he created, which was subsequently formulated accordingly ("the third Russian philosophy is actually methodology"). The philosophical and methodological system, created by Shchedrovitsky and his school (also known as the Moscow Methodological Circle), offers original ways out of the problematic situation of postmodernism ("in the opposition "modernism – postmodernism",
24759-528: The middle of 1880 ( KSA 9.127-128). This was the time of a then popular scientific work that reconstructed the so-called "Russian nihilism" on the basis of Russian newspaper reports on nihilistic incidents (N. Karlowitsch: Die Entwicklung des Nihilismus. Berlin 1880). This collection of material, published in three editions, was not only known to a broad German readership, but its influence on Nietzsche can also be proven. Karen L. Carr describes Nietzsche's characterization of nihilism as "a condition of tension, as
24948-592: The modern age, though he implies that the rise of nihilism is still incomplete and that it has yet to be overcome. Though the problem of nihilism becomes especially explicit in Nietzsche's notebooks (published posthumously), it is mentioned repeatedly in his published works and is closely connected to many of the problems mentioned there. Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. This observation stems in part from Nietzsche's perspectivism , or his notion that "knowledge"
25137-601: The modern trends of value-destruction expressed in the ' death of God ', as well as what he saw as the life-denying morality of Christianity . Under Nietzsche's profound influence, the term was then further treated within French philosophy and continental philosophy more broadly, while the influence of nihilism in Russia arguably continued well into the Soviet era . Religious scholars such as Altizer have stated that nihilism must necessarily be understood in relation to religion, and that
25326-463: The most detailed critics of this doctrine. Berdyaev calls the main opposition, which should develop in the philosopher's worldview, the opposition between spirit and nature. Spirit is a subject, life, creativity and freedom, nature is an object, a thing, necessity and immobility. Knowledge of the spirit is achieved through experience. God is spirit. Those of people who have had spiritual experience and experience of creativity do not need rational proof of
25515-596: The most fundamental level. Another subfield of metaphysics is philosophical cosmology . It is interested in the essence of the world as a whole. It asks questions including whether the universe has a beginning and an end and whether it was created by something else. A key topic in metaphysics concerns the question of whether reality only consists of physical things like matter and energy. Alternative suggestions are that mental entities (such as souls and experiences ) and abstract entities (such as numbers) exist apart from physical things. Another topic in metaphysics concerns
25704-404: The most influential philosophers of the subsequent period. The increasing influence of Western thought and institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries gave rise to the intellectual movement of Islamic modernism , which aims to understand the relation between traditional Islamic beliefs and modernity. One of the distinguishing features of Indian philosophy is that it integrates the exploration of
25893-472: The natural and social sciences, religion, and mathematics. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It is also known as theory of knowledge and aims to understand what knowledge is, how it arises, what its limits are, and what value it has. It further examines the nature of truth , belief , justification , and rationality . Some of the questions addressed by epistemologists include "By what method(s) can one acquire knowledge?"; "How
26082-504: The natural world. The Kyoto School emerged in the 20th century and integrated Eastern spirituality with Western philosophy in its exploration of concepts like absolute nothingness ( zettai-mu ), place ( basho ), and the self . Latin American philosophy in the pre-colonial period was practiced by indigenous civilizations and explored questions concerning the nature of reality and the role of humans. It has similarities to indigenous North American philosophy , which covered themes such as
26271-455: The nature and sources of morality. It analyzes the meaning of ethical concepts, like right action and obligation . It also investigates whether ethical theories can be true in an absolute sense and how to acquire knowledge of them. Normative ethics encompasses general theories of how to distinguish between right and wrong conduct. It helps guide moral decisions by examining what moral obligations and rights people have. Applied ethics studies
26460-467: The nature of reality, the ways of arriving at knowledge, and the spiritual question of how to reach enlightenment . It started around 900 BCE when the Vedas were written. They are the foundational scriptures of Hinduism and contemplate issues concerning the relation between the self and ultimate reality as well as the question of how souls are reborn based on their past actions . This period also saw
26649-475: The nineteenth century," and that Kierkegaard "opposed tendencies in mass culture to reduce the individual to a cipher of conformity and deference to the dominant opinion." In his day, tabloids (like the Danish magazine Corsaren ) and apostate Christianity were instruments of levelling and contributed to the "reflective apathetic age" of 19th-century Europe. Kierkegaard argues that individuals who can overcome
26838-433: The notion appears frequently throughout Nietzsche's work, he uses the term in a variety of ways, with different meanings and connotations. With regard to Nietzsche's development of thought, it has been noted in research that although he dealt with "nihilistic" themes from 1869 onwards ("pessimism, with nirvana and with nothingness and non-being"), a conceptual use of nihilism occurred for the first time in handwritten notes in
27027-554: The notion of " God is dead " as the "reality of the Will to Power." Heidegger also praises Jünger for defending Nietzsche against a too biological or anthropological reading during the Nazi era . Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced a number of important postmodernist thinkers. Gianni Vattimo points at a back-and-forth movement in European thought, between Nietzsche and Heidegger. During
27216-690: The orientation of philosophical and theological courses at the Kiev–Mogila and Moscow Slavic–Greek–Latin academies. The Rtishchevsky School (also – the Rtishchevsky Brotherhood, the Andreevsky School) was the first educational institution in Russia , founded as a court circle during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich . Education in the Rtishchevsky Brotherhood was carried out on the model of European institutions of higher education. The school arose on
27405-401: The other hand destroys to level the field for constructing something new. This form of nihilism is characterized by Nietzsche as "a sign of strength," a willful destruction of the old values to wipe the slate clean and lay down one's own beliefs and interpretations, contrary to the passive nihilism that resigns itself with the decomposition of the old values. This willful destruction of values and
27594-535: The other hand, Vattimo judges Heidegger's intentions authentic enough to keep pursuing them. Philosophers who Vattimo exemplifies as a part of this back and forth movement are French philosophers Deleuze , Foucault and Derrida . Italian philosophers of this same movement are Cacciari , Severino and himself. Jürgen Habermas , Jean-François Lyotard and Richard Rorty are also philosophers who are influenced by Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche. Gilles Deleuze 's interpretation of Nietzsche's concept of nihilism
27783-417: The overcoming of the condition of nihilism by the constructing of new meaning, this active nihilism, could be related to what Nietzsche elsewhere calls a free spirit or the Übermensch from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist , the model of the strong individual who posits his own values and lives his life as if it were his own work of art. It may be questioned, though, whether "active nihilism"
27972-404: The pathos of 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos – at the same time, as pathos, an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists. Nietzsche's relation to the problem of nihilism is a complex one. He approaches the problem of nihilism as deeply personal, stating that this predicament of the modern world is a problem that has "become conscious" in him. According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism
28161-543: The period surrounding the French Revolution , the term was also a pejorative for certain value-destructive trends of modernity , namely the negation of Christianity and European tradition in general. Nihilism first entered philosophical study within a discourse surrounding Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies, notably appearing in the writings of Swiss esotericist Jacob Hermann Obereit in 1787 and German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in 1799. As early as 1824,
28350-498: The philosophical heritage, from which Soviet philosophy was artificially isolated, was launched. New disciplines of the philosophical cycle arose and began to develop – political science , cultural studies , religious studies , philosophical anthropology . Attempts were made to resume the interrupted philosophical tradition, return to the legacy of Russian religious philosophy, but these attempts (according to Yuri Semyonov , Daniil Danin, Mikhail Chulaki and many others) proved to be
28539-436: The philosophical sense is the field that studies the nature and appreciation of beauty and other aesthetic properties, like the sublime . Although it is often treated together with the philosophy of art , aesthetics is a broader category that encompasses other aspects of experience, such as natural beauty. In a more general sense, aesthetics is "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature ". A key question in aesthetics
28728-604: The polarization of the nature of the Russian man, capable of compassion and the possibility of bitterness, striving for freedom, but sometimes prone to slavery. Among the main works of Berdyaev "Philosophy of Freedom" (1911), "The Meaning of Creativity. The Experience of Human Justification" (1916), "The Philosophy of Inequality. Letters to Enemies in Social Philosophy" (1923), "The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism" (1937), "Russian Idea. The Main Problems of Russian Thought in
28917-423: The possibility of knowledge or communication, and asserted the ultimate meaninglessness or purposelessness of life or of the universe". The term Dada was first used by Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara in 1916. The movement, which lasted from approximately 1916 to 1923, arose during World War I, an event that influenced the artists. The Dada Movement began in the old town of Zürich, Switzerland —known as
29106-417: The precise definition of the term and its meaning has changed throughout the ages. Metaphysicians attempt to answer basic questions including " Why is there something rather than nothing? "; "Of what does reality ultimately consist?"; and "Are humans free?" Metaphysics is sometimes divided into general metaphysics and specific or special metaphysics. General metaphysics investigates being as such. It examines
29295-500: The presence of philosophical ideas and problems in ancient Russian literature. The philosophical thoughts of the "Hellenic sages" fell into the Old Russian literature from translated sources. Within the framework of the religious worldview, the question of human nature (Svyatoslav's Izbornik, Kirill Turovsky , Nil Sorsky ), state power ( Joseph Volotsky ) and universal values (« The Word of Law and Grace » by Metropolitan Hilarion , who
29484-480: The present time, negation is the most useful of all". Despite Turgenev's own anti-nihilistic leanings, many of his readers likewise took up the name of nihilist , thus ascribing the Russian nihilist movement its name. Nihilism was further discussed by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , who used the term to describe the Western world 's disintegration of traditional morality. For Nietzsche, nihilism applied to both
29673-400: The problem of identity . One question is how much an entity can change while still remaining the same entity. According to one view, entities have essential and accidental features . They can change their accidental features but they cease to be the same entity if they lose an essential feature. A central distinction in metaphysics is between particulars and universals . Universals, like
29862-407: The problem of personality. According to Berdyaev, personality is not a part of the cosmos, on the contrary, the cosmos is a part of the human personality. Personality is not a substance, it is a creative act, it is unchanging in the process of change. A person who manifests creative activity thereby finds a deity in himself. Berdyaev is trying to formulate the so–called "Russian Idea", which expresses
30051-428: The provocative, vexing, and enduring problems central to the human condition. The philosophical pursuit of wisdom involves asking general and fundamental questions. It often does not result in straightforward answers but may help a person to better understand the topic, examine their life, dispel confusion, and overcome prejudices and self-deceptive ideas associated with common sense. For example, Socrates stated that "
30240-436: The rational study of reality, knowledge, and values. It is distinguished from other disciplines of rational inquiry such as the empirical sciences and mathematics . The practice of philosophy is characterized by several general features: it is a form of rational inquiry, it aims to be systematic, and it tends to critically reflect on its own methods and presuppositions. It requires attentively thinking long and carefully about
30429-453: The rejection of all social and political institutions ( § Political nihilism ), the stance that no knowledge can or does exist ( § Epistemological nihilism ), and a number of metaphysical positions, which assert that non-abstract objects do not exist ( § Metaphysical nihilism ), that composite objects do not exist ( § Mereological nihilism ), or even that life itself does not exist. The etymological origin of nihilism
30618-488: The same questions. Epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics are sometimes listed as the main branches. There are many other subfields besides them and the different divisions are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive. For example, political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are sometimes linked under the general heading of value theory as they investigate normative or evaluative aspects. Furthermore, philosophical inquiry sometimes overlaps with other disciplines in
30807-410: The same way as the sciences. This problem is avoided by seeing philosophy as an immature or provisional science whose subdisciplines cease to be philosophy once they have fully developed. In this sense, philosophy is sometimes described as "the midwife of the sciences". Other definitions focus on the contrast between science and philosophy. A common theme among many such conceptions is that philosophy
30996-508: The scope and fundamental concepts of these fields. It also investigates their methods and ethical implications. The word philosophy comes from the Ancient Greek words φίλος ( philos ) ' love ' and σοφία ( sophia ) ' wisdom ' . Some sources say that the term was coined by the pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras , but this is not certain. The word entered the English language primarily from Old French and Anglo-Norman starting around 1175 CE. The French philosophie
31185-628: The second half of the 20th century, were largely revived by the historian and geographer Lev Gumilyov and became widespread by the beginning of the 21st century. Gumilyov in a number of books – "Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth", "Millennium around the Caspian" and "From Rus to Russia" – using the Eurasian concept and supplementing it with his own developments, forms his concept of ethnogenesis, leading him to
31374-406: The statement that "we killed him", is similar to the self -dissolution of Christian doctrine: due to the advances of the sciences, which for Nietzsche show that man is the product of evolution , that Earth has no special place among the stars and that history is not progressive , the Christian notion of God can no longer serve as a basis for a morality. One such reaction to the loss of meaning
31563-601: The struggle against the heresy of the Judaizers and strigolniki, which spread in the Novgorod land (first of all, in Novgorod itself and in Pskov). With the spread of the heresy of the Judaizers in the Russian intellectual environment, works of pseudo–Aristotle began to appear. The position of the strigolniks in their spirit was close to the Hussites. In this regard, there is a need not only for
31752-558: The study of core elements of its character requires fundamentally theological consideration. The concept of nihilism was discussed by the Buddha (563 BC to 483 BC), as recorded in the Theravada and Mahayana Tripiṭaka . The Tripiṭaka , originally written in Pali , refers to nihilism as natthikavāda and the nihilist view as micchādiṭṭhi . Various sutras within it describe a multiplicity of views held by different sects of ascetics while
31941-448: The study of languages: Ancient Greek, Latin and Old Church Slavonic. There was a printing house at the school, in which Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Timofeev served. Prince Andrey Kurbsky also took part in the development of the school. Along with theological literature, scholastic philosophy was studied at the Ostrog School. So Vitaly Dubensky compiled the florilegia "Dioptra, or the Mirror and
32130-598: The study of the biggest patterns of the world as a whole or as the attempt to answer the big questions. Such an approach is pursued by Immanuel Kant , who holds that the task of philosophy is united by four questions: "What can I know?"; "What should I do?"; "What may I hope?"; and "What is the human being?" Both approaches have the problem that they are usually either too wide, by including non-philosophical disciplines, or too narrow, by excluding some philosophical sub-disciplines. Many definitions of philosophy emphasize its intimate relation to science. In this sense, philosophy
32319-469: The teachings of Advaita Vedanta to argue that all the different religions are valid paths toward the one divine. Chinese philosophy is particularly interested in practical questions associated with right social conduct, government, and self-cultivation . Many schools of thought emerged in the 6th century BCE in competing attempts to resolve the political turbulence of that period. The most prominent among them were Confucianism and Daoism . Confucianism
32508-418: The term began to take on a social connotation with German journalist Joseph von Görres attributing it to a negation of existing social and political institutions. The Russian form of the word, nigilizm ( Russian : нигилизм ), entered publication in 1829 when Nikolai Nadezhdin used it synonymously with skepticism . In Russian journalism the word continued to have significant social connotations. From
32697-476: The time of Jacobi, the term almost fell completely out of use throughout Europe until it was revived by Russian author Ivan Turgenev , who brought the word into popular use with his 1862 novel Fathers and Sons , leading many scholars to believe he coined the term. The nihilist characters of the novel define themselves as those who "deny everything ", who do "not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle may be enshrined in", and who regard "at
32886-469: The two major currents of discourse on nihilism prior to the 20th century. The term likely entered English from either the German Nihilismus , Late Latin nihilismus , or French nihilisme . Early examples of the term's use are found in German publications. In 1733, German writer Friedrich Leberecht Goetz used it as a literary term in combination with noism ( German : Neinismus ). In
33075-601: The unexamined life is not worth living " to highlight the role of philosophical inquiry in understanding one's own existence. And according to Bertrand Russell , "the man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason." Attempts to provide more precise definitions of philosophy are controversial and are studied in metaphilosophy . Some approaches argue that there
33264-495: The value of the moral component of religion, but denies all its theological aspects ("true religion"). The goal of cognition is the search for the meaning of life by a person. Well-known philosophers of the early 20th century—the Golden Age of Russian philosophy—include Nikolai Berdyaev , Sergei Bulgakov , Pavel Florensky , Semyon Frank , Nikolay Lossky , Vasily Rozanov , Lev Shestov , and Gustav Shpet , among others. At
33453-469: The view that negation and value-destruction were most necessary to the present conditions. The movement very soon adopted the name, despite the novel's initial harsh reception among both the conservatives and younger generation. Though philosophically both nihilistic and skeptical, Russian nihilism did not unilaterally negate ethics and knowledge as may be assumed, nor did it espouse meaninglessness unequivocally. Even so, contemporary scholarship has challenged
33642-512: The world. This mowing away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although in this, the nihilist appears inconsistent: this "will to nothingness" is still a form of valuation or willing. He describes this as "an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists": A nihilist is a man who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world as it ought to be that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning:
33831-468: Was a strong critic of the idea that reason can arrive at a true understanding of reality and God. He formulated a detailed critique of philosophy and tried to assign philosophy a more limited place besides the teachings of the Quran and mystical insight. Following Al-Ghazali and the end of the classical period, the influence of philosophical inquiry waned. Mulla Sadra (1571–1636 CE) is often regarded as one of
34020-437: Was characterized by the emergence of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism : Nyāyá , Vaiśeṣika , Sāṃkhya , Yoga , Mīmāṃsā , and Vedanta . The school of Advaita Vedanta developed later in this period. It was systematized by Adi Shankara ( c. 700 –750 CE), who held that everything is one and that the impression of a universe consisting of many distinct entities is an illusion . A slightly different perspective
34209-428: Was closely connected with literature and poetry. Therefore, it should be studied in connection with Lomonosov and Derzhavin, Tyutchev and Vladimir Solovyov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky...". The main directions of Russian philosophy include: The existence of ancient Russian philosophy is debatable. Some researchers, like Archpriest Dmitry Leskin, recognized the fact of its existence, others denied, claiming only
34398-656: Was defended by Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE), who founded the school of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta and argued that individual entities are real as aspects or parts of the underlying unity. He also helped to popularize the Bhakti movement , which taught devotion toward the divine as a spiritual path and lasted until the 17th to 18th centuries CE. The modern period began roughly 1800 CE and was shaped by encounters with Western thought. Philosophers tried to formulate comprehensive systems to harmonize diverse philosophical and religious teachings. For example, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902 CE) used
34587-508: Was founded by Confucius (551–479 BCE). It focused on different forms of moral virtues and explored how they lead to harmony in society. Daoism was founded by Laozi (6th century BCE) and examined how humans can live in harmony with nature by following the Dao or the natural order of the universe. Other influential early schools of thought were Mohism , which developed an early form of altruistic consequentialism , and Legalism , which emphasized
34776-537: Was giving lectures on Nietzsche's thought. Given the importance of Nietzsche's contribution to the topic of nihilism, Heidegger's influential interpretation of Nietzsche is important for the historical development of the term nihilism . Heidegger's method of researching and teaching Nietzsche is explicitly his own. He does not specifically try to present Nietzsche as Nietzsche. He rather tries to incorporate Nietzsche's thoughts into his own philosophical system of Being, Time and Dasein . In his Nihilism as Determined by
34965-505: Was how philosophical and scientific knowledge are created. Specific importance was given to the role of reason and sensory experience . Many of these innovations were used in the Enlightenment movement to challenge traditional authorities. Several attempts to develop comprehensive systems of philosophy were made in the 19th century, for instance, by German idealism and Marxism . Influential developments in 20th-century philosophy were
35154-494: Was interpreted as "a property of highly organized matter". The theory of knowledge was dominated by the Leninist theory of reflection. The historical process was perceived through the prism of a subordinate relationship between the basis ( economy ) and superstructure ( culture ), which passed through successively replacing formations: the primitive communal system , the slave system , feudalism , capitalism and socialism (as
35343-567: Was not directly related to philosophy, however, it served as an impetus for considering the problems of church possessions in the plane of biblical and patristic literature (in the polemics, Gregory Sinait and Simeon the New Theologian , John Climacus , Isaac the Syrian , John Cassian the Roman , Nil of Sinai , Basil the Great and others are cited) and ultimately led to the question of the meaning of
35532-449: Was shaped by Socrates (469–399 BCE), Plato (427–347 BCE), and Aristotle (384–322 BCE). They expanded the range of topics to questions like how people should act , how to arrive at knowledge , and what the nature of reality and mind is. The later part of the ancient period was marked by the emergence of philosophical movements, for example, Epicureanism , Stoicism , Skepticism , and Neoplatonism . The medieval period started in
35721-422: Was the question of the relationship between matter and consciousness, and the main method was dialectics , in which three laws were distinguished. Structurally, philosophy was divided into dialectical and historical materialism , that is, the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of history. Nature, interpreted as matter and objective reality, was considered eternal and infinite in space and time. Consciousness
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