Russian Philosophy: From the Slavophiles to Solovyov, Berdyaev, and Bakhtin
Russian philosophy is one of Europe’s great national traditions — and one of its most singular. It was born late, in the nineteenth century, and not in the academic, systematic mold that shaped Germany from Kant to Hegel, but interwoven with literature, theology, and political urgency. Its central problems are not primarily epistemological but existential and ethical: the meaning of history, Russia’s destiny between East and West, human freedom in the face of evil, the possibility of a just community. It is no accident that its most influential philosophical texts include novels — those of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy — and essays written by exiles, prisoners, and priests. ...