The article presents the history of foundation of the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin based on German archival materials and periodicals of the 1920s–1930s. The role of the Germans in the institutionalization, as well as the importance of the Institute in the creative biography of S.L. Frank have been analyzed. Special attention is paid to the lecture courses of the Russian philosopher, which were given at the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin. It is emphasized that with the work of S.L. Frank an appeal was introduced to the study of the problems of Russian thought and spiritual culture, which in general was not common for the philosopher in the preemigrant period. Thus, the Institute provided to S.L. Frank the institutional legitimation of research, which partly corresponded to the aspirations and expectations of the German side that participated in the foundation of the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin. In the appendix archival materials – transcripts of four lectures of the philosopher under the general theme “Modern trends in philosophy”, given under the auspices of the Institute in late 1928 – early 1929 and stored in the Bakhmetev Archives of Columbia University (New York, USA) are also published.
The commonality of views of S. Frank and M. Scheler on the question of the relationship between God and the world is based on the fact, that both philosophers relied on the ideas of Platonism and German mysticism. Both philosophers were convinced of the existence of a spiritual identity between Russia and Germany. This affinity is expressed in the reception of the mystical worldview. The article examines the views of Scheler and Frank on the development of Russian and German cultures. The article examines Frank's point of view on the existence in Europe of a single “eternal philosophy” that goes back to Platonism and Eastern Patristics. This philosophy, according to Frank, is the main line of philosophy in Europe and Russia. Frank continues the tradition of Neo-Platonism, medieval German mysticism and mysticism of German classical philosophy (Baader). God, according to Frank, is an incomprehensible fundamental principle of being. The creation of the world is the revelation of the inner life of God. In a later book “The light shineth in darkness” Frank doubts the omnipotence of God, but does not renounce the idea of the existential unity of God and the world. God as Spirit reveals “weakness” in the world. Frank's position is panentheism. Scheler, like Frank, is associated with Neoplatonism and German mysticism (Schelling). Scheler’s world and God are in close connection. God becomes a personal God in the process of creating the world. Like Frank, Scheler comes to the conclusion that the spiritual principle has no power over the vital principle. His position should be characterized as pantheism. Thus, Frank and Scheler act as followers of the mystical doctrine of the direct connection between God and the world. In their worldview, neoplatonic mysticism, German mysticism and Christianity are united into one whole.
Based on archival materials, personal correspondence and Swiss periodicals, a historical and philosophical reconstruction of the circumstances of Semyon L. Franck’s lecture visit in Switzerland in 1929 have been performed. The place and significance of the report “The Secret of Transcendence” (“Das Rätsel des Transzendenz”), which was given in Zurich at the invitation of the local Philosophical Society, in the philosopher’s creative heritage was established. It was concluded that the content of Semyon L. Frank’s lecture is reflected the epistemological problems that the philosopher set out systematically in his pre-emigrant work “The Object of Knowledge” (1915), and then presented it to the German-speaking professional community in an abridged form in two articles published under the general title “Cognition and Being” (“Erkenntnis und Sein”) in 1928 and 1929 in the German edition of the international yearbook on the philosophy of culture “Logos”. The appendix introduces the German-language synopsis of Semyon L. Frank “The Secret of Transcendence”, stored in Box 16 of the Philosopher’s Foundation in the Bakhmetev Archives of Columbia University (New York, USA) – Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York. S.L. Frank Papers. Box 16. S.L. Frank – Manuscript Fragments Notes; archival materials are provided with Russian translation and comments.
In this paper, we reconstruct the historical and philosophical context of two German lectures by Semyon Ludvigovich Frank dedicated to F.M. Dostoevsky’s anthropology that were delivered by him in 1935 and 1938 in Switzerland. We also designate the general place that the philosophical understanding of Dostoyevsky’s work occupied in Frank’s thought during his émigré period of the 1930s. Building on archive materials the authors establish that the first lecture on Dostoyevsky’s anthropology delivered by Frank in Switzerland took place in Kreuzlingin on the 13th of July, 1935 and was organized by the Swiss psychiatrist L. Binswanger. The lecture on a similar topic was delivered by the Russian philosopher in Basel on the 25th of January 25, 1938 and was organized by the philologist E.E. Mahler, a friend of Frank from the pre-émigré period, who was a professor of Slavic studies at the University of Basel. In the Annex we publish, with an introduction and comments, two German abstracts of Frank’s lectures known as “Dostojewskys Anthropologie”. These abstracts are stored at the Bakhmeteff Archive (Columbia University, New York).
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