Existentielle Dialektik des Göttlichen und Menschlichen

by Nikolai Berdyaev, Bernhard Foss (Translator)

This book is pre-ISBN.

Die Grundkonstellation in Berdjajews Philosophie ist die Gegenüberstellung von Geist und Natur und die Orientierung des Menschen innerhalb dieses Rahmens: Der Mensch hat die Wahl zwischen der "Objektivation", d. h. der Verfallenheit an die materielle Welt, oder der Geistigkeit und "Gottmenschlichkeit". Mit dem Reich des Geistes wesentlich verknüpft ist die Freiheit - Berdjajew stellt sie mit Jakob Böhme über das Sein, als "ungeschaffene Freiheit", die im Nichts gründet. Hier wird die Nähe zur existenzialistischen Philosophie offenkundig; zu Recht hat man Berdjajew als einen christlichen Existenzialisten bezeichnet. Die von ihm angestrebte geistige Wiedergeburt des Menschen sollte nicht nur den Einzelnen betreffen, sondern auch zu einer sozialen Umgestaltung der Gesellschaft führen.

195 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1951

About the author

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev was born at Kyiv in 1874 of an aristocratic family. He commenced his education in a military school and subsequently entered the University of Kiev. There he accepted Marxism and took part in political agitation, for which he was expelled. At twenty-five he was exiled from Kiev to the north of Russia and narrowly escaped a second period of exile shortly before the Revolution. Before this, however, he had broken with Marxism in company with Sergius Bulgakov, and in 1909 he contributed to a symposium which reaffirmed the values of Orthodox Christianity. After the October Revolution he was appointed by the Bolshevists to a chair of philosophy in the University of Moscow, but soon fell into disfavour for his independent political opinions. He was twice imprisoned and in 1922 was expelled from the country. He settled first in Berlin, where he opened a Russian Academy of Philosophy and Religion. Thence he moved to Clamart near Paris, where he lectured in a similar institution. In 1939 he was invited to lecture at the Sorbonne. He lived through the German occupation unmolested. After the liberation, he announced his adhesion to the Soviet government, but later an article by him published in a Paris (Russian) newspaper, criticising the return to a policy of repression, was tantamount to a withdrawal of this. He died at Clamart March 24, 1948.