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The Philosophy of Time and History in the Thought of Sergei Bulgakov And View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery 1 The Philosophy of Time and History in the Thought of Sergei Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdiaev Morgan Stark UCL Ph.D. Thesis I, Morgan Stark, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract This thesis explores the problem of time and the connected problem of history in the thought of two Russian thinkers, Sergei Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdiaev. After an introduction tracing the history of these problems in philosophical thought from the ancient Greeks to the twentieth century, the main body of the thesis is divided into two central chapters, the first on Bulgakov and the second on Berdiaev. Analysis of their two contrasting approaches to these questions reveals opposite formulations of the time-history relationship, in which Bulgakov suggested the primacy of history over time, whilst Berdiaev maintained the primacy of time over history. Subsequent exploration aims to account for these different organisations of the time-history relationship, and discusses how for Bulgakov a deterministic pattern of thought about time and history was central, and how for Berdiaev a paradoxical approach to these problems was dominant. Across this discussion, these thinkers’ various points of contact with classical, European and Russian intellectual traditions is highlighted, and in this way their thought on these questions is located within an intellectual context which extends beyond Russia. 3 Contents Introduction: Time, History and the Russian Tradition 1. Overview 4 2. The Philosophy of Time 10 3. The Philosophy of History 29 4. The Concept of Temporality 41 5. The Russian Tradition 43 6. Sergei Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdiaev 57 Chapter 1: Sergei Nikolaevich Builgakov – History and Time 1. Introduction 65 2. Temporality 82 3. Conceptualisations of History 97 - Ot Marksizma k idealizmu 97 - Dva grada 116 - Filosofiia khoziaistva 131 - Svet nevechernii 156 4. Conclusion 210 Chapter 2: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdiaev – Time and History 1. Introduction 212 2. Temporality 230 3. Berdiaev’s Philosophy of Time 237 - Time and Eternity 242 - Deepening the Problem 267 - The ‘Temporalised’ Problems 251 4. Berdiaev’s Philosophy of History 318 5. Conclusion 348 Conclusion 349 Bibliography 352 4 Introduction: Time, History and the Russian Tradition What then is time? Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know. – St. Augustine, Confessions.1 1. Overview Thesis objective The central objective of this thesis is the exploration of the problem of time and the connected problem of history in the thought of two ‘Silver Age’ Russian thinkers, Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944) and Nikolai Berdiaev (1874-1948).2 Although time is the primary concern, it is difficult to separate thought about time from thought about history in the work of these two philosophers. History is therefore considered alongside time, providing a more accurate and fuller account of their thinking. Bulgakov and Berdiaev were chosen due to their significant but contrasting engagements with these themes, as they present opposite formulations of the time- history relationship: Bulgakov suggested the primacy of history over time, whilst Berdiaev maintained the primacy of time over history. This thesis will aim to account for these different organisations of the time-history relationship, looking at their various points of contact with classical, European and Russian intellectual traditions. 1 Saint Augustine, Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 1992), p. 230. 2 Evtuhov’s definition of what constitutes the Russian ‘Silver Age’ will be used: ‘…I use it [the term Russian “Silver Age”] to refer more generally to the complex of ideas, literature, art, philosophy, and politics that together constituted the cultural explosion of those years [1890-1920].’ Catherine Evtuhov, The Cross and the Sickle: Sergei Bulgakov and the Fate of Russian Religious Philosophy (New York, 1997), p. 3. 5 Time, history and the Russian tradition Time is amongst the most basic categories of human existence. In the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, it is noted that: Time is the single most pervasive component of our experience and the most fundamental concept in our physical theories.3 The desire to study the nature of time reflects an intellectual demand to understand exactly how we live in the world, how our lives are organised, and, ultimately, why we must one day die. Overviews of the philosophy of time usually begin with Plato (424/3-348/7 BC),4 and can be traced right through to the present day.5 Considering the almost continuous presence of the question of time in the history of philosophy, it is unsurprising that thinking about time can also be found within the Russian tradition. However, as is attested above, in the early twentieth century Russian context such thinking may be interwoven with thought about history, creating some specific problems. The nature of the relationship between time and history was being questioned in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe as well as in Russia. After the fall in popularity of the metaphysical systems of history put forward by philosophers such as Georg Hegel (1770-1831) in the early nineteenth century, many were beginning to question whether they should be searching for the ultimate meaning of life in history or in time. As Roberts notes: But by the end of the [nineteenth] century, the intrusiveness of time and history was 3 Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 9 (London, 1998), p. 413. 4 See, for example, amongst many others: John F. Callahan, Four Views of Time in Ancient Philosophy (Cambridge MA, 1948); Richard Sorabji, Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (New York, 1986). 5 The twentieth- and twenty-first century engagement with time is vast in terms of scope and is of immense complexity. For the most comprehensive overview of contemporary debate on time, see Nathan Oaklander (ed.), The Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, 4 vols (Abingdon, 2008). Also see Jeremy Butterfield (ed.), The Arguments of Time (Oxford, 2006); Robin Le Poidevin, Murray MacBeath (eds), The Philosophy of Time (Oxford, 1993). 6 forcing a more radical rethinking. Some sought a new means of access to the suprahistorical, while others moved in the opposite direction, taking change, time, novelty, and creativity as ultimately real.6 Philosophers such as Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) offered different perspectives on this problem, and likewise in Russia both positions that Roberts outlines found support. Indeed, it is noticeable that Bulgakov looked for access to the ‘suprahistorical’ via the historical whilst Berdiaev, to use Roberts’ expression, ‘moved in the opposite direction’, taking the above problems – time, creativity, and change – as some of the most important. It should, however, also be noted that both viewpoints suggest a continued preoccupation with matters relating to the passage of time, to what time itself means and to what it may bring in the future. It is therefore an operating assumption of this thesis that whilst the questions they provoke may be different, a significant aspect of both discourses – those on time and those on history – relate to a very similar philosophical problem. The question of history in Russian thought has been studied far more broadly by scholars than the question of time. This is partly because Russian philosophy is more obviously engaged with the question of history than it is with time: it is easier to find reflection on the path of history – specifically Russian history – than it is on time. 7 Indeed, Wachtel has spoken of a Russian ‘obsession’ with the past, 8 6 David D. Roberts, Nothing but History: Reconstruction and Extremity after Metaphysics (Berkeley, 1995), p. 40. 7 Notable Russian philosophers writing about history include Petr Chaadaev (1794-1856), particularly his Filosoficheskie pis’ma: see P. Ia. Chaadaev, Sochineniia (Moscow, 1989), pp. 15-138; Nikolai Danilevskii (1822-1885): see N. Ia. Danilevskii, Rossia i Evropa. Vzgliad na kul’turnye i politicheskie otnosheniia slavianskogo mira k germano-romanskomu (St Petersburg, 1995); Konstantin Leont’ev (1831-1891): see K. Leont’ev, Vostok, Rossiia i Slavianstvo. Filosofskaia i politicheskaia publitsistika (Moscow, 1996). Vladimir Solov’ev (1853-1900) also wrote at length about history, but there is no text in particular in which he expounds his views on history in full. See instead Manon de Courten, History, Sophia and the Russian Nation: A Reassessment of Vladimir Solov’ev’s Views on History and his Social Commitment (Bern, 2004). A debate between Slavophiles and Westernisers, which began in the 1830s and involved key Russian thinkers such as Aleksei Khomiakov (1804-60), Ivan Kireevksii 7 Copleston identified the philosophy of history as a key element of Russian philosophy,9 and Malinov opened his recent work on eighteenth century Russian philosophy with the claim that the philosophy is history is a ‘special’ theme in the history of Russian thought. 10 Vasily Zen’kovskii (1881-1962) has also made the famous claim that Russian thought is in itself historiosophical: Русская мысль сплошь историософична, она постоянно обращена к вопросам о «смысле» истории, конце истории и т.п.11 However, this should not overshadow the importance of the question of time in the Russian mind. As shall be seen in the case of Bulgakov and Berdiaev, time was an independent problem, and, further, some of their thinking about history was built upon temporal concepts and presuppositions. It will therefore be seen how for both these thinkers ideas about time figured significantly in their contrasting philosophies. Location within Silver Age scholarship Scholarship around Russian Silver Age philosophy has had an interrupted history.
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