Berdyaev’s Criticism On European Humanitarianism

Berdyaev’s criticism on the crisis of European humanitarianism is not only thereflection of Berdyaev’s whole thoughts, but also the reflection of the fusion andconflicts between the traditional occultism of the Orthodox Eastern Church andEuropean rationalism, and between the Russian nationalism and the western capitalism,particularly at the end of19thcentury and at the beginning of20thcentury. In theprocess of modernization of Russian philosophy and culture values, Berdyaevattributed Russian religion, human society and the existence of human beings to a kindof religious theoretical background mostly derived from the philosophical concern,which provides the important enlightenment for the lack of faith in Russian societypast and present. Based on review of Berdyaev’s whole thoughts and his importantliterature, my dissertation analyzes his ideas on God, immortal, spiritualism, andfreedom so as to exhibit Berdyaev’s criticism and his denial on Europeanhumanitarianism, as well as his endeavor to reconstruct a Christian way ofhumanitarianism with the premise of the Orthodox thinking.Berdyaev’s philosophical idea and criticism on European humanitarianism largelycontains elements of Existentialism and freedom-philosophy and mainly focuses on theissue of human and human existence with his ultimate theoretical interest in the pursuitof the settlement for human life. Berdyaev proposes many creative theories, however,his theories failed to provide any constructive instructions for the modernization ofRussia due to his religious occultism and the confusion of the value premise. Mydissertation firstly introduces Berdyaev’s general thoughts and reviews his importantliterature, followed by the discussion of Berdyaev’s criticism on Europeanhumanitarianism as well as my tentative assessment on his theoretical values, hismistakes, and his position in the history of human thoughts.Chapter one is an introduction of Berdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism, developed from three aspects, namely: the origin of the problem, research status homeand abroad, and Berdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism and his criticism on Europeanhumanitarianism. The keynote in this part centers around the idea that fullunderstanding and internal cognition of Russian universal conception of the world inthe late19thcentury and early20thcentury, Berdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism andthe spirit of the typical characteristics of Russian culture will be obtained in itscomparison with the European philosophical worldview and cultural spirit as referenceto determine the thrust of its spirit.In Chapter two, my expounding of Berdyaev’s main themes in Christianhumanitarianism including the issue of freedom, spirit, creation, personality and therelation between human and God fosters a general understanding of the essence inBerdiaev’s Christian humanitarianism. Berdyaev distinguished the personalized Godand the Godlized person in his explanation of fundamental implication of the Christianhumanitarianism, and indicates that only if in the mingling of nature of human and thenature of God it is possible to realize his Christian humanitarianism. However, theseparation of the nature of human and the nature of God is just the specialty ofEuropean humanitarianism established on rationalism and necessarily leads to theanti-humanitarianism. The last part of this chapter focuses on Berdyaev’s fatalisthumanitarianism and his criticism on anti-humanitarianism of the objectiveworld-theory, which can be considered as the theoretical precedence of Berdyaev’scriticism on European humanitarianism.Chapter three mainly centers around the discussion of Berdyaev’s criticism onEuropean humanitarianism. Based on the analysis on the background of the occurrenceof the crisis of European humanitarianism, a conclusion could be reached that inBerdyaev’s view, the crisis of European humanitarianism is mainly embodied in thedouble slavery accepted by human beings, not only from the internal but also from theexternal, which results in the separation of human being and God. Berdyaev’s criticismon European humanitarianism is essentially a criticism on anti-theist humanitarianism,developed from the perspective of theist humanitarianism. This shows the central ideaof Christian humanitarianism, namely the concern on human existence. This chapter expounds this theme through the following paths: Berdyaev’s criticism on traditionalEuropean view of God and traditional European view of human existence and hisunderstanding of the God and human being and his criticism on Marxist andExistential-philosophy. These criticisms constitute the major parts of Berdyaev’scriticism on European traditional humanitarianism and present us a sharp distinctionbetween European traditional culture and Russian traditional culture.After the discussion of the basic theoretic connotation of Berdyaev’s Christianhumanitarianism and his criticism on European humanitarianism, it is necessary toexplore its significance, misunderstanding and uniqueness in Chapter four. Itssignificance embodies in the realization to disclose the nature of the crisis of Europeanhumanitarianism, to transcend the one-side European rationalism, to resist the nihilismand to understand “being itself” in a distinctive way, which shows the great concern ofBerdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism on the human being and its existence.Undoubtedly, Berdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism sheds important enlightenment onthe modern society with the lack of beliefs, but encounters some misunderstandings atthe same time, like his criticism on western rational culture is not objective since itcontains realistic factors; or his understanding on European humanitarianism isone-side, to name a few. Nevertheless, both the significance and misunderstanding ofBerdyaev’s Christian humanitarianism derive from the distinctiveness of Christianhumanitarianism, which is embodied in the metaphysical features, religious pursuit,existentialism and Christian mysticism. To sum up, Berdyaev tried to establish thebasis of the settlement and pursuit for human being from the position of thehumanitarianism combined with the culture of Orthodox Eastern Church, in an attemptto overcome the crisis of human existence and spiritual value crisis.