„The Russian idea” as a Problem – Philosophical Horizon

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of the “Russian idea” – understood as a problem – involves realizing a wide array of the problem’s aspects. Concentrating one’s attention on the philosophical dimension, one needs to remember that the philosophical reflection should programmatically link together maximum generality and maximum (self-)cri-ticism. In a situation where the integral element of the philosophical thought is the meta-reflection, and at the same time the integral element of the “Russian idea” remains its philosophical dimension, the epistemic and epistemological level of the possible (self-) problematization is worth distinguishing. The former is connected to the viewpoint of the subject involved in the project of the “Russian idea”, which means that the undertaken problematization of reality – and the ways of its conceptualization – cannot in principle undermine its common sense, axiological arguments and social reality, but on the contrary, explain and legitimize them. The latter is an attempt to look at the analyzed process from the outside, which creates a possibility to problematize the general framework of the subject-object order, which the project of the “Russian idea” a priori designates and recognizes in the world, de facto assuming it to be true, essential and real.