Uralic Philosophy

Uralic Philosophy

! " ! #! $% "!! & '(& ) * ( + , -. / , + 0" #1 " -2344/' ' 2333-5 /' 066' 7' " ' 2389 ! " # $ !% ! & $ ' ' ($ ' # % %) %* % ' $ ' + " % & ' !# $, ( $ - . ! "- ( % . % % % % $ $ $ - - - - // $$$ 0 1"1"#23." 4& )*5/ +) 678%99:::& % ) - 2 ; * & /- <7=:94& )*5/ +) "3 " & 7=:9 GYÖRGY KÁDÁR A POTENTIAL URALIC PHILOSOPHY “Studies from modern cultural research on the Uralic peoples” BUDAPEST GYÖRGY KÁDÁR A POTENTIAL URALIC PHILOSOPHY “Studies from modern cultural research on the Uralic peoples” Everything that exists, only exists in comparison with something else. – A sketch of a potential Uralic philosophy, based on social-psychological and linguistic- SKLORVRSKLFDOREVHUYDWLRQVE\6iQGRU.DUiFVRQ\DQG*iERU/N 2 GYÖRGY KÁDÁR A POTENTIAL URALIC PHILOSOPHY 3 Revised, expanded edition Foreword: Aleksandra Seldyukova Professional proofreader: N. K. Loskareva 4 7RWKHPHPRU\RIP\WHDFKHU*iERU/NXQGHVHUYHGO\QHJOHFWHGWRWKHSUHVHQW day 5 FOREWORD In forums, congresses and conferences of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the discussion of every problem closes with the conclusion that, “The most important objective for representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples in the future will be to promote the preservation of the language and development of the culture by means of literature and philosophy.” But what is this philosophy, this Finno-Ugric or Uralic philosophy? Before I set about writing the foreword for this publication, I asked an expert about Uralic philosophy. He was very surprised by my question, but he asserted that the existence of such a philosophy is questionable even for purely theoretical reasons, as the Uralic or Finno-Ugric peoples live in isolation from one another, they don’t even have a unified state. But I wonder whether a prerequisite for the existence of such a philosophy is the statehood of peoples having similar roots and mentality in their ideology and world view, or perhaps the size and contiguous nature of their living space. Irrespective of whether the existence of a Uralic philosophy is accepted or not, so much is certain, that there exists a mentality, a perception of the world, there are forms and means of cognition, which distinguish the Finno-Ugric peoples from other nations and ethnic groups. In any event, knowledge acquired on the basis of alien philosophy (western for eastern peoples or eastern for westerners) remains lifeless learning coming from outside which few are able to apply, and those who do so, merely act under the influence of some powerful incentive or necessity. In contrast, the life of the average person is grounded on notions and concepts inherited from his ancestors, irrespective of his intentions. We finally need to admit that the Finno-Ugric peoples, particularly those living in the central areas of Russia, have been and are subject to powerful assimilation (formerly aggressive, at present voluntary and of free will). And whilst they call themselves Russians, in their consciousness, or still more their subconscious, where the grassroots of their world view is shaped and preserved, they remain the same as their ancestors were: Mordvins, Komis, Udmurts, Maris, etc. We are compelled to draw the apparently bold conclusion from this that the population of the central and northern part of Russia is made up for the most part of assimilated Finno-Ugric peoples, who still feel close to the Uralic philosophy of life. It will be very interesting for these Finno-Ugric people to read this work. They may discover something in it which they can recognise and feel as their own, something in which they feel themselves to be kinfolk. Here is a pertinent example: I was talking to a (Russian) candidate involved in linguistics, about how paired body parts are referred to in the singular in the Finno-Ugric languages, to which she responded in surprise, but (translated literally: ‘half foot, half hand’) in Russian also means ‘one hand, one foot’. We then clarified that, for instance in the Mari language “half hand” is “one hand” and “half leg” is “one leg” (peljolan – ‘half-legged’, pelkidan – ‘hand-handed’), indeed, in Russian too there is which means ‘to squint, to look with half closed eyes’, as in the Mari language 6 pelshincha dene onchash – ‘look with half an eye’1, pel shinchan – ‘half-eyed’. We cannot consider it a coincidence that in the subconscious of our colleague there survived a morsel of the approach of her distant Finno-Ugric ancestors. (It turned out that her ancestors came from the Vladimir Oblast, and etymological research into their surname also evidences a Mordvin origin.) The book you are holding in your hand may be regarded as the first swallow in a series of studies published in the Russian language and dealing with the Finno-Ugric mentality. This profound study of the Uralic philosophy is based on the social- psychological and linguistic-philosophical observations of Sándor Karácsony and *iERU /N )RU 5XVVLDQ VSHDNLQJ UHDGHUV LQFOXGLQJ UHSUHVHQWDWLYHV RI WKH )LQQR- Ugric peoples, these names sound unfamiliar, but the appearance of books like this in the Russian language is a long awaited development: the desire for self-discovery – who and what are we really? – have long been in the air, but at least for the last two decades, since the doors have opened for every Finno-Ugric people, including those living dispersed and far from one another on the territory of Russia, to have free interaction with one another and with representatives of Finno-Ugric peoples living abroad. The Finno-Ugric peoples, which had been living on the territory of today’s Russia for many centuries before the formation of the Russian state (Rus), came into contact with ethnic groups unrelated to them, by which their traditions and customs intermingled with one another and their languages and cultures were enriched (reciprocally) to the extent which they instinctively required. Despite the interaction of cultures and the spiritual growth, the Uralic peoples were not assimilated into the surrounding ethnicities, but they preserved and improved their own perception of the world and the spiritual roots from which their own philosophy of life was shaped and nourished. One of the roots of the unity of the Uralic peoples which still survives today is religious beliefs. The ancient religion of all the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups was paganism, which continues to survive in all of us somewhere in the depth of our soul, even if someone considers himself Muslim or Christian. The most important thing for us is that God is present in all of us, we see the being of God in everything which the Creator has made, i.e. in everything which exists. A characteristic of Finno-Ugric people is that they lived and live in harmony with nature, with the surrounding world and with their neighbours. The chief cause of the disintegration of the Finno-Ugric identity was Christianity being compelled and forced upon them. Despite this, forms of philosophy of such universal impact prevail in the Territory of Russia, in which the presence of the spirituality of Finno-Ugric peoples can be discovered. Evidence of this is provided by attributes typical of a significant proportion of the Russian people (i.e. specifically Russians of Russia, not Slavs), such as extreme kindness, compliance, placidity, a lack of unruly aggressiveness, the effort to get close to others emotionally, to understand 1 Cf. Hu. “I’ve heard about the matter with half an ear too” – “fél füllel én is hallottam a dologról” 7 their lifestyle and mentality, the willingness to bear with the faults of other ethnic communities. If these world-view attributes were not and had not been typical of the majority of the population of multiethnic Russia, then in the times following perestroika, the number of flashpoints in the country would have been considerably higher. Deepak Chopra, one of the greatest thinkers of our age, states, “The debate on how to end war, for example, has proved totally futile because the instant I see myself as an isolated individual, I confront “them”, the countless other individuals who want what I want. Violence is built into the opposition of us versus them. “They” never go away and “they” never give up. They will always fight to protect their stake in the world. As long as you and I have a separate stake in the world, the cycle of violence will remain permanent.” (Deepak Chopra. The Book of Secrets, p. 39) One of the important lessons in this work is, “(…)2 the extensive use of the word half existing far and wide in the Finno-Ugric languages indicates that there is an approach and perception of the world here which pervades the whole mentality. Whilst in the approach of the Indo-European peoples the individual person is a separate unit (personality), who has his own language, his own will and his own art, which he must validate as much as possible over against other people in his social life, according to the approach of the Finno-Ugric peoples, my life can only obtain its human nature and meaning when it forms a whole with the life of my other half. Only our joint activity is meaningful.

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    241 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us