PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/19179 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-24 and may be subject to change. THE PHILOSOPHICAL NARRATIVE OF VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV An Application of Narrative Analysis to Russian Classical Philosophy: a Case-Study of The Crisis of Western Philosophy and Other Works by Vladimir Solovyov Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied der Wijsbegeerte Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar verdedigd op Oktober 2002 des namiddags om 15:30 Igor Smerdov Geboren op 19 november 1967 te Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod), Rusland Promotor: Prof. Dr. Machiel L.J.Karskens co-promotor: Dr. Evert van der Zweerde Nijmegen 2002 Manuscript committee: Prof. dr. W. Weststejn Prof. dr. Ph. van Haute Dr. A. Simons In this book I analyze the philosophical narrative of the great Russian philosopher, Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900). My analysis is based on his The «Crisis of Western Philosophy» as well as other works. The book provides an introductory assessment of the narrative method as it can be applied to Russian classical philosophy. The work includes a bibliography of publications in English, Russian and other languages, on theproblems of Russian philosophy and narrative analysis. The book is intended for readers interested in Russian philosophy and narrative method.  êíèãå ðàññìàòðèâàþòñÿ îñîáåííîñòè ôèëîñîôñêîãî ïîâåñòâîâàíèÿ âåëèêîãî ðóññêîãî ôèëîñîôà Âëàäèìèðà Ñîëîâüåâà (1853-1900) íà ïðèìåðå åãî ðàííåé ðàáîòû «Êðèçèñ çàïàäíîé ôèëîñîôèè» è íåêî- òîðûõ äðóãèõ. Êíèãà íîñèò õàðàêòåð ââåäåíèÿ â ïðîáëåìàòèêó íàð- ðàòèâíîãî àíàëèçà è ïðèìåíåíèÿ åãî ê òåêñòàì ðóññêîé êëàññè÷åñêîé ôèëîñîôèè. Êíèãà ñíàáæåíà áèáëèîãðàôèåé ðóññêîÿçû÷íûõ è èíî- ñòðàííûõ èñòî÷íèêîâ ïî ôèëîñîôèè Ñîëîâüåâà è íàððàòèâíîìó àíà- ëèçó. Äàííîå èññëåäîâàíèå îêàæåòñÿ ïîëåçíûì ôèëîñîôàì, ôèëî- ëîãàì, êóëüòóðîëîãàì è âñåì, êòî èíòåðåñóåòñÿ ðóññêîé ôèëîñîôèåé è ìåòîäîëîãèåé àíàëèçà ôèëîñîôñêèõ òåêñòîâ. © Igor Smerdov, 2002 CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ................................................................................................ 7 Purposes and Tasks ............................................................................ 11 Chapter 1. Towards a Model for the Narrative Analysis of Philosophical Texts .............................................................. 15 1.1. Narrative Approach and Philosophic Text. A Methodological Introduction and Foundation ........................ 15 1.2. The Necessity of a Methodological Turn in Scholarly Works on Vl.Solovyov ............................................................................ 41 1.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Narrative Approach ....... 56 1.4. Reflections on the Method of this Work .................................... 58 1.5. Conclusions ................................................................................. 61 Chapter 2. The Crisis of Western Philosophy as History of Philosophy .......................................................... 63 2.1. Reception of The Crisis of Western Philosophy ............................63 2.2. Topic and Composition of the Text............................................ 74 2.3. Solovyovs Account of the History of Western Philosophy .......80 2.4. The Functions of the Characters in Solovyovs Narrative .........85 2.5. Novelistic Narration in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ...........98 2.6. Individual Portraits of Philosophers in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ................................................................. 105 2.7. The Rhetorical Figure of Parallelism and Comparison in History of Philosophy .......................................................... 111 2.8. Forms of Narrative and Points of View in The Crisis.............. 116 2.9. The Positivists in The Crisis ...................................................... 118 2.10. Anti-positivistic Irony in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ................................................................................ 121 2.11. The Permanent Motif in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ..... 123 2.12. Metaphors in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ....................... 125 2.13. Questions in The Crisis of Western Philosophy ......................... 128 2.14. Forms of Representation of History and the Historical in The Crisis ............................................................................. 130 2.15. A Synthetic Model of Narrative Analysis ................................ 134 2.16. Conclusions .............................................................................. 138 3 Chapter 3. Further Development of the Primary System of Narrative in Solovyovs Works .............................................................. 140 3.1. Choice of Solovyovs Works and Preliminary Remarks ........... 140 3.2. Religion as Key Idea or Centre of Narration in Solovyovs Major Works ........................................................... 141 3.3. Schemes in The Philosophical Principles of Integral Knowledge ...................................................................... 144 3.4. The Engaging Mode of Writing in Lectures on Divine Humanity ......................................................................... 152 3.5. The Authoritative Character and its Role in Solovyovs Narrative ................................................................. 164 3.6. The Dialogue Form in Solovyovs Three Conversations ............ 169 3.7. Conclusions ............................................................................... 177 General Conclusion .................................................................................. 179 Bibliography ............................................................................................. 184 Titles in Russian ....................................................................................... 194 4 Preface I would like to thank all the teachers and colleagues without whom this book would have never been published. In particular, I am grateful to my school teacher in Nizhny Novgorod, Ella Pak, for her encouragement to write a dissertation, to my first advisor, Vsevolod Grekhnyov (Nizhny Novgorod State University), for inspiration, and to Svetlana Dolova for her help in preparation of the book. I would like to thank my teachers and colleagues at the Institute for European Cultures (Moscow) for their help and interest, in particular Galina Zvereva, Tatyana Dashkova, Boris Stepanov, Arkady Perlov, and also Vyacheslav Serbinenko (Russian State University for the Humanities) as well as all my colleagues and friends from the IEC. I am grateful to my advisors and colleagues from the Catholic Univer- sity of Nijmegen, my supervisor and co-promotor Evert van der Zweer- de, promotor Machiel Karskens, also Wil van der Bercken, Manon de Courten, Anton Simons, Pauline Schrooyen for their help and sugges- tions. I am also grateful to my British colleagues Philip Boobbyer and Jonathan Sutton. I would like to express my thanks to Wendy Helleman (Canada), Harley Wagler (USA), Christine Karrer (Switzerland/USA), Rachel Hayes (UK) for their help with the English text. 5 INTRODUCTION In this introductory section, I want to outline my method, explain my reasons for making such an inquiry, and elaborate what we can learn from it. First of all, the narrative approach presupposes close reading of the text and is based on an inquiry of a concrete text. My analysis is indeed based on close reading, but beyond that I am also making an interpretation of interpretation.1 However, my interpretation is aimed at finding tradi- tional aesthetic beauty, rather than contradictions, vague statements or lack of meaning in the text of the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (18531900). This project, which I have called narrative analysis, is more favorably disposed towards the text as a whole, than is typical of de- construction. Deconstructive analysis is aimed at search of inner contra- dictions, concealed meanings in the text, unnoted by the naïve reader and the author himself, and inherited from discursive practices of the past.2 On the contrary, the narrative approach focuses on literary and artistic elements of the text. It also approximates Kenneth Burkes rhetori- cal analysis of what he calls symbolic acts, although Burke has concen- trated on literary or publicistika texts.3 1 Derrida J. Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences // Modern Criticism and Theory. A Reader /Edited by David Lodge/ London and New York: Longman, 1988. p. 122. 2 Èëüèí È.Ï. Ïîñòìîäåðíèçì. Ñëîâàðü òåðìèíîâ Ì.: ÈÍÈÎÍ ÐÀÍ, Èíòðàäà, 2001. Ñ.56. (Ilyin I. Postmodernism. Dictionary of Terms) Ilyin quotes Anthony Easthope who used the term deconstruction in five ways: (1) A criticism designed to challenge the realistic mode in which a text aims to natu- ralize itself be demonstrating its actual constructedness . (2) A Foucauldian con- text, a procedure for revealing the inter-discursive dependencies of a discourse. (3) The project of annihilating the category of Literature by uncovering the discur- sive and institutional practices that uphold it. (4) American deconstruction which aims to discover how a text always differs