Hryhorii Skovoroda and Lev Shestov: Between Science and Poetry. Setting the Problem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2023.107.238Keywords:
Hryhorii Skovoroda, Lev Shestov, philosophy, God, life, science, literatureAbstract
The aim of this paper is to reveal a typological kinship between two outstanding religious thinkers of different eras – Hryhorii Skovoroda and Lev Shestov, who are rarely addressed in conjunction with each other. Drawing on the scarce existing research on this rich, but heavily under-researched topic, we trace the inner connection between their respective philosophical worldviews, paying a special attention to the gnoseological (epistemological) aspect of their teachings. While staying within the framework of religious faith, fundamental for both thinkers, we scrutinize their relationship with reason, focusing on the attitude of both to the scientific method. At the same time, as a distinctive feature of our analysis, we apply a literary-centred approach rather than purely philosophical one, and draw on the optics of poets and writers, characterised by their own unique philosophical premonitions. As we argue, this is justified at various levels, including the closeness of both thinkers under study to the world of literature, especially poetry, which, arguably, had a profound impact on their philosophical discourse and helped to shape their ideas. Not aiming at providing a comprehensive comparative analysis of Skovoroda and Shestov, we nevertheless hope that this paper will pave the way for future studies, and demonstrate the productiveness of our method, shedding some new light not only on these two exceptional thinkers, but also on the intrinsic proximity between religious philosophy and the world of poetry more generally.
References
Baranova-Shestova, N. (1983). Zhizn’ L’va Shestova: Po perepiske i vospominaniiam sovremennikov [The life of Lev Shestov: Based on his correspondence and memoirs of his contemporaries]. Paris : La Presse Libre, 359 p. (in Russian).
Brodsky, J. (1999). Poet i proza [A Poet and Prose]. In: Sochineniia Iosifa Brodskogo. In 7 vols. Saint Petersburg : Pushkinskii fond, vol. 5, pp. 129–141. (in Russian).
Dostoevsky, F. (1976). Polnoe sobranie sochinenii [Complete works]. In 30 vols. Leningrad : Nauka, vol. 14, 472 p. (in Russian).
Dostoevsky, F. (1983). Polnoe sobranie sochinenii [Complete works]. In 30 vols. Leningrad : Nauka, vol. 25, 472 p. (in Russian).
Erofeyev, V. (1990). “Ostaetsia odno: proizvol” (Filosofiia odinochestva i literaturno-esteticheskoe kredo L’va Shestova) [“One thing remains: arbitrariness” (Philosophy of solitude and literary-aesthetic credo of Lev Shestov)]. In: Erofeyev, V. V labirinte prokliatykh voprosov. Moscow : Sovetskii pisatel’, pp. 47–77. (in Russian).
Zamyatin, Y. (1988). Sochineniia [Works]. Moscow : Kniga, 574 p. (in Russian).
Zenkovsky, V. (2001). Istoriia russkoi filosofii [A History of Russian Philosophy]. Moscow : Akademicheskii proekt, Raritet, 878 p. (in Russian).
Miłosz, Cz. (1992). Shestov, ili o chistote otchaianiia [Shestov, or the Purity of Despair]. Translated from the French by S. Muravyev. In: Shestov, L. Kirgegard i ekzistentsial’naia filosofiia (Glas vopiiushchego v pustyne). Moscow : Progress, Gnozis, pp. I–XVI. (in Russian).
Papernyi, V. (2005). Lev Shestov: religioznaia filosofiia kak literaturnaia kritika i kak literatura [Lev Shestov: Religious Philosophy as Literary Criticism and as Literature]. Toronto Slavic Quarterly, no. 12. (in Russian). URL: http://sites.utoronto.ca/tsq/12/paperni12.shtml#top (accessed: 1.04.2023).
Savelyev, V. (2008). Filosofs’ki ideï H. Skovorody i L. Shestova (komparatyvnyi analiz) [The Philosophy Ideas of H. Skovoroda and L. Shestov (comparative analysis)]. Visnyk Natsional’noho universytetu “L’vivs’ka politekhnika”: Filosofs’ki nauky, no. 607, pp. 104–108. (in Ukrainian).
Skovoroda, H. (1994a). Tvory [Works]. In 2 vols. Kyiv : Oberehy, vol. 1, 528 p. (in Ukrainian).
Skovoroda, H. (1994b). Tvory [Works]. In 2 vols. Kyiv : Oberehy, vol. 2, 480 p. (in Ukrainian).
Sreznevsky, I. (1930). Maiore, maiore. Opovidannia z zhyttia H. Skovorody [Major, Major! A story from the life of H. Skovoroda]. Kharkiv : Rukh, 120 p. (in Ukrainian).
Tabachnikova, O. (2008). Poperek miroporiadka: Lev Shestov, Marina Tsvetaeva i Venedikt Erofeev [Across the world order: Lev Shestov, Marina Tsvetaeva and Venedikt Erofeev]. Toronto Slavic Quarterly, no. 26. (in Russian). URL: http://sites.utoronto.ca/tsq/26/tabachnikova26.shtml (accessed: 1.04.2023).
Tsvetaeva, M. (1995). Sobranie sochinenii [Collected works]. In 7 vols. Moscow : Ellis Lak, vol. 7, 848 p. (in Russian).
Tsvetaeva, M. (2008). Pis’ma k Anne Teskovoi [Letters to Anna Teskova]. Bolshevo : Memorial’nyi Dom-muzei Mariny Tsvetaevoi v Bolsheve, 512 p. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1937). O “pererozhdenii ubezhdenii” y Dostoevskogo [On the “rebirth of convictions” in Dostoevsky]. Russkie zapiski, no. 2, pp. 125–154. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1966). Sola fide. Paris : YMCA-press, 295 p. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1992). Kirgegard i ekzistentsial’naia filosofiia [Kierkegaard and the Existential Philosophy]. Moscow : Progress, Gnozis, 302 p. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1993a). Sochineniia [Works]. In 2 vols. Moscow : Nauka, vol. 1, 668 p. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1993b). Sochineniia [Works]. In 2 vols. Moscow : Nauka, vol. 2, 560 p. (in Russian).
Shestov, L. (1996). Sochineniia [Works]. In 2 vols. Tomsk : Vodolei, vol. 1, 512 p. (in Russian).
Shmeman, A. (2005). Dnevniki. 1973–1983 [Diaries. 1973–1983]. Moscow : Russkii put’, 720 p. (in Russian).
Peace, R. (1976). Russian Literature and the Fictionalisation of Life. Hull : The University of Hull, 18 p.
Tabachnikova, O. (2008). Anticipating modern trends: Lev Shestov – between literary criticism and existential philosophy. Australian Slavonic and East European Studies, vol. 22, no. 1–2, pp. 105–119.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Ольга Табачнікова
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
