Russia and America: A Philosophical Comparison: Development and Change of Outlook from the 19th to the 20th CenturySpringer Science & Business Media, 1976 M12 31 - 116 pages In this year of bicentennial celebration, there will no doubt take place several cultural analyses of the American tradition. This is only as it should be, for without an extensive, broad-based inquiry into where we have come from, we shall surely not foresee where we might go. Nonetheless, most cultural analyses of the American context suffer from a common fault - the lack of a different context to use for purposes of comparison. True, American values and ideals were partly inherited from the European tradition. But that tradition is in many ways an inadequate mode of comparison. Without going too far afield, let us note two points: first, European culture was the proud inheritor of the Renaissance tradition, and, going back still further, of classical culture; second, the European countries are compact. Their land masses are such that the notion of "frontier" simply would not have arisen in the same way as it did in America. On the other side of the globe, however, there does exist a country capable of serving as a suitable mirror. We speak, of course, of Russia. That country also came relatively late onto the cultural horizon, and was not privy to the Renaissance tradition. Furthermore, her land mass is such as to be "experi mentally infmite" in character - not unlike the American frontier. It is hoped that much can be leamed about the present cultural context by com paring the two countries in their youthful stages. |
Contents
THE IMPORTANCE OF AMBIGUITY IN RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN CULTURE | 3 |
The American Context | 4 |
Frontier as Creative Edge | 7 |
The Russian Context | 11 |
History As Messianic | 13 |
The Global Village as Ambiguous | 17 |
CHAADAYEV AND EMERSON TWO MYSTICAL PRAGMATISTS | 18 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | 23 |
The Importance of Time and History | 69 |
Community as Constraint | 71 |
Conclusion | 72 |
MARXISTLENINIST PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL HISTORY | 79 |
Dialectical Materialism | 80 |
Historical Materialism | 82 |
MarxistLeninist Historiography of Philosophy | 83 |
Problems of Social and National Conditioning | 84 |
Conclusion | 27 |
HERZEN AND JAMES FREEDOM AS RADICAL | 29 |
An Unfinished Uncertain Universe | 30 |
The Efficacy of the Human Person | 32 |
William James | 35 |
The Efficacy of the Human Person in the Stream of Consciousness | 36 |
The Context as Unfinished Uncertain Universe | 38 |
Conclusion | 41 |
ROYCE AND KHOMYAKOV ON COMMUNITY AS PROCESS | 44 |
Alexis Khomyakov | 48 |
ART VS SCIENCE IN DEWEY AND CHERNYSHEVSKY | 52 |
Chernyshevsky on Art and Science | 58 |
Conclusion | 63 |
UNDERLYING THEMES AND THE PRESENT CULTURAL CONTEXT | 65 |
The Human Being as Participator | 66 |
An Unfinished Mysterious Universe | 67 |
The Interpenetration of Thought and Action | 68 |
SOVIET REACTION TO SOME NINETEENTHCENTURY PHILOSOPHERS | 86 |
The General Soviet View on American Philosophy | 88 |
The Soviets on Chaadayev and Emerson | 89 |
The Soviets on Herzen and James | 90 |
The Soviets on Khomyakov and Royce | 91 |
The Soviets on Chernyshevsky and Dewey | 92 |
UNDERLYING THEMES IN CONTEMPORARY MARXISTLENINIST PHILOSOPHY | 94 |
The Human Being as Participator | 95 |
Scientism versus Contextualism | 96 |
Theory and Practice | 97 |
Temporality and Historicism | 98 |
Community | 99 |
FINAL THOUGHTS | 101 |
NOTES | 103 |
112 | |
Other editions - View all
Russia and America: A Philosophical Comparison: Development and Change of ... W.J. Gavin,J.E. Blakeley No preview available - 2011 |
Russia and America: A Philosophical Comparison: Development and Change of ... W.J. Gavin,J.E. Blakeley No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
activity aesthetic Alexander Herzen American philosophy art and science basic believe bourgeois Cartesian century Chaadayev Chernyshevsky Christianity Church conception consciousness contemporary creative cultural context Dewey's dialectical materialism dimension efficacious ence essentially exists experience final freedom frontier fundamental Furthermore future History of Russian human person Ibid idea ideal idealist important individual insofar interpenetration of thought interpretation involved James Scanlan John Dewey Josiah Royce Khomyakov knowledge living Marxism Marxism-Leninism Marxist-Leninist philosophy merely Moscow myopia mystic pragmatism nature nonetheless notion of community object organic outlook participation past political position possible present problem proletarian radical Ralph Waldo Emerson reality realized rejected religion religious role Royce Royce's Russian and American Russian Philosophy scientific seems seen situation Slavophile sobornost social society Soviet philosophy subjective theme Theodore Roszak theory things thinkers thought and action tion true truth uncertain unity universe vagueness or mystery William James York Zenkovsky