Soloviev Vladimir, philosopher: biography, works

Vladimir Soloviev was one of the largest Russian religious thinkers of the late XIX century. He became the author of several concepts and theories (on God-manhood, panmongolism, etc.), which are still extensively studied by Russian philosophers.

early years

The future philosopher Vladimir Solovyov was born on January 28, 1853 in Moscow, in the family of the famous historian Sergei Solovyov (author of the multi-volume "History of Russia since ancient times"). The boy studied in the 5th gymnasium, and later entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University. From his youth Soloviev read works by German idealists and Slavophiles. In addition, he was greatly influenced by radical materialists. It was their passion that led the youth to the physics and mathematics faculty, although, after the second year, he was transferred to the historical and philological faculty. Impressed by materialistic literature, young Vladimir Soloviev even threw the icon out of the window of his room, which made him extremely angry. In general, the circle of his reading then consisted of Khomyakov, Schelling and Hegel.

Sergei Mikhailovich instilled in his son diligence and productivity. Every year he himself regularly published according to his "History" and in this sense became a clear example for his son. Already in adulthood, Vladimir wrote every day without exception (sometimes on scraps of paper, when at hand more was nothing).

University career

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

Returning home, Solovyov began teaching at St. Petersburg University. He met and became close with Fedor Dostoyevsky. The author of "The Brothers Karamazov" chose Vladimir Solovyov as the prototype of Alyosha. At this time, another Russian-Turkish war broke out. Soloviev Vladimir reacted to her? The philosopher nearly went to the front as a volunteer, however, at the last moment changed his mind. His profound religiosity and rejection of the war were expressed. In 1880 he defended his thesis and became a doctor. However, due to a conflict with the university rector - Mikhail Vladislavlev - Solovyov did not receive the position of professor.

Termination of teaching activities

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

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

After this, the philosopher left St. Petersburg University, although formally he was not fired. First, it was a hype, and secondly, the writer wanted to focus more on books and articles. It was after 1881 that the period of creative flourishing began, which Solovyov Vladimir experienced. The philosopher wrote without stopping, because for him it was the only way to earn money.

Monk Knight

According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, Solovyov lived in monstrous conditions. He did not have a permanent home. The writer stayed at hotels or with numerous friends. Household irregularity badly reflected on health. In addition, the philosopher regularly held a strict post. And all this was accompanied by intensive studies. Finally, Solovyov often used turpentine. To this liquid, he was treated as a healing and mystical. Turpentine was impregnated with all his apartments.

The ambiguous lifestyle and reputation of the writer inspired the poet Alexander Blok to call him in the memoirs a knight-monk. Solovyov's singularity manifested itself literally in everything. Writer Andrei Bely left memories of him in which, for example, it is said that the philosopher had an amazing laugh. Some friends considered him homeric and joyful, others - demonic.

Vladimir Solovyov often went abroad. In 1900 he returned for the last time to Moscow to hand over his own translation of the works of Plato to the publishing house. Then the writer felt ill. He was transported to Sergei Trubetskoi - a religious philosopher, publicist, public figure and pupil of Solovyov. His family belonged to the suburban estate Uzkoe. There, doctors arrived to Vladimir Sergeevich who diagnosed a disappointing diagnosis - "cirrhosis of the kidneys" and "atherosclerosis." The writer's body was exhausted from overloading at the desk. He had no family and lived alone, so no one could follow his habits and influence Solovyov. Manor Uzkoe and became the place of his death. The philosopher died on August 13, 1900. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his father.

God-manhood

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

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

Solovyov, in his "Readings on God-manhood," claimed that the Church was going through a serious crisis. It is fragmented and has no power over people's minds, and new popular but doubtful theories are positivism and socialism. Vladimir Solovyev (1853-1900) was convinced that the cause of this spiritual catastrophe was the Great French Revolution, which shook the usual foundations of European society. In 12 readings the theorist tried to prove: only the renewed church and religion can take the formed ideological vacuum, where at the end of the XIX century there were many radical political theories. Soloviev did not live to see the first revolution in Russia in 1905, but he truly felt her approach.

The concept of Sofia

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

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

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

Reasoning about Sofia, Vladimir Soloviev adhered to the idea that nature has its own one soul. He believed that humanity should become like this order, when all people have something in common. These views of the philosopher have found another religious reflection. He was a Uniate (that is, he advocated the unity of the churches). There is even a point of view that he adopted Catholicism, although it is disputed by biographers because of the fragmentary and inaccurate sources. Anyway, but Soloviev was an active supporter of the unification of the Western and Eastern churches.

"Beauty in nature"

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

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

"The Meaning of Love"

What else did Vladimir Solovyov leave behind? God-manhood (its main concept) was developed in the series of articles "The Meaning of Love", published in 1892-1893. These were not separate publications, but parts of one whole work. In the first article, Solov'ev denied the idea that love is only a means of reproduction and continuation of the human race. Further, the writer compared her species. He detailed the maternal, friendly, sexual, mystical love, love of the Fatherland, etc. He touched on the nature of selfishness. For Solovyov, love is the only force that can make a person move through this individualistic feeling.

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

"Justification of Goodness"

The book "Justification of Goodness", written in 1897, is the key ethical work of Vladimir Solovyov. The author planned to continue this work with two more parts and, thus, publish the trilogy, but never managed to implement his idea. In this book, the writer gave arguments that good is comprehensive and unconditional. First of all, because it is the basis of human nature. Solovyov proved the truth of this idea by the fact that all people from birth are familiar with a sense of shame that is not brought up or instilled from the outside. He also called other qualities characteristic of a person - awe and pity.

Good is an integral part of the human race, because it is also given from God. Solovyov, explaining this thesis, mainly used biblical sources. He came to the conclusion that the whole history of mankind is a process of transition from the realm of nature to the realm of the spirit (that is, from primitive evil to good). An illustrative example of this is the evolution of ways to punish criminals. Soloviev noted that over time the principle of blood revenge disappeared. Also in this book, he once again opposed the use of the death penalty.

"Three conversations"

For the years of his work the philosopher wrote dozens of books, lecture courses, articles, etc. But, like every author, he had his last work, which eventually became a summing-up of the long-term path. What did Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov stop at? "Three Conversations on War, Progress and the End of World History" - this was the name of the book he wrote in the spring of 1900, shortly before his death. It was published after the author left the life. Therefore, many biographers and researchers began to consider it as a creative testament of the writer.

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

In the second conversation on the progress, Soloviev noted the evolution of international relations, which began to be built on peaceful principles. At that time, the most powerful powers really sought to find a balance between themselves in a rapidly changing world. However, the philosopher himself no longer saw the bloody world wars that broke out on the ruins of this system. The writer in the second conversation stressed that the main events in the history of mankind took place in the Far East. Just then the European countries divided China among themselves, and Japan embarked on a path of sharp progress on the Western pattern.

In the third conversation about the end of the world history, Soloviev, with his inherent religiosity, asserted that, despite all positive tendencies, there is evil in the world, that is, Antichrist. In this same section, the philosopher first used the term "panmongolism", which his numerous followers later began to apply. This phenomenon consists in the consolidation of the Asian peoples against European colonization. Soloviev believed that China and Japan would unite their forces, create a single empire and drive out strangers from neighboring regions, including Burma.