On the Problems of Periodization and Features of the Russian Enlightenment

УДК 930.85 ББК 63.3(2)

Abstract

In connection with the concept of the "new Enlightenment" formulated in the recent anniversary report of the Club of Rome, the author of the article analyzes the phenomenon of the Enlightenment in Russia. The points of view of domestic and foreign researchers on the positive and negative aspects of the Enlightenment, the reasons for the crisis of the "classical" Enlightenment and the need for its renewal are considered. One of the most important problems of the European Enlightenment of the 18^th century - the crisis of public morality. The enlighteners borrowed the norms and values of traditional morality from religious consciousness, but sought to combine them with the guidelines for the rationalization and secularization of society and man. In Russia, this trend also took place, but the Russian Enlightenment is characterized by a more expressed axiologism, an orientation towards the mutual complementarity of moral values, scientific knowledge and socio-political progress.

The author also refers to the discussion about the chronological framework of the Russian Enlightenment, highlighting its three stages: Christianization of Ancient Rus; Europeanization of the Russian Empire in the 18^th century; the formation of an independent science, culture and philosophy since the 1830s. In addition, the article talks about the dialectical unity and struggle of cultural and civilizational paradigms in the Enlightenment of Russia. It is concluded that the Russian philosophy, created in the polemics of Slavophiles and Westernizers, realized Kant's idea of the essence of Enlightenment -the ability to use one's own mind.