The challenge of otherness: Self, values and modernity in Russian philosophical thought, 1900--1917

Discourse on self, values, and modernity illustrates the development of the social and political Weltanschauung of many Russian intellectuals of the 1900s. The history of this discourse links the evolution of philosophical thought to political and cultural dynamics in early 20th-century Russia. The writings of these intellectuals demonstrate that their demand for Weltanschauung related to their alienation from traditional group identities and to their need to choose among conflicting political, cultural and social orientations. Nikolai Berdiaev, Sergei Bulgakov, and Semyon Frank abandoned their early Marxism for Neo-Idealism. They argued that a comprehensive Weltanschauung can rest only on the principles of individual autonomy and absolute values. These principles underpinned the Neo-Idealist critique of the revolutionary movement's utilitarianism and relativism.; The Neo-Idealists' challenge to revolutionary ideology paralleled the rise of the liberal movement, which competed with revolutionary parties and sought to unite the anti-autocratic forces around a program of socio-cultural modernization. At the same time the contradiction between the rapid cultural modernization of urban workers and peasant migrants and the persistent social constraints and economic deprivation they still faced disillusioned the masses with liberal egalitarianism and attracted them to revolutionary struggle against the autocracy.; Awareness of the liberal parties' inability to address social conflicts led Berdiaev, Bulgakov, and Frank to abandon Neo-Idealist moralist normativism for realism and the aestheticist holism of religious philosophy. The modernist critique of contemporary culture facilitated this transition. Pavel Florensky's combination of radical modernism with fundamentalism culminated in an attack on modern rationalism. Berdiaev answered his attack by suggesting that religious humanism could combine secular modern culture with religious tradition.; The philosophical discussion of social, political, and cultural issues, particularly the status of self and values, highlights the plight of the early 20th-century Russian intelligentsia in a rapidly modernizing society confronted with a wide spectrum of political options from revolutionary radicalism to liberal normativism to traditionalist conservatism.