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11RELIGIOUS-PHILOSOPHICAL MYSTICISM AND SCIENCE IN RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY IN THE LATE XIX AND EARLY XX CENTURIES
The article examines the relationship between religion, philosophy and science, using the example of Russian religious thought at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The article considers the issue of religious consciousness as the basis of philosophy, focused on the disclosure of the meaning and purpose of human existence. The subject of this research is the relationship of the mystical principle, religious consciousness and scientific thinking. The work notes that the Russian thinkers of the Silver Age saw the meaning of philosophical searches in a special moral content associated with a religious worldview. The article notes that human existence, oriented towards a spiritual ideal, can be understood only through the striving for completeness, wholeness and perfection. As a basic principle, it is asserted that outside the religious feeling, integral knowledge cannot arise, since only an integral person striving to merge with the divine principle is able to comprehend the truth. The main research method is the historical and philosophical analysis of various teachings, which makes it possible to find similar ideas in the works of representatives of Russian religious philosophy, showing a deep connection between religious, philosophical and scientific knowledge, which follows from the purpose of the person himself. Fundamental to understanding the essence of human existence are such concepts as faith, creativity and freedom, which for Russian philosophers are the main spiritual force capable of overcoming the extremes of rationality and materialism. The article concludes that true knowledge can be presented only in the unity of all the basic forms of knowledge of the world, but subject to their connection with the religious and moral content.
Keywords
religious philosophy, mysticism, science, religious consciousness, faith, morality,
freedom, spiritual being
AUTHORS
Svetlana G. Gutova,
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Nizhnevartovsk State University, Nizhnevartovsk 11, st. Dzerzhinsky, Nizhnevartovsk, 628600, Russia [email protected]
Ivan V. Berillo,
Postgraduate student, Nizhnevartovsk State University, Nizhnevartovsk 11, st. Dzerzhinsky, Nizhnevartovsk, 628600, Russia [email protected]
1. Introduction
In the modern world, attitudes towards science and religion are rather contradictory. Philosophy takes an intermediate position between them, recognizing the importance of both religion in the form of an essential component of spiritual culture, and technical,
natural, humanitarian sciences, which set a progressive pace in the material and cultural development of human society. This problem has been relevant for many centuries and is considered by many researchers from different worldview, methodological and theoretical positions. The problem of the relationship between religion, philosophy and scientific knowledge affects a wide range of issues, including methodological and world outlook.
Any scientific paradigm includes the substantiation of certain leading theories, cannot do without critical reflection in the historical and philosophical perspective of this union. It should be noted that the unity and harmony between these phenomena, their opposition and consistency affect the ultimate foundations of human existence. Particular attention to this problem arises during periods of radical restructuring of the entire worldview, when spiritual values collapse, ideals and goals are lost.
Thus, the question of the possibility of the interconnection of philosophy, science and religion in the mainstream of the confrontation and crisis with which practically every thinking person looking for himself in a secularized world is faced today is acutely felt. On the one hand, our society is at the stage of extreme positivism, which has grown up on the European tradition of reflective thinking; on the other hand, deep dissatisfaction in the spiritual sphere gives rise to a thirst for religious faith. Reflections on this topic can be found in the works of almost all Russian religious thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
2. Materials and Methods
In order to show the specificity and originality of the views of famous Russian thinkers: N. Fyodorov, V. Solovyov, C. Frank, B. Chicherin, I. Ilyin, N. Berdyaev on the problem of correlation of religion, scientific knowledge and philosophy, we had to turn to the historical and philosophical analysis and description of the main concepts that form the basic part of their teachings. The method of comparative analysis of different approaches to the problem of unity and diversity of epistemological positions in the study of general worldview issues also serves as a theoretical and methodological basis for the study. The historical and cultural approach allows us to see how the social and cultural environment affects the works of representatives of Russian religious philosophy (in particular, revolutionary events at the beginning of XX century and the overall cultural crisis), and to establish the relationship between the ideas of different thinkers, regarding the mutual influence of religious and philosophical and scientific knowledge.
3. Main content of the article
The question of the correlation between philosophy, science, and religion for representatives of Russian religious philosophy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was of primary importance. The science was viewed by Russian thinkers not only as something opposite to religion but rather as something that can complement it. On the other hand, the philosophy that was outside its religious content, was considered to be meaningless. Vladimir Soloviev (1953-1990), was one of the most important philosophers of the Silver Age, he believed that it is impossible to find the truth in every single, forcibly isolated branch of human knowledge. The unity attained in integral knowledge by an equally integral individual can only grow out of an organic synthesis of empirical, rational and mystical knowledge. In this light, Solovyov insists: "As long as religious feeling and philosophical inquisitiveness exist in mankind, as long as they have an aspiration to the eternal and ideal, so the mysticism, pure art, theology, metaphysics and church will remain unshakeable..." (Soloviev, 1988. 165).
Understanding the meaning and significance of philosophy in the system of Russian thinkers is clarified through the concept of free theosophy, which in turn is nothing but
an organic synthesis of theology, philosophy and experimental science, which has as a result an integral knowledge. The philosophy uniting with science and theology, must have this synthesis in itself in particular, meaning it should be a unity of mysticism, rationalism and empiricism (Soloviev, 1988. 149). At the same time the philosopher stresses that: "Mysticism, by virtue of its absolute character, is of primary importance in this synthesis, defining the supreme beginning and the last goal of philosophical knowledge"(Solo-viev, 1990. 280). Free theosophy, thus, is understood by the philosopher as something that grows out of the inner unity of philosophical knowledge in its close connection with theology and positive science. The synthesis of faith and knowledge is a condition for the existence of a holistic worldview "...for only a focus on the absolute, the unconditional, which also has a moral content allows to give meaning to the whole cognitive process and any scientific research as well" (Gutova, 2017. 129).
A particular relevance to the otherworldly is repeatedly expressed by Nikolai Alexan-drovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), he observes that: "The visionary mystic becomes a religion". He goes on explaining that: "To remain in the realm of mysticism and not move to religion meaning is to stand still, be doomed to be blind forever. The religion is a sighted and real mysticism. To desire mysticism and not desire religion is a terrible self-deception; it means to desire for nothing to happen in the mystical element, to crave for blindness and illusionism, standing still or dystopian whirling, to deny any creativity, to entrust the fate of mysticism to subjective mystifications. (Berdyaev, 1907, 287). Nikolai Berdyaev believes that positivism finally destroys philosophy, while mysticism revives it, restores its lost purpose and vital value to it, by acceding it to the true being.
However the mysticism without God, without a sense of the divine, cannot claim to be true because it remains only a subjective experience. The Mysticism of this kind can point to another reality, to the possibility of the transcendent, but this is its ultimate goal, as it does not connect body and spirit, does not give meaning to the reality in which a person is here and now in his or her real world. Berdyaev points to a special relationship between religious feelings and philosophical theorizing, yet he emphasizes the role of the religion that can do without philosophy as 'its sources are absolute and self-sufficient, but philosophy cannot do without religion, it needs religion as food, as a living fountain. In Russian philosopher's thought: 'Religion is the vital basis of philosophy, religion feeds philosophy with real being' (Berdyaev, 1907. 287).
Analyzing V. S. Solovyev's position on this question, Berdyaev criticizes him for trying to give the philosophy a universal all-encompassing character. He declares that philosophy in itself cannot claim to be everything, i.e. to be all-inclusive (even the Hegelian system could not justify this), since the philosophical theory always remains private, subordinate in relation to the religion.
Discussions about the role of the otherworldly and the religious in relation to philosophy were of primary importance to the creative intelligentsia in Russia at the period when the old world was crumbling and a cultural rebirth was coming. It was a mystical feeling and an apocalyptic attitude that made it possible to sense the approaching crisis and to express it in word, symbol and image. Similar views on the higher purpose of philosophy revealing its unity with the most important for the life of the human spirit, its religious and mystical field, can be found in works of other representatives of the cultural renaissance in Russia.
In the work of S.L. Frank (1877-1950) called "The philosophy and religion" the whole system is developed with arguments in favour of the impossibility of any true knowledge outside the religion: "Thus, contrary to conventional wisdom, it's not only the science that doesn't contradict religion but faith in science contradicts faith in religion, but the opposite is true: Whoever denies religion, at least the basic idea of all religion - the dependence of the empirical world on some higher, reasonable and spiritual beginning - must,
while remaining consistent, deny both science and the possibility of rational world explanation and perfection. And vice versa: who recognizes science and ponders the conditions under which it is possible, is logically forced to come to the recognition of the basic conviction of religious consciousness about the presence of higher spiritual and rational roots of being" (Frank, 1990. 324-332). Thus, the knowledge which is deprived of its support in the higher ground, is also devoid of sense.It is possible to find this foundation only in religious faith, in its very core, where lies the mystical insight of the believer into some kind of objective spiritual being.
In Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin's (1883-1954) religious concept of "heart contemplation" and "spiritual evidence," the conditionally of true knowledge derives directly from religious feeling and its importance in one's life: "...religiosity is not some human 'point of view,' or 'world view,' or 'dogmatic-observant thinking and knowing. No, religiosity is life, a holistic life, and a creative life at that. It is a new reality, established in the human world in order to be creatively embedded in the rest of the world" (Ilyin, 1907. 2006). For Ivan Ilyin religious philosophy doesn't come to theological dogmatics, which lacks free discussion, it gives the answers to the most important existential questions, but it remains quite scientific and morally most applied.
Such an approach to a social significance of religious philosophy that has predetermined its synthesis with the most diverse spheres of knowledge, theoretical and applied. The philosophy cannot ignore scientific achievements, it produces, nourishes, criticizes and comprehends them, but it cannot deny the importance of religion either, for in this case, the knowledge itself is deprived of foundation, detached from religious faith, it becomes external to a man, they are deprived of higher meaning, and man is deprived of his destiny. In religious philosophy the change of social life is understood as the improvement of man himself in the first place, and only then it refers to the welfare of society.
The absence of spiritual life cannot be replaced by materialism and atheism, even if they promote technological progress and increase the welfare of the majority. The progress worshipped by modern science, which lives up to the social ideals, thus is not able to give to everybody what obtains the religious mysticism, the finding of God himself, his God-humanity in himself. According to Berdyaev: "A fair share of contribution to the religious philosophy of the public, that comes from the idea of God-humanity, is the duty of every thinker who approaches religion in a new way. Each one of us must carry the stone for the future building of a synthetic religious doctrine. It stands to reason that a sighted, conscious mysticism, a mystical realism is opposite to 'common sense', but it can be justified by reason" (Berdyaev, 1907. 287).
The otherworldly in religion and philosophy converge in the field of esotericism, for its part seeks synthesis, and any theorizing within its boundaries leads to a syncretic methodology. In the S. Panin's work that is called "Philosophy of Esotericism" it is presented an image emphasizing the necessity of such a synthesis: "The heart of esotericism is in the point of balance between religion and science, tradition and personal experience, individualism and a sense of universal unity. This point is the position that the representative of pure esoterism seeks to take, hence "absolute freedom cannot exist without perfect balance." (Panin. 2019, 197).However, such a religious synthesis is not a goal to be achieved in the future, such unity can only be a beginning. Berdyaev reflects this as follows: "But religious synthesis cannot be given only at the end, as the result of an analytic and differential process, for future generations only, it's also given at the beginning for all who have lived and those who live now, as a truth guarded by the universal Church, as ancient wisdom*). There is no denying the merit of theosophy and occultism in posing the problem of the relation of religion to knowledge, in affirming the importance of religious initiation for wise knowledge. The void, so they begin to study the religion in a religious way" (Berdyaev. 1994).
Nikolai Berdyaev, describing the special state of the spiritual world in critical historical periods, draws the following parallels: "Epochs of special, intense development of mysticism, night mysticism, when the world was filled with demons, usually preceded by a strong religious light. It refers to the last days of the ancient world: paganism became ill with mysticism before the appearance of Christ. So is the religious role of mysticism in our era' (Berdyaev. 1907. XVI). The searches and strivings of the creative intelligentsia in Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century's were returned again to the dispute about the correlation between faith and knowledge and raised the question of revising the question of the negation of religious faith and the exclusivity of the positive sciences. Nikolai Berdyaev observes that the turning-point era on the cusp of the century exists under the sign of God-seeking. Describing the spirit of the quest of his time, he writes: "... newspapers and magazines write about God-seeking, they speak loudly about God-seeking in societies and assemblies. The fact of a radical change of mood hardly needs some proof. However does it feel to be able to leave,whether the inner strength ripens for the sent vision of the truth about knowledge and faith? (Berdyaev. 1907). Seeking God meant walking one's own path, sometimes tragic one, in order to rediscover faith and understand one's purpose.
The power of scientific knowledge alongside with the whole positivist thought could not but to attract the inquiring minds of Russian scientists, but Western philosophy failed to provide answers to the key questions facing the awakened conscience of the Russian intelligentsia. There were formed two extremes as a mental rupture in culture, one of which was atheistic materialism, strangely transformed into social and political appeals and realities, where faith in ideals plays the role of a new religion; the other was metaphysical negation positivism, which in its metamorphosis sometimes delved even deeper into scholasticism. On the other hand, there is the religious thought, which feels its freedom, it longs for mystical roots and is increasingly engaged in the polemic with the official doctrines. Is it possible for a philosopher living in this stream of constantly changing moods to find a compromise and feel his right path without remaining in such a confusion at the level of eclecticism?
Reflecting on the duality of the religious ideal in early twentieth-century Russian culture, Berdyaev writes that "our epoch is the beginning of the rebirth of the religious sense of life, the unification of the truth of paganism with the truth of Christianity, the beginning of a new era associated with a dialectical revolution in the mystical basis of the world' (Berdyaev. 1994. 416). Russian thinker's words reflect the hopes and aspirations of the part of the intelligentsia, which is more and more immersed in God-seeking.
For Berdyaev's contemporaries and like-minded people the revival of a 'new religious consciousness' was evident, it was the fact reflecting the general mindset and spiritual quest among the Russian intelligentsia. The sense of religious feeling of each individual is not so much to manifest itself as an individual experience through the discovery of the mystery of personal destiny, but rather it is a universal feeling that connects the universal personality and his fate with the world at large. The words of the philosopher sound with concern that: "The deep root of any religion is that the fate of a person is so terrible and intolerably senseless if it is cut off from the fate of the world and left to weak human forces." (Berdyaev, 1907, XVIII).
Berdyaev sees the beginning of spiritual life in an appeal to religion, to its deep mystical roots, but warns against the consequences of its simplification and replication. The desacralisation of knowledge itself has no visible threat, however, its penetration into the masses can take quite unsightly forms. "The modern soul once again turns to its mystical element, and a deep crisis is taking place there. On the soil of this crisis the flowers of "decadentism" grow in very diverse forms: the latest demonism, irrationalism and anarchism on a mystical lining, etc. These phenomena are easily transformed into superficial fashion and , but their roots are laid deep" (Berdyaev, 1907, XXXVI).
The interaction and complex relationships of religion, science and philosophy during the period of a general cultural crisis in Russia at the turn of the century are quite indicative in terms of the transition from in-depth private knowledge to universalism and syncretism as a special form of holistic knowledge that requires the formation of a new methodology that goes beyond any limitation and unilateralism. As history has shown, the denial of religion weakens spiritual culture, impoverishes any rationally built and logically perfect systems, both scientific and philosophical. It is important to remember that: "Spirituality for a Russian philosopher is a process that unfolds as a person's historical creativity, in which not only the world is transformed, but also himself." (Gutova, 2016. 42).
Boris Nikolaevich Chicherin (1828-1904) in his work called "Science and Religion", describing the special relationship between the main worldview forms and ways of understanding the world, he noted: "Religion as a general phenomenon of the human spirit is a striving for live communication with the absolute.(Chicherin, 1999. 189). Chicherin, like many Russian philosophers consistently defends the position recognizing the unity of scientific, philosophical and religious knowledge. He states that even true science cannot deny religion as an eternal element of human spiritual world. Research scientists in itself cannot replace religious faith, just as rational reasoning does not replace prayer, science as well as philosophical system can penetrate deeply into the mysteries of the universe, but at the same time, they only provide the abstract knowledge, devoid of live personal interaction (Chicherin, 1999. 191).
The main difference between religion and philosophy, according to Chicherin, is that religion is for all and is the property of all, regardless of level of education or other social factors. Reason seeks unity and science claims to guide life itself (Chicherin, 1880. 8). If one does not possess a religious sense, therefore, it is a deviation from one's natural nature. Such an absence from religion corresponds to the lowest level of human development, when only his 'mental and moral stupefaction' is revealed (Chicherin, 1999. 192), the philosopher calls him an animal. At the highest level such misunderstanding is possible because of the transitional state, when the simple unity is lost by a person of man and new full-fledged spiritual rebirth has not yet come.
How is the highest unity achieved? According to Chicherin, such a renewal is necessary in which all the particulars can merge into one whole, not due to blind submission, while losing their qualitative originality, but due to their own inner desire for development in the direction of unity. "The final unity ... represents not a simple r eturn to the initial point of departure, but the highest stage, which combines all the fullness and all the diversity of life (Chicherin, 1999, 202). The dialectic of movement presupposes that the development of the higher forms does not destroy the lower ones. Thus, the essence of such unity is a process where a living spirit freely embraces all the elements. Chicherin proposes to consider this pattern as an example of the essence of philosophy and the ways of its action. Undoubtedly, philosophy has different ways of knowing from religion, but reason here too cannot fulfill the task of comprehending the true destiny of man, since it is far from the main criterion of truth.
The human mind in its development goes through various stages, where each represents only one side of the truth. If we look at the history of philosophy, Chicherin observes that we can see how it forms a full circle, moving from naturalism to materialism, then it moves to spiritualism and scepticism and completes its movement in idealism. Each of these stages is necessary for the formation of the human spirit and thought. For example, according to the philosopher, materialism is also justified, although it denies religion. However, realism rejects the knowledge of the absolute, recognizing only relative knowledge, reducing religion to the realm of prejudice and superstitions. Chicherin says that it should be remembered that philosophy does not actually oppose religion, but enters into it as an essential element.
The true beginning of philosophy is the religious world-view, in other words it is such an intellectual weapon of the believer which allows him to resolve all inner contradictions. "Philosophy and religion differ in their particular manifestations, for they do not develop in parallel; but on the whole they coincide, because they represent the development of the same content in their entirety" (Chicherin, 1999. 204).
The relationship between them is manifested in the fact that philosophy appears as abstract knowledge and exists in the form of logical thinking, and religion takes the form of living communication with the Divine. Thus, philosophy is synthesis and analysis, but if we correlate it with religion, there will be a synthetic principle in it, and in philosophy there will be an analytical one. The role of philosophy, therefore, is to prepare a person for religious communion with the Divine, since understanding is a necessary part of this communion. Chicherin offers as an example the Greek thought, which in his opinion, prepared the pagans for the adoption of Christianity (Chicherin, 1999. 449). The pattern is manifested in the fact that the development of the human spirit makes a transition through the analytical movement of thought from synthesis to synthesis. Between religious periods in the development of thought there is necessarily a philosophical one, which does not exclude religious consciousness, but prepares it for the next incarnation.
Thus Chicherin's idea is that in the general development of the human spirit the analytical movement of thought serves as a transition from one synthesis to another. Each philosophical period lies between two religious periods, but it does not mean the religion at times of philosophical movement should give the way to philosophy and vice versa. Following the sensemonicists Chicherin calls the change of synthetic and analytical epochs, when either philosophy or religion prevails, the basic law of human history. Thus, the development of mankind is carried out through an initial unity to a split and then finally comes to the ultimate unity.
In the analytical periods there is a movement from one synthesis to another. At the same time, there are two main ways of cycle development: subjective and objective (Chicherin 1999. 453). So, for example, the objective path dominates in naturalistic religions at the initial stage of development. The result of this detailed analysis of the meaning and essence of philosophy and religion in historical terms is Chicherin's statement about forthcoming universalism in culture, which is nothing but the birth of a new religious synthesis. At this stage, in particular, the philosopher sees the possibility of revealing the essence of the Spirit through the reduction of opposites to a final unity. According to him this will represent the end of the path of a human. Humanity comes from God and returns to Him. Each religious form has meaning since it reflects a particular aspect of the Divine: 'The initial synthesis is a revelation of Power, the middle one is a revelation of the Word, while the latter, thereby compensating the others, must be a revelation of the Spirit that completes it all' (Chicherin. 1999, 453). There is the Revelation of God in the first one, in the second one there is the Divine Revelation in morality, and in the third one there's the Revelation in history (Chicherin. 1999).
Chicherin can be considered the creator of his own scientific method that is called rational metaphysics (Parkhomenko, 2013. 106-137). He equally questioned the empiricism, so the mysticism and occultism, that found the fertile ground of the widespread crisis. On the one hand his interpretation of the relationship between the philosophical and the religious in historical and metaphysical terms is extremely rationalised, on the other hand, it is clearly subordinate to the moral and ethical content. In his teaching one can observe: ...'a return to the origins' of philosophy in contrast to the new 'fashionable' trends that were gaining strength at that time such as irrationalism, positivism and mysticism" (Parkhomenko. 2013, 106-137).
4. Results
Thus, despite some peculiarities in the views of Russian religious thinkers regarding the interaction of science, philosophy, religion and mysticism in general, they are united by a common tendency associated with an attempt to find a common basis for them, the desire to combine all knowledge into a discrete whole and having confidence in that the future belongs to unity and universalism. The representatives of Russian philosophy noted that the striving for the transcendent is the most important characteristic of human existence, which is impossible without the spiritual and religious consciousness. The indivisibility of truth, beauty and goodness in human understanding can testify to the necessity and triumph of the moral foundation of life. Empirical knowledge of the world outside religious faith and metaphysics dooms a person to a meaningless existence in an objectified world.
The absence of purpose, ideals, love, faith and spirituality cannot lead even the most technically perfect society to the good, since such an existence is doomed from the very beginning. Consequently, science is powerless in solving issues concerning the meaning of human life, but it is an important component of our cultural development. The unity of faith and knowledge contains the truth that only the seeking philosopher is able to see. The aspiration of representatives of Russian religious philosophy towards a universal world-view destroyed any contradictions between the sphere of science and religion, faith and reason.
In modern science, you can see the same desire for holism, where universality and integrity play a critical role in explaining the unity of our world. Thus, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the religious mysticism grew and reproduced itself on a variety of grounds, since the very soil of crisis culture not only in Russia, but throughout Europe during this period was a fertile basis for attempts to perform a fruitful synthesis of scientific, mystical and religious philosophical knowledge.
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