Berdyaev Worldview

8/20/2019 Berdyaev Worldview

1/8

N. A. BERDYAEV (BERDIAEV)

MY PHILOSOPHIC WORLD-OUTLOOK

(1952/1937 - #476)

At the centre of my philosophic creativity is situated the problemof man. And therefore my philosophy is to an utmost extent an-thropologic. To posit the problem of man -- this means at the sametime to posit the problem of freedom, of creativity, person, spirit and

history. Therefore I have chiefly concerned myself with the philoso-phy of religion, the philosophy of history, social philosophy and eth-ics.

My philosophy is of the existential type, if contemporary termi-nology be used. But it can be likewise regarded as a philosophy ofspirit. In its basic tendency this philosophy is dualistic, although theterm is about dualism of a particular sort and to some measure is notultimate. This is a dualism of spirit and nature, of freedom and de-

terminism, of the person and the in-general, of the kingdom of Godand the kingdom of Caesar. And in this I sense myself closer to Kant,than to the monistic German idealism of the beginning XX Century.The initial point of my weltanschaung-outlook is the primacy of free-dom over being. This provides philosophy a dynamic character andexplains a basis for evil, as also the possibility of creativity in theworld of something new. Freedom cannot be a determinisation by be-ing, freedom is not delimited even by God. It is rooted in non-being.

In this, as regards thinkers of the past, especially close to me wereHeraclitus, Origen and St. Gregory of Nyssa amongst the fathers ofthe Church, Jakob Boehme -- who had tremendous significance formy spiritual developement, and to a certain degree also Kant. As re-gards philosophers of our times those having points contingent withme were Bergson, Gentile, Max Scheler. Amongst the representativesof existential philosophy the closest to me is Jaspers. Dostoevsky, L.Tolstoy, Nietzsche, one after the other they played a large role in theworking out of my weltanschaung-outlook, just as did Marx, Carlyle,Ibsen and Leon Bloy -- in the forming of my social views.


2/8

The Tasks of Philosophy. Philosophy is the discipline or science,scientia, concerning the soul. The scientia concerning the soul is how-ever the scientia concerning human existence. Particularly withinhuman existence is revealed the meaning of being. Being reveals itself

through the subject, and not through the object. Philosophy thereforeof necessity is anthropologic and anthropocentric. Existential philos-ophy is a cognition of the meaning of being through the subject. Thesubject is existential, existentialised. In the object, on the contrary, theinner existence is concealed. In this sense philosophy is subjective,and not objective. It is based upon spiritual experience.

Cognition. It is impossible to set cognition in opposition to being.Cognition is an event within being. Cognition is immanent to being,and it is not that being is immanent to cognition. Cognition is not amere mirrored reflection of being within the cognitive subject. Cogni-tion bears a creative character and itself represents an act of positingmeaning. The opposition of the cognitive subject to the object leads toan annihilating of being both of the subject, and also of the object.The cognition of the object of necessity transforms cognition into objectivisation. There exist various degrees of cognition and correspond-ing to them degrees of objectivisation. The more objectivised the cog-nition, the more remote it is from human existence, and is the moreuniversally-binding. This logical universal-obligatoriness possesses a

social nature. The logical universal-obligatoriness of objectivised cog-nition is connected with a lower degree of the spiritual community ofpeople, based upon communication. The sphere of the physico-mathematical sciences can serve by way of an example. For the rec-ognising of truth in the sphere of the mathematical or natural sciencesthe spiritual community of people is irrelevant. But this communal-ness has to be already the more noticeable, when the talk turns to thesocial sciences. Philosophic cognition cannot abstract itself off fromhuman existence, for the positing of this or that truth there is neces-

sary a spiritual in-commonness, since metaphysical cognition cannot be to such a degree universally-significative, as is mathematical cogni-tion. And finally, truths of a religious order demand a maximum ofspiritual in commonness between people. On the inside religioustruths (the truths of religion) seem very subjective and very disputable, but for the religious communities, which believe in them, these truthsare universal and indisputable. Penetration into the mystery of exist-ence presupposes a creative intuition. Objectivised cognition corre-sponds to a breaking-apart, a disassociatedness of the world, i.e. to its

fallenness. But within the limits of this world it has a positive signifi-cance.


3/8

The sociology of cognition possesses a significance of the firstdegree. Its scope is to establish the connection between cognition, onthe one hand, and the problem of society (obschestvo) and in-commonness (obschnost’) of communication and community (o b-

schenie), on the other hand. Objectivised cognition is always involvedwith the “in common” (“obschii”), and not with the “individual”, andtherefore an objectised metaphysics, based upon a conceptual system,is an impossibility. Metaphysics is naught other, than a philosophy ofhuman existence; it is subjective, and not objective, it rests upon sym- bol and myth. Truth and reality are not at all identical with objectifi-cation.

Anthropologism. The fundamental problem of philosophy is theproblem of man. Being reveals itself within man and through man.Man is a microcosm and a microtheos. He is created in the image andlikeness of God. But at the same time man is a natural being, and fi-nite. In man there is a twofold aspect: man is the point of intersectionof two worlds, he reflects in himself the higher world and the worldlower. As the image and likeness of God, man is a person. Person isproperly distinct from the individuum. Person is a category which isspiritually-religious, the individuum however is a category natural-istic-biological. Person cannot be a part of anything: it is an integralwhole, it is correlative to society, to nature and to God. Man is a spir-

itual being, but also physical and fleshly. In the capacity of a fleshly being he is connected with all the cycles of worldly life, and as a spir-itual being he is connected with the spiritual world and with God.The spiritual basis within man is dependent neither upon nature norupon society, and it is not defined by them. Freedom is inherent toman, although this freedom is not absolute. The principle of freedomis determined neither from below nor from above. The freedom inher-ent to man is a freedom uncreated and primordial. There is talk aboutan irrational freedom: it is not about freedom in truth, but rather

about the freedom to accept or deny the truth. Another freedom is thefreedom, issuing forth from truth and from God, a freedom pervaded by grace. Only the acknowledgement of uncreated freedom, a free-dom, not rooted within being, can explain the emergence of evil,while at the same time it explains the possibility of the creative actand newness in the world.

The Teaching about Creativity. The problem of creativity occupies acentral place in my world-outlook. Man was created for this, that he

in his own turn should become a creator. He is called to creative workin the world, he continues the creation of the world. The meaning and


4/8

purpose of his life is not accounted for merely as salvation. Creativityis always a passing over from non-being to being, i.e. a creation fromout of nothing. Creativity from nothing is a creativity from freedom.In distinction to God, however, man has need of material in order to

create, and in his creativity there is enclosed an element issuing forthfrom the freedom of man. In the fount of his creativity there is a soar-ing upwards, a victory over the heaviness of the world. But in the re-sults, in the products of creativity, there is discovered a downwardstugging and pull. In place of new being they create books, articles, pic-tures, social institutes, machines, cultural values. The tragedy of crea-tivity consists in the non-correspondence of the creative intended de-sign with its realisation. Creativity presents itself as the complete op-posite of evolution. Evolution is determinism, a matter of sequential

effects. Creativity however is freedom, a primordial act. The worldhas not ceased to be created, it is not finished, the creation is continu-ing.

The Philosophy of Religion. Revelation is twofold. It presupposesGod, from Whom issues forth the revelation, and man in receiving it.The acceptance of revelation is active and dependent upon the breadth or narrowness of consciousness. The world of things invisibleis not forcefully compelling for us, it reveals itself in freedom. Man isnot free in his denial of the sensory world, which surrounds him, but

he is free in his denial of God. With this is connected the mystery offaith. Revelation does not contain within itself any particular philoso-phy, any particular system of thought. Revelation however has to beassimilated by human thought, which is made distinct by a constantactivity. Theology is dependent always upon philosophic categories.But revelation cannot of necessity be bound up with any especial onephilosophy. The capacity for changes and the creative activity of thesubject, receiving the revelation, justify an eternal modernism. In theirown time both the works of the fathers of the Church and of the Scho-

lastics were regarded as modernism.

Religious cognition is symbolic. It cannot express religious truthin rational concepts. For the mind, truth is antinomic. Dogma -- issymbol. But this is a realist symbolism, reflective of being, and not anidealist symbolism, reflective merely of the condition of man. Meta-physics cannot find its completion in a system of concepts, for its end-purpose is in myth, beyond which reality conceals itself.

Religion is the connection between God and man. God is bornwithin man, and man is born within God. God awaits from man a


5/8

creative and free answering. With this is connected the mystery ofGod-manhood, of unity within duality. Christian philosophy is a phi-losophy of God-manhood and Christology. Religious life, the primalsource of which is manifest by revelation, undergoes the influences

and actions of the social surroundings. This bestows on the religioushistory of mankind an especial complexity. There is therefore neces-sary a re-working of it by a constant cleansing, working it through andthe reviving of it.

The Philosophy of History. The acknowledging of the meaning ofhistory is an aspect of Judaism and Christianity, but not of Greek phi-losophy. The relationship of Christianity to history is twofold. Chris-tianity is historical: it is the revelation of God within history. ButChristianity cannot be confused with history. It is a process withinhistory. The philosophy is history is connected with the problem oftime. We live within a fallen time, fragmented into the past, the pre-sent and the future. The victory over the death-bearing current of timeis a fundamental task of the spirit. Eternity is not an infinitude oftime, numerically immeasurable, but rather qualitative, a surmount-ing of time. The past for us is always already a transformed past. Themeaning of history is gained through tradition, which presents itself asa creative connection between the past and the present. The meaningof history ought to have meaning for each human person, it ought to

be commensurate with its individual fate. Progress however regardseach man and each generation as a means for succeeding peoples andgenerations. Ruptures are inevitable within history, just as crises andrevolutions are inevitable within it, which witness to the lack of suc-cess of all human accomplishments. History ought to have an end, forthe meaning of history is bound up with eschatology.

The Philosophy of Culture. Culture is the creative activity of man.In culture the creativity of man finds its own objectivisation. In theo-

cratic societies, based on sacralisation, the creative powers of man arenot sufficiently free. Humanism is a liberation of the creative personof man, and in this is comprised its truth. Beyond the theme of culturelies concealed the theme of the relationship of man to God and to theworld. But either way it is God against man, or man rises up againstGod. Humanism in its developement led to a secularisation of culture,and in this secularisation there was its own truth and unmasking oflie. Humanism however finished up with a self-deification of man,and with a denial of God. And therein the image of man, which is in

the image of God, began to disintegrate. Humanism passed over intoanti-humanism. We see this with Marx and with Nietzsche. The crisis


6/8

of humanism presents itself as a movement towards principles supra-human, either towards Christ, or towards the Anti-Christ. The forceof technology is one of the moments of the crisis of humanism. Theincursion of the masses modifies culture from above downwards,

lowers its quality and leads to a crisis of spirituality. Technical civili-sation rends the integral wholeness of the human being and trans-forms him into a function. Only a spiritual renaissance would allowman to subordinate the machine to himself.

Social Philosophy. The fundamental problem is the problem of therelationship between the person and society. Society presents itself asthe objectivisation of human relationships. In society the “I” can r e-main solitary and not meet up in encounter with the “thou”. For so-ciology the person is an insignificant part, subordinate to society. Forexistential philosophy, on the contrary, society assumes the appear-ance of being part of the person, its social side. In the person there isinherent a spiritual principle, a depth, which is not defined by society.Men belongs to two spheres: the kingdom of God and the kingdom ofCaesar. Upon this is grounded the right and the freedom of man. Andthus also, there exist limits to the domination of the state and societyover man. Society is not an organism. The reality of human societydefines itself by the reality of the human community. An objectivisedsociety, suppressing the person, arises from the disassociation of peo-

ple, from their sinful egocentrism. In such a society there exists com-munication between people, but not community. The highest type ofsociety appears to be the society, in which there are united the princi-ple of the person and the principle of community. Such a type of soci-ety might be termed a personalist socialism. In such a society, foreach human person there would be acknowledged an absolute valueand utmost worth as a being, called to eternal life, and therein the so-cial organisation would guarantee for each the possibility of attain-ment of the fulness of life. It is necessary to strive towards a synthesis

of an aristocratic, a qualitative principle of person, and a democratic,socialist principle of justice and the brotherly collaboration of people.

In the epoch of the active incursion of the masses into historyand the giddying developement of technology society becomes techni-cally ordered. Mankind forsakes the organic rhythm of life and subor-dinates itself to a mechanical and technical organisation. For man asan integrally whole being, this process is sickening and tormentive.The tellurgic period of the life of mankind approaches its end. The

might of the machine signifies the beginning of a new period -- cos-mogonic, since it subordinates man to a new cosmos. Man already no


7/8

longer lives amidst bodies inorganic and organic, but amidst organ-ised bodies. In such an epoch especially there is need for a strengthen-ing of spirit and spiritual movement for the preservation of the imageof man. Without a spiritual renewal it is impossible to attain social re-

structuring.

Ethics. Personalism is a basis for ethics. Moral judgements and actsare always personal and individual, they cannot be defined by theconcepts or choice of a collective or society. The distinction betweengood and evil is a consequence of the fall into sin. The paradisical ex-istence was situated above good and evil. There exist three views ofethics: the ethics of law, the ethics of redemption and the ethics ofcreativity. The ethics of law is the most widespread amongst sinfulmankind. The ethics of law is the ethics of a social everydayness, it is based upon the subordination of man to norms, and for it there doesnot exist the human individuality. For it man exists for the Sabbath.The “good” however, which observe the law, shew themselves oftento be “evil”. In this ethics it is the idea of an abstract good that gov-erns. The ethics of law found its most extreme expression in Pharisee-ism. This is a normative ethics. The ethics of redemption issues forthfrom a lived human existence, and not from an abstract idea of thegood. The ethics of creativity is based on the creative gifts of man-kind. The creative act has a moral significance, and a moral act is a

creative act. The true moral act is unique, it cannot be repeated. Themoral act is not a fulfilling of the law, of norms, but is rather a crea-tive newness in the world. Every creative act has moral significance,though this be a creativity of cognitive or aesthetic values. Ethics is bound up with the eschatological problem, the problem of death andimmortality, of heaven and hell. Hell is situated in the subjective, andnot in the objective, and it remains within time, within unendingtime, and does not pass over into eternity. The ontology of an eternalhell is impossible. Hell is created by the “good” for the “evil”, and

therein they render themselves evil. The kingdom of God is on theother side of our here and now “good” and “evil”, and the thoughtabout it can only be apophatic.

________________________

Basic works for the understanding of my philosophic world-view are: “The Meaning of Creativity” (published in English title“The Meaning of the Creative Act”), “The Meaning of History”,

“Philosophy of the Free Spirit” (published in English under title


8/8

“Freedom of the Spirit”), “The Destiny of Man”, “I and the World ofObjects” (published in English under title “Solitude and Society”).

And in matters that touch upon the philosophy of culture, one

might refer to suchlike works of mine, as “The New Middle Ages”(in English text “The End of Our Time”), “Christianity and ClassWar”, “The Truth and Lie of Communism” (in English text “TheRussian Revolution” Chapter entitled “The Religion of Com-munism”), and“The Fate of Man in the Modern World”.

Nikolai Berdyaev

1937 / 1952

© 2000 by translator Fr. S. Janos

(1952/1937 - 476 -en)

MOE PHILOSOPHSKOE MIROCOZERTSANIE. First published

1937 in German as entry in “Philosophen Lexicon” compendium un-der title “Die philosophische Weltschaung N. A. Berdiaef”.

As journal article, first published posthumously in 1952 in Russian, inthe journal “Vestnik Russkogo studentcheskogo khristianskogodvizheniya” (“Messenger of the Russian Student Christian Move-ment”), No. 4-5.

We have not reproduced here the numerous bibliographic philosopherfootnotes provided in the 1990 Russian journal “Philosophskoe

nauki” (Bk 6 p. 85-89). This was reprinted in the 1994 A. A. Ermichev(editor) text, “N. A. Berdyaev: Pro and Contra”, p. 23-28.

Е-Текст по- русский.

Return to Berdyaev Online Library.
http://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.htmlhttp://www.berdyaev.com/http://www.berdyaev.com/http://www.berdyaev.com/http://www.krotov.info/berdyaev/1937/19370000.html

Documents

Berdyaev Worldview