Russian Religious Philosophy

The reviewer considers Andrea Oppo’s book the first English-language study to offer a comprehensive and unified analysis of Pavel Florensky’s philosophy. This makes the book a significant step forward in understanding the Russian thinker, especially for non-Russian-speaking
audiences. Aware of the tension between Florensky’s historical context and contemporary readers, Oppo aims to present the Russian philosopher’s ideas from a perspective that resonates today, while at the same time avoiding speculations that fall outside a historically
grounded interpretation. The reviewer briefly summarizes Oppo’s main thesis: Pavel Florensky’s philosophy and its relevance for modern philosophical audiences may be described through his three key concepts – antinomy, symbol, and discontinuity. Oppo highlights andm examines the central point of his book: discontinuity, understood as a philosophical problem, places Florensky’s thought within a lineage that spans the entire history of Western philosophy – from Aristotle to the present day.

Типологический анализ сюжетов и мотивов А. А.. ЯСКЕЛЯЙН Афганские сказки и легенды. Составление, предисловие и при-Л94 мечания К. А. Лебедева. Типологический анализ сюжетов и моти вов А. А. Яскеляйн. Главная редакция восточной литературы из дательства «Наука», М., 1972. 280 с. («Сказки и мифы народов Востока»). Сборник афганского фольклора (переводы с пушту) включает волшебные и бытовые сказки, легенды и хикаяты. Сборник рассчитан на взрослого читателя. 7-3-4 И(Афг) ОТ СОСТАВИТЕЛЯ У афганского народа в силу сложившихся исторических условий, долгого отсутствия письменной литературы на пушту и неравномерного развития ее особое место заняло устное народное творчество. Можно с уверенностью сказать, что в развитии национальной культуры афганцев фольклор не утратил значения и до сих пор, особенно если учесть, что грамотность среди народа и сейчас еще весьма невысока. Необходимо отметить также и такой значительный момент в культурной жизни Афганистана, как полное господство в письменной литературе до сере дины второй четверти XX в. языка дари (кабули). Культура афганского народа, а следовательно, и устное народное творчество развивались в тесной взаимосвязи с культурой и фолькло ром соседних стран -Индии, Ирана и Средней Азии. В устном народ ном творчестве афганцев мы находим сюжеты, бытующие и в фольк лоре других народов. Но фольклор, заимствуя сюжеты, перерабатывал их, придавал им национальные формы, присущий афганскому народу колорит. Так, например, сюжет афганской сказки «Мард ау намард» (о торжестве добра над злом) перекликается со сказками других наро дов: с персидской сказкой «Путный и непутный», казахской «О добром и злом», армянской «О двух товарищах», с грузинской сказкой «О двух братьях: добром и злом». Но персонажи, действующие в сказке, детали народного быта, национальный характер ясно показывают, что перед нами подлинно афганская сказка. Говоря об общности сюжета сказок, нельзя не вспомнить замечатель ные слова М. Горького: «Едва ли возможно сомневаться в том, что про цесс заимствования и дополнения древних сказок особенностями быта каждой расы, нации, каждого класса играл значительную роль в разви тии культуры, разума и народного творчества. * * * Первые сведения об афганском фольклоре проникли в Европу с по явлением труда М. Эльфинстона «Описание Кабульского королевства...», который вышел в свет в Лондоне в 1815 г. 2 . В этой книге приводятся краткие сведения по литературе и фольклору афганского народа. В ней дано, между прочим, изложение известной по всему Афганистану ле генды «Адам-хап ау Дурхапый». Говоря о любви афганцев к сказке, М. Эльфинстон пишет: «После обеда они сидят и курят или собираются в круг рассказывать сказки и петь. Старики -большие мастера рассказывать. Сказки афганцев говорят о королях и везирах, о джиннах и феях, но главным образом о любви и войне. Они часто содержат песни и стихи и всегда заканчи ваются нравоучением. Афганцы наслаждаются этими сказками и пес нями. Во время рассказа все сидят молча, а по окончании восклицают: "Э шаваш! (браво!)" -этим они обычно выражают свое восхищение» 3 . Интересный фольклорный материал по кругу Ванну был собран и опубликован в Лондоне в 1876 г. С. Терберном 4 . В книге Терберна при ведены баллады, загадки и пословицы. Более систематичное и полное описание афганского фольклора содер жится в книге Дж. Дармстетера «Народные песни афганцев», опублико ванной в Париже в конце XIX в. 5 . Эта книга до сих пор сохраняет большое значение как одна из фундаментальных работ в области языка и фольклора афганцев. Часть книги Дармстетера переведена на пушту и издана в Афганистане в 1948 г. В своей книге Дармстетер с достаточной полнотой освещает творче ство народных певцов -думов, приводит материалы из устного народ ного творчества: загадки, пословицы, ландый (двустишия), колыбельные песни и заплачки. В книге опубликованы тексты на пушту с переводом на французский язык, снабженные комментариями. В 1893 г. П. Хыоз издал в Лахоре сборник «Килид-и афгани» б . В нем помещено 49 хикаятов из книги «Ганджи-пахто» Маувлави Ахмада. 1 М. Г о р ь к и й, О сказках, М., 1953. Соч., т. 25, стр. 87. 2 М. Е 1 р h i n s t о n, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary and India etc, London, 1815. 3 Там же, стр. 236.

This article deals with the interpretation of St. Gregory Palamas’ doctrine of «intellectual perception» by the famous Russian scholar of the tradition of hesychasm, S. S. Horuzhy. At the beginning we give a brief overview of the reconstruction of St. Gregory’s doctrine of «intellectual perception» within the paradigm of the created vision of God (archpriest V. Asmus, M. M. Bernatsky, M. Knezevic, J. Blackstone, A. Chouliaras, D. S. Biriukov) and the paradigm of the uncreated vision of God (prot. Dumitru Staniloae, protopr. John Meyendorff, Gerhard Podskalsky, etc.) on the problem of the way of seeing the uncreated light in pala- mite theology. The originality of S. S. Horuzhy’s approach and its irreducibility to these paradigms are noted. In presenting S. S. Horuzhy’s concept, special attention is paid to the description of the following basic categories characterising the concept of «intellectual perception»: pan-perception (metaperception, synesthesis, all-perception), panesthesis, holistic inten- sionality of the act of the vision God of vision, somatic and dialogical aspects of the vision of the uncreated light. The ascetic aspect of the attainment of the vision of God is considered in detail and the meaning of the concept of «asymmetrical synergy» is revealed, which describes the unequal participation of Divine and human energies on the path to deification. S. S. Horuzhy’s distinction between palamite and plotinian mysticism is also described.

This article is the third author’s article on the political theology of Davor Dzal- to. It provides a comparative analysis of the key ideas of Dzalto’s political theology, which were left without consideration in previous articles. The first part of the article reveals similarities between Dzalto’s concept and the «mystical anarchism» of N. A. Berdyaev. In the second part, the author compares the concept of Jalto with the «sacred anarchy» of Athanasios N. Papathanasiou. The third part of the article is devoted to a comparison of Jalto’s ideas with the views of Pantelis Kalaitzidis. The next part reveals the similarities and differences between Dzalto’s «Christian anarchism» and E. Namli’s «open universalism». Next, the author analyzes the «politics of deification» of Aristotle Papanikolaou and answers the question whether Dzalto’s concept can be called «political Nestorianism»? As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the approach proposed by Dzalto’s political theology makes it possible for theology to cease being an instrument of politics, and for the Church to move from the position of an object of politics to the position of a subject of politics, and at the same time to remain faithful to the Christian principles of freedom, love and peace.

In The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field by Jacques Hadamard 1 , the author advances a view of innovation or invention in mathematics, based on evidence and the personal reflection of many mathematical luminaries such as Einstein, Pascal and Wiener and with much reliance on the self-reflection of Poincaré. Hadamard himself was a notable mathematician in his own right. His survey of the process involved in mathematical innovation highlights significant similarities among practicioners across the centuries, and this gives his work weight. Briefly, he argues that mathematical discovery typically occurs in two steps: an intuitive step and a rational step (my terms). In the former, the mathematician 'sees' or somehow grasps an abstract entity and some property of it. Mathematicians often speak of the 'beauty' of mathematics, and this is in direct reference to the structures and objects that are discovered and incorporated into mathematics. I use the word 'discovered' advisedly, as it is my belief that mathematical objects and their properties somehow exist independently of our minds and are capable of being discovered by us. I do not agree that mathematical objects and structures are purely expressions of our minds or consciousness, but this is the other major view held. Both views have many proponents, though I'd guess that the former is predominant.

This is the second article by the author dedicated to the political theology of Davor Džalto. This article analyzes the central ideas of Džalto’s political theology. In the first part of the article, the author poses the question: are Džalto’s political views closer to Augustinianism or Thomism? And he gives the following answer: in the Dzalto’s concept greater similarity is found with the logic of St. Augustine. The second part of the article provides an assessment of the principle of «symphony of authoritys» in the conception of Džalto and compares it with the assessments of other contemporary orthodox thinkers. It is concluded that Džalto’s critical assessment of this principle diverges from the assessment given in the «Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church», but is closer to the assessments given by Archpriest. A. Schmemann, Archpriest. I. Meyendorff, S. S. Horuzhiy and P. Kalaitzidis. In the next part of the article, the author analyzes the theories of the Christian state of V.S. Solovyov and representatives of «radical orthodoxy» and compares them with the views of Džalto and other contemporary orthodox theologians. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion: Džalto’s assertion that the essence of Christianity and the essence of the state are so different that the state cannot be Christian comes into disagreement with the theories of V. S. Solovyov and representatives of «radical orthodoxy», but is in tune with the views of E. N. Trubetskoy, N.A. Berdyaev, B.P. Vysheslavtsev, Archpriest S. N. Bulgakov, Archpriest V. P. Sventsitsky, S. S. Horuzhiy and P. Kalaitzidis.

«Концепт: философия, религия, культура»-рецензируемый научный журнал, публикующий материалы междисциплинарных исследований культуры. Цель журнала-концептуализация проблематики межкультурного диалога и консолидация научного сообщества исследователей культуры с учётом специфики национальных научных школ. В фокусе внимания издания-фундаментальные и прикладные аспекты межкультурной коммуникации. Журнал опирается на действующую в МГИМО секцию «Межкультурная коммуникация» Российской ассоциации международных исследований (РАМИ), которая регулярно собирает ведущих российских и зарубежных специалистов в области изучения культуры.

This study explores the intricate relationship between belief, knowledge, and concepts in the context of death, situating itself within the domain of Philosophical Thanatology. By examining how temporal perspectives, intuition, imagination, and language shape our understanding of mortality, the research delves into the epistemological, ontological, and psychological dimensions of death-related beliefs. The study employs a qualitative, interdisciplinary approach, drawing on philosophical analysis, literary criticism, and cultural studies to investigate the formation, expression, and evolution of beliefs about death. Key themes include the temporality of belief, the role of non-rational faculties in belief formation, and the interplay between language and conceptualization. Through a close reading of philosophical texts, literary works, and cultural narratives, the research highlights the dynamic and multifaceted nature of human engagement with mortality. The findings underscore the centrality of belief in shaping existential attitudes and behaviors, offering new insights into the philosophical and cultural significance of death.

This report attempts to explain one of the receptions of French philosophy of mathematics in thought of Gilles Deleuze. Explanation requires a review of understudied in native researches French philosopher of mathematics Alber Lautman's works and his structural platonism which strongly influenced Deleuze's ideas. In the course of analysis Lautman's structural platonism, his dialectic with dialectical problems-Ideas and dialectical notions are reconstructed. This allows to examine the genealogy of "problematic" in Gilles Deleuze's philosophy.

В статье рассматривается концепция любви, изложенная русским философом В. С. Соловьёвым в цикле статей «Смысл любви». Автор анализирует содержание статей и основные идеи, сформулированные Соловьёвым, а затем обращается к работам мыслителей XX и XXI вв., посвящённым теме любви, прослеживая в них схожие с Соловьёвым мотивы. Цель статьи — обратить внимание на актуальность мысли Соловьёва, малоизвестной в мировой философской среде.

The war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine has provoked, among its many consequences, a profound crisis in the perception of Russian culture. In the past three years, the question of whether Russian literature, philosophy, and art should continue to be celebrated in the West has acquired an unprecedented urgency. Concerts have been canceled, authors removed from reading lists, exhibitions postponed or reframed. Even the mere presence of canonical figures-Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovskyhas become, in some circles, a source of discomfort or outrage. This phenomenon, often labeled the "canceling" of Russian culture, is not without precedent: history is replete with examples of cultures and traditions becoming collateral damage in geopolitical conflicts. Yet the logic behind such measures often collapses under its own weight. To hold a work of art or a philosophical text responsible for the political crimes of a state is to confuse the realm of cultural expression with the machinery of political power. It risks treating complex intellectual legacies as mere instruments of propaganda-either to be celebrated uncritically or rejected wholesale-when, in fact, they demand something more difficult and more productive: a critical engagement. The absurdity of canceling a culture, any culture, lies in the very nature of culture itself. Culture is, at its best, a realm of human creativity that transcends the narrowness of borders and the brutality of political expediency. It builds bridges across time, language, and nations; it opens channels of communication that no government, however repressive, can entirely control. To cancel Russian culture would be to sever lines of dialogue at precisely the moment when understanding-deep, critical, historically informed understanding-is most needed. Yet the alternative is not a passive or nostalgic embrace of Russian thought as if nothing has happened. Within Russia itself, the literary and philosophical canon has long been woven into the fabric of national self-identity-appropriated, at times aggressively, as a source of political legitimacy. Schoolchildren are taught to revere "our Pushkin" and "our Tolstoy" not only as literary geniuses, but as symbols of a unique civilizational mission; philosophers such as Solovyov, Berdyaev, and Ilyin are invoked in official discourse as if they were timeless custodians of Russian values. In this way, literature and philosophy are not merely celebrated for their intrinsic ✉ M.F. Bykova

This article explores the recurring conflict between authoritarian state power and independent philosophical thought in Russia, focusing on two critical moments separated by a century: the 1922-23 deportation of intellectuals aboard the so-called "Philosophy Steamer" and the contemporary exodus of Russian intellectuals following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While the 1922-23 deportation forcibly expelled key figures of the Russian intelligentsia in an attempt to eliminate pluralism and enforce ideological conformity, the recent wave of emigration, though voluntary, reflects a similar flight from an increasingly repressive, ultraconservative regime. The current authoritarian order is marked not only by political oppression but also by an explicit antagonism toward critical, independent inquiry-the lifeblood of philosophical thought-which is inherently open to diverse perspectives and resistant to ideological dogma. By tracing the historical and philosophical significance of these two episodes, the article highlights the persistent vulnerability of critical, independent inquiry under authoritarian rule. It argues that the Russian state's hostility toward critical independent thought has shaped both Soviet and post-Soviet intellectual history, posing an ongoing threat to the possibility of a genuinely reflective and pluralistic philosophical culture in contemporary Russia. Keywords Russian intellectual history • Philosophical thought in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia • 1922-23 deportations • Philosophy Steamer • 2022-24 exodus of intellectuals • Philosophical critique • Intellectual freedom • Philosophical pluralism In 1922, Vladimir Lenin personally drafted a list of "undesirable" intellectualsprimarily philosophers, academics, and other figures of the Russian intelligentsia-to be expelled from the new Soviet state. "We will cleanse Russia for a long time," he ✉ M.F. Bykova

Born in Alsace, Albert Schweitzer was geographically and culturally placed at the crossroads of different religious denominations. His cousin would become the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre, and in the church where his father, a Lutheran pastor, preached, both Catholic and Protestant rites coexisted. Schweitzer himself wrote: “From this church open to both rites I derived a great lesson for life: reconciliation (...). The differences between the Churches are destined to disappear. Even as a child, I found it beautiful that in our land Catholics and Protestants celebrated their feasts in the same temple.” This attitude is also reflected in his epistolary exchange with Maria di Campello, an Italian nun and founder of the Community of the Sisters of the Franciscan Hermitage of Campello sul Clitunno. The two never met in person, yet their correspondence stands as a precious testimony to a spiritual vocation striving to overcome denominational, cultural, and national boundaries — uniting Schweitzer's hospital in equatorial Africa with the small hermitage hidden in the heart of Umbria in the 1950s through their shared convictions: reverence for life, care for all living beings, and a religiosity expressed through love for creation, all of which were central to Schweitzer's thought and work.

The article examines the essence and ontological foundations of patriotism as a moral principle. The content of all moral principles is determined by the highest moral values, the main of them being an ideal — the idea of certain perfection. The ideal has fideic nature — a person believes that someone or something has the highest value. As it develops, fideic consciousness acquires the status of religious consciousness, and in this case the concepts of morality receive religious justification. It entirely applies to patriotism. Its essence is most completely revealed in Orthodoxy, which proclaims love to be the main law of existence and asserts that true love always contains readiness for selfless sacrifice. The author compares patriotism with such externally similar phenomena as nationalism, chauvinism, racism, xenophobia and cosmopolitanism and comes to the conclusion that religious patriotism is always stronger and more durable than any other form of secular ideological patriotism, because its source is God Himself. Therefore, education in true patriotism apart from the spiritual and moral values preserved by traditional religions is impossible.

Статья посвящена изучению политико-правовой доктрины панисламизма как господствовавшей официальной идеологии в позднеосманском обществе времен правления султана Абдул-Гамида II и продолжает исследовательскую тематику ранее опубликованной в научном журнале «История государства и права» статьи «Политико-правовая доктрина османизма: от реформ эпохи Танзимата до Конституции 1876 года» (2024. № 8). Рассматрива
ются основные положения исламского права в части регламентации личного статуса подданных Порты в указанный хронологический период. Анализируются предпосылки отказа правительства Оттоманской Порты от ранее доминировавшей доктрины османизма как концепта создания комплексной надэтнической внеконфессиональной гражданской идентичности в западноевропейском духе.

In this article I tried to expose the contents of Losito's book, dedicated to the thought of Lucien Laberthonnière and entitled “Christianity and modernity. Study on the formation of Laberthonnière's personalism” [Giacomo Losito, Christianity and modernity. Study on the formation of personalism by Laberthonnière – 1880-1893, La Città del Sole, Naples 1999]. The title of the article is “Laberthonniére. Personalism, Spiritualism, religious philosophy, metaphysics and the doctrine of ’«divine help». Elements for a critical comparison with Russian thought of the 20th century”, and was as always published in my blog in full text at the link: < https://cieloeterra.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/vincenzo-nuzzo-laberthonniere-personalismo-spiritualismo-filosofia-religiosa-metafisica-e-dottrina-dellaiuto-divino-elementi-per-un-confronto-critico-con-il-pen/ >. As the title shows, this article is intended to be much more than a thematic review of Losito's book. In fact, in it I exposed a synthesis of Laberthonnière's thought in its historical development, but, in the same, I also made an effort to place it in the context of the two great movements of ideas developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, and represented by Spiritualism and Personalism.
And this seemed important to me given that such movements of ideas have also seen the work of other important Western thinkers, including Louis Blondel, Edith Stein and Jacques Maritain. In fact, apart from Blondel, who was a very specific point of reference for Laberthonnière's thought, several references to Stein's thought appear in the article.
However, the most important philosophical fact of Laberthonnière's thought is that his Spiritualism aligned with the more classical one for his era, namely that of Maine del Biran. And therefore, it was an equivocal Spiritualism by definition, given that in it the term «spirit» was equated with human Reason and more generally with pure thought. From this emerged in Laberthonnière the tendency towards a religious thought of a substantially Cartesian and Kantian nature, of which I underlined the strong kinship with that current Catholic Modernism which has now become frankly scientistic and partly even skeptical (if not downright atheistic). Consequently, it seemed to me that, despite his substantial good intentions (concretized among other things in the official defense of metaphysics, ontology, the mystery represented by the divine Supernatural and even the concept of «divine help» in “prayer of request”), the religious philosophy of our thinker was ultimately largely insufficient – especially as it was heavily polluted with philosophical and even scientific rationalist secularism. For this reason it has been incapable of renouncing many illusions concerning the relationship between reason and faith and furthermore it has been incapable of considering religious philosophizing as fully respectful of the insoluble mystery represented by divine Transcendence. Laberthonnière in fact persisted in perpetuating the Cartesian ambition to consider God as nothing other than the guarantor of the truth conceived by human Reason, and therefore himself knowable in a fully rational way. Precisely for this reason I have extensively compared the religious philosophy of the French thinker with the much more authentic, appropriate and radical one developed by Russian thought of the 20th century (and in particular by Florenskij). This religious philosophy was in fact not at all rationalistic.
Given all this, however, Laberthonnière's thought not only reached its peak in Personalism, but also in the letter it also took on its most convincing, valuable and fascinating form. In fact, our thinker added elements of fundamental importance to the main stream personalist doctrine. Particularly, he (in concert with Blondel) further explained the classic concept of person as a metaphysical substance as I engaged in ”action” (above all by virtue of his “will” rather than his “reason”) which is constituted by the construction of oneself and also of the world itself, and moreover by virtue of predominantly moral motivations. Among which the attitude to altruistic and self-sacrificial love stands out in particular.
Precisely because of this I felt the need to express a largely positive final opinion on Laberthonnière's thought. But in any case, beyond this, its consideration offers us the precious possibility of understanding much better the structure and characteristics of the philosophical-cultural environment represented by Spiritualism as a bed of Personalism. And therefore, this also allows us to understand much better the philosophical and philosophical-religious terrain in which the personalist (and spiritualist), as well as philosophical-religious, visions of thinkers such as Stein and Maritain had their roots.
In any case, in relation to all this, the need to keep in mind (as an indispensable point of comparison) the Russian philosophical-religious thought of the 20th century (especially that of Florensky) also takes on great importance. Who was certainly also a spiritualist and personalist, but probably in a much stronger and more authentic way than his Western counterpart.

Konstantin Nikolayeviç Leontyev (1831-1891), Rus düşünce tarihinin çok yönlü isimlerinden biridir. Çok yönlülük; genel olarak edebiyat ve felsefenin, sosyolojik ve politik sorunlarla biçimlendiği Rusya gerçekliği bağlamında yaygın bir olgudur. Ne var ki Leontyev'in çok yönlülüğü Türkiye'de her ne kadar yeterince bilinmese de çağdaşlarının ötesine geçer. Esas mesleği doktorluk olan Leontyev, tıp biliminden yola çıkarak tüm canlıların organik yaşam yasası üzerinde çalışan ve bu yasayı medeniyetlerin kültür ve devlet yapılarına uygulayan bir tarih filozofudur. Rus düşüncesinde muhafazakâr eğilimi temsil eden Leontyev, Batıcı düşünceleri, liberal gelişme anlayışını sert bir biçimde eleştirerek diplomatlık görevi boyunca edindiği deneyimlerle Yunan, Bulgar ve Türk halklarına yaklaşımı bağlamında Panslavizme karşı çıkan bir siyaset bilimci, Varşova Günlüğü dergisinin editörü ve yayıncısı olarak da polemiklerden kaçmayan entelektüeller arasındadır. Bununla beraber bir sansür görevlisi de olan Leontyev, Athos'da başlayan manevi yolculuğu bağlamında saf Ortodoksluğu savunan bir teologdur. Hatta Rus araştırmacı A. Belov'un sözleriyle Leontyev, liberal ilerlemenin evrensel yıkım aracı olarak zaferini öngören bir peygamberdir. Leontyev'in tüm bu özelliklerine edebiyatçı ve edebiyat eleştirmeni kimliğini de eklemek gerekir. Nazan Coşkun'un büyük bir titizlikle hazırladığı bu çalışma, Leontyev ve Şark Meselesi bağlamında Rus düşüncesinin on dokuzuncu yüzyıldaki seyrini belirleyen atmosferi yakından tanımak isteyenler için büyük bir fırsat sunuyor. "Leontyev; tutkulu, coşkulu, ince bir zekâya, bir sanatçının zarif eğilimlerine, fanatik bir inanç kapasitesine, aynı zamanda siyasi bir propagandacının ateşli mizacına sahip bir adamdır. Bilmek, hissetmek, yaşamak, hareket etmek-bunların hepsiaynı anda Leontyev'in içinde kaynamaktadır. Hangisinin ona daha çok hitap ettiğini söylemek zordur.

В статье рассматривается вопрос взаимоотношений между церковью и государством в условиях постсекулярной эпохи. Для выстраивания содержательной основы новой церковно-государственной системы предлагается обратиться к философскому наследию свящ. Павла Флоренского и прот. Сергия Булгакова. С одной стороны, для создания модели институционального сосуществования церкви и государства может быть использована
концепция Дружбы, разработанная Флоренским в 11-м письме «Столпа и утверждения Истины». С другой стороны, идейной основой может послужить предложенный о. Сергием тезис о необходимости «воцерковления» государства — в этом случае церковь выступает в роли «совести» в государственных процессах. В то же время наступление постсекулярной эпохи внесло свои коррективы в характер церковно-государственных отношений. Возвращение религиозной тематики в общественно-политическую повестку стало
отнюдь не единственным следствием постсекулярности. Не менее значимым фактором стала утрата большей частью общества понимания базовых религиозных понятий и категорий, а также потеря «чувствительности» к проблемам и потребностям верующих сограждан. С целью преодоления межличностного отчуждения и порожденного им паралича общественных процессов Ю. Хабермас предложил инициировать процесс «комплементарного обучения», в ходе которого религиозные и нерелигиозные участники вводят друг друга в собственную мировоззренческую систему с помощью
понимаемых и принимаемых всеми сторонами понятий и концепций. Однако подобный замысел выстраивания общественного диалога на секулярной основе натолкнулся на справедливую критику, поскольку не принимал во внимание неспособность верующих выражать свои убеждения с помощью
секулярных терминов. В качестве альтернативы модели Хабермаса в данной статье предлагается модель «взаимосозерцательного диалога», представляющая собой комбинацию антропологических и экклезиологических воззрений о. Павла Флоренского и общественно-политических идей о. Сергия Булгакова. В качестве медиума в церковно-государственном диалоге может выступать право, терминология которого будет понятна представителям
как церкви, так и государства, в то время как содержательная недетерминированность юридических концепций позволит всем участникам вести открытую дискуссию без ощущения «игры на чужом поле».

This article deals with the notion of dialogue as it was promoted by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. The initial general description of the idea of dialogue and dialogical personalism is followed by the analysis of both theological reflections on dialogue and suggestions for its implementation as put forward by Ware. He is presented as a strong advocate of a dialogue from the positions of both personalist philosophy and Trinitarian theology, putting a special emphasis on love as a foundational principle of the relations. He stressed the importance of love for other people, God, and all living creatures. He argued for the importance of dialogue for the resolution of inter-Orthodox conflicts and was also a fervent supporter of and a participant in ecumenical dialogue. This article analyses his argumentation in favour of dialogue, as well as, at some points, its limits.

This monograph offers an investigation of Pavel A. Florenskij’s scientific writings, with particular emphasis on his research in the field of materials science, in order to shed light on their connection with the major philosophical problems raised by the author. The book is divided into two parts, devoted respectively to the themes of matter and space. I show how these two concepts informed the entire intellectual enterprise under examination, while also enabling a continuous dialogue with the Western philosophical tradition. The study draws on a wide range of unpublished or neglected texts—lectures, scientific articles, patents, and entries for the Soviet Technical Encyclopedia. An appendix presents the translation of Physical Monadology (1905), Florensky’s first philosophical publication, in which his subsequent lines of inquiry are already programmatically outlined.

В социальных науках преобладают холистские подходы:структурный, системный и др. Но в них человек определяется не как свободная, самостоятельная личность, а как элемент структуры/системы, зависимая переменная в совокупности взаимозависимых отношений, иерархий и статусов, власти и подчинения. Такие отношения существуют в социуме, но они не охватывают всю полноту общественных отношений. В методологически индивидуалистских подходах — феноменологической социологии, этнометодологии и др. человек воспринимается как самостоятельная личность, обладающая свободой воли. Но индивидуалистические исследования анализируют отношения на микроуровне, не позволяя «схватить» макрообъединения людей как самостоятельных и свободных личностей, несводимые к отношениям структуры/системы. Возникают вопросы: существуют ли подобные макроотношения в обществе и как их возможно определить, концептуализировать, исследовать? Мы даем утвердительный ответ на первый вопрос и приводим примеры исследования таких отношений, отвечая на второй. Подобная взаимосвязь людей не как детерминируемых системой элементов, а как свободных личностей была концептуализирована социологом В. Тёрнером в понятии «коммунитас». Но до практических исследований Тёрнера подобные отношения были на философском уровне выявлены философами-персоналистами — М. Бубером и Н.А. Бердяевым. Показывается, что коммюнотарные отношения существуют в реальности, представлены во многих сферах общества: в дружбе и любви, в совместном творчестве, в сообществах по интересам и в группах взаимопомощи, в психологически здоровых семьях и т.д. Анализируется значимость коммунитас на политическом уровне и степень его осуществления в зависимости от типа политического режима. Также дается сравнительный анализ социальной организации людей по типам коммунитас и структуры/системы.

The Portrait of Princess Marie Louise by Ivan Mrkvička is a rare official representation of this young royal person and it holds a special place within the collection of the Museum of the National Academy of Art in Sofia. In 2020–2021, the Department of Conservation-Restoration at the Academy conducted a technological study of the portrait, which aimed to facilitate the intended conservation-restoration treatment. The research was conducted in cooperation with the National History Museum, the Institute of Physical Chemistry and the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The analytical methods combined non-invasive and invasive approaches, including: Multispectral imaging and technical photography; Handheld portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF), benchtop XRF; X-ray diffraction; Portable Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), benchtop FT-IR; Microscopic study of cross-sections and canvas samples. The paper presents the results of the analytical studies. They provided important information about the artist’s palette and painting technique, and allowed correct formulating of conservation-restoration treatment strategy. This is the first complex research on the technical features and conservation-restoration problems of Ivan Mrkvička’s paintings to date. Further studies on the paintings of the artist are planned to be carried out, which will expand the knowledge of materials used, and might aid a future comparative analysis of Ivan Mrkvička’s works.
The paper is in Bulgarian.

The paper explores how the Koryak culture preserves and transmits family and ancestral values despite challenges such as assimilation, language decline, and economic structure transformations. Until the 1920s, the Chavchuven and Nymylan Koryak descendants, even those from mixed marriages, possessed both national names and names recorded in official documents. The choice of name is conditioned by the idea of reincarnation that implies the soul of an ancestor to be reborn in a descendant. The recollection of older relatives can be preserved by performing their personal songs. In the context of rituals, such a performance of ancestors' songs is regarded as a form of communication with them. This study analyzes the compositional and harmonic features of personal songs of relatives performed by N. S. Kuznetsova-Kerguvie (Nuteŋewyt, 1949-2023). The paper provides the notes of the songs accompanied by links to audio and video illustrations. Family narratives under analysis offer a comprehensive account of the life histories of ancestors, reflecting traditional Koryak cultural practices such as matchmaking, bride kidnapping, conspiracy, and marriage under the law of levirate. The peculiarity of family narratives lies in the specifics of their functioning: they are the heritage of a narrow family circle. The enduring relevance of borderline life situations experienced by ancestors persists within the descendants of the family, thereby ensuring their transmission from one generation to the next. Keywords NorthEastern Paleoasiates, Koryaks, Chauchuvens, indigenous peoples of Kamchatka, Koryak folklore, family narratives, national name, historical memory, musical tradition of Koryaks, personal songs, ethnomusicology For citation Golovaneva T. A., Tiron E. L. National names, personal songs, and family narratives as ways of transmitting family and ancestral history in Koryak-Chavchuven culture.

This publication contains a translation and commentary on Jacques Goar’s notes on the epiclesis from his Euchologion (1647). The translation is accompanied by an introduction that places Goar’s text within the historical and polemical context of Graeco-Latin controversies on the moment of consecration, particularly the epiclesis debate at the Council of Florence (1439). Goar’s interpretation, rooted in the outcomes of the Florentine discussions, provides insights of historical and philological significance, alongside his theological reflections on the authorship and semantics of Byzantine liturgical anaphoras. The publication also explores the largely over-looked tradition of translating Goar’s notes into Slavonic and Russian, which had a profound impact on the liturgical and theological thought of the Russian Church. In the 17th century, Evfimiy Chudovskiy prepared the first Church Slavonic translation of selected notes, including commentary on the epiclesis, enriched with his own marginalia to address Moscow’s polemics on the moment of consecration. In the 18th century, Archbishop Veniamin (Krasnopevkov-Rumovsky) made a new translation, which became a key source for his seminal work Новая Скрижаль (‘New Tablet’). In the 1860s, Archpriest Leonid Petrov made an incomplete Russian translation of the Euchologion. These translations are an underexplored field that requires further scholarly attention

In this paper we reviewed the Florenskij’s book “Primi passi della filosofia” [Pavel A. Florenskij, Primi passi della filosofia. Lezioni sull’origine della filosofia occidentale, Mimesis, Milano 2021]. In this book the thinker exposes and interpret the ionic philosophy, particularly that of Taletes. But we tried to prove that Florenskij used this thought as a model for show us that the philosophy is essentially religious. In the ionic thought this meant to develop philosophic ideas on the basis of the reflexion upon the god’s nature. So, we think that trough this book the Russian thinker justified very strong the legitimate existence of a authentic religious philosophy.

Reflection of the Russian Revolution in the Memoirs of Russian Philosophers-Emigrants Russian intelligentsia was a socially engaged group with a clearly specified attitude to the Czarist regime. As such, it fought for a radical change in the social order ideologically and often even with concrete steps. Russian philosophers were an integral part of the Russian intelligentsia and shared its group, mainly pro-revolution setting. At the same time, their conviction went through major transformations crowned in emigration from the beginning of the 20 th century. With the philosophers, these metamorphoses are associated also with the overall change of the philosophical-religious beliefs. The paper deals with the relation to the Russian Revolution of 1917, as it is reflected in the memorial texts of three famous Russian philosophers, Sergei N. Bulgakov, Nikolai A. Berdyaev and N. O. Lossky. Whereas Bulgakov presents a series of memoir essays, three of which concern the revolutionary period, Berdyaev and Lossky are the authors of complete memoirs, where special chapters are reserved for 1917. The changes of the attitudes of the individual thinkers towards the Russian Revolution are mainly analysed in the article.

“Russia as the true Europe” has become a popular idea in Russian political
discourse and ideology production. However, it conflicts with another
dominant commonplace idea: “Russia as non-Western” or “Russia as a unique, distinct civilization.” Yet “Russia as the true Europe” is an idea that has circulated frequently, especially since the conservative turn of the Putin regime from 2012 onwards. Here, Russia is represented as the defender of “true Christian values,” whereas the West has gradually abandoned this common ground. One key political thinker who has been instrumental in disseminating such ideas in post-Soviet Russia is Natal´ja Naročnickaja, who has developed this argument referring to classical Slavophile writings of the mid-nineteenth century. Slavophilism is a movement known for postulating a firm antithesis – a civilizational divide – between Russia and the West, but they also understood this conflict as having emerged historically. This article explores the genealogy of the idea of “Russia as the true Europe” by analysing the writings of Ivan Kireevskij and Aleksej Chomjakov. By implication, it makes also a contribution to the history of “Russia as a unique civilization,” since it shows that there exists a tension in classical Slavophilism itself in seeing Russia both as Europe and non-Europe. Moreover, it demonstrates that despite apparent similarities between Slavophile thought and contemporary ideas there are significant discontinuities between them.

В статье рассматривается понятие «русская религиозная философия» как своего рода философский канон русского религиозного идеализма, созданный Владимиром Соловьевым и развитый в работах прежде всего Сергея Булгакова и Николая Бердяева. Сами себя эти мыслители понимали в качестве представителей новой русской православной философии.
Однако это направление в русской мысли возникло посредством адаптации немецкого идеализма – главным образом работ Шеллинга – и переосмысления центральной темы в традиционном православном богословии – в первую очередь идеи о человеческом обожении (теозисе), переведенной на язык философского идеализма. Автор интерпретирует русскую религиозную философию как встречу между православной традицией и западным секулярным мышлением, которое также стремилось к секуляризации религиозного мировоззрения посредством философской рефлексии веры и догм. Опираясь на мнение исследователей данной традиции от М. Вебера до Ч. Тейлора, автор проводит аналогию между западной секулярностью, явившейся результатом развития внутри христианского мышления, и русской религиозной мыслью.

In this paper we did review the Florenskij’s book “La colonna e il fondamento della verità” [Pavel A. Florenskij, La colonna e i fondamenti della verità, Mimesis, Milano Udine 2012]. Our review was a thematic one, whereby it exposes the book’s contents in a thematic manner.
The main thema of this book is, however, the Florenskij’s effort to reformate radically the current philosophy, transforming it in a clear religious philosophy. This because his idea of truth is that the letter is God’s Person or the Christ or Logos. On this basis Florenskij claims that, for attaining truth, is not possible to conceive the primacy of the I (identity’s principle) and is not possible to follow the usual way of the transcendental reduction (of “epochè”). Consequently, he thinks that this new way of knowing and of philosophise is also the overcoming of the natural egoism of the I, and then a clear personalistic way.

В  статье, опираясь на деколониальные идеи, приводится психологический анализ поэмы Фарида аль-Дина Аттара «Логика птиц». Автор исходит из предположения, что религиозный трактат содержит альтернативное видение на развитие личности, его духовные аспекты и процесс самопознания. Автор предлагает использовать модель маятникового движения, которая может служить инструментом для исследования границ между различными традициями познания. В отличие от линейной модели познания, эта модель предполагает смену исследовательских позиций: от эмпатического погружения в религиозную традицию к возвращению в академический дискурс, но уже расширенный исследовательской оптикой. Такое движение не предлагает жесткой схемы интеграции научного и религиозного знания, а создает пространство для их взаимного осмысления, открывая новые горизонты для будущих исследований. Однако такая модель оказывается применимой не только к анализу религиозных текстов, но и к более широкому взаимодействию эпистемологий, возникающему при диалоге научного и религиозного знаний

После отказа Герцена возвратиться в Россию и последовавшего за этим в 1851 г. лишения его российского подданства его имя становится запрещенным для публичного упоминания в России. Позже, с появлением изданий Вольной русской типографии в Лондоне (1853), запрет расширяется не только на физическое, но и «виртуальное» присутствие изгнанника Герцена в России. III отделение и некоторые другие властные структуры вынуждены были предпринимать все более масштабные и изощренные меры для «недопущения» Герцена в социально-политическое и культурное поле. Однако через некоторое время возникает парадокс: отсутствие Герцена в публичном поле, но все более обширное присутствие во властной коммуникации, прежде всего в документообороте III отделения, а позже — в переписке и личном общении обычных подданных, т. е. в неофициальной социально-политической
сфере. Более того, популярность Герцена в России в конце 1850-х
— начале 1860-х была такова, что он стал не просто политической фигурой, оппозиционным публицистом, но своего рода знаменитостью. Материалом для статьи послужили архивные источники, большая часть которых впервые вводится в научный оборот.
After Herzen's refusal to return to Russia and the subsequent deprivation of his citizenship and status rights (in 1851), his name was banned from public mention in Russia. With the establishment of the Free Russian Printing House in London (in 1853) and the appearance of its publications and periodicals (foremost Poliarnaia Zvezda ("The Polar Star") since 1855 and Kolokol ("The Bell") since 1857), the ban expanded not only to the physical, but also to the "virtual" presence of the exiled Herzen. The Third Department and other government structures were forced to take extensive and sophisticated measures to keep Herzen out of the socio-political and cultural field. However, after a while, a paradox arises: the absence of Herzen in the public field, but his increasingly extensive presence in government communication, primarily in the document flow of the Third Department, and later in correspondence and personal communication of ordinary people, that is, in fact, in the informal socio-political sphere. Moreover, Herzen's popularity in Russia in the late 1850s and early 1860s was such that he became not just a political figure, an opposition publicist, but a kind of celebrity, a public figure. The article is largely based on archival data, most of which is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

When he was very young, Rilke left Prague and moved to Munich,
where in 1897 he met Lou Andreas-Salomé, a Russian immigrant who helped the young
poet discover the Russian cultural and spiritual heritage, igniting his passion for the
great country to the east of Europe. In April 1899, Rilke embarked on his fi rst trip to
Russia, where he met Tolstoy, Leonid Pasternak, and the sculptor Pavel Trubetskoy.
He felt forever changed by the experience of the Russian Easter night on Red Square
Дж. Пирари. «Страна, граничащая с Богом»
Philosophical Letters. Russian and European Dialogue. 2025. Vol. 8, no. 2. 49
Другие страны граничат с горами, морями, реками, но Россия граничит с
Богом» — так можно кратко выразить содержание одной из «Geschichten
vom lieben Gott»1, где Рильке передает свое впечатление, оставшееся от
первого путешествия в Россию.
Через два десятилетия после двух поездок в Россию, в 1899 и 1900 годах, он
написал, что эта страна «сделала меня тем, кем я есть, 〈...〉 именно она — родина
всех моих инстинктов, все мои внутренние истоки — там!» [Rilke, 2020, S. 350].
Неоднократно до самой смерти он повторял, что встреча с великой страной на
Востоке была «решающим событием» его жизни [Rilke, 2020, S. 42; Brutzer, 1969,
S. 1].
Джордж Эпп сравнивает значение этого опыта для Рильке с путешествием
в Италию для Гёте, в Италию или Грецию для Байрона и других английских и
1 Wie der Verrat nach Russland kam [Rilke, 1904].
in Moscow. In his later letters, he writes that he found his homeland in Russia and
that, for the fi rst time, he felt truly at home. Upon returning to Germany, he wrote the
essay Russian Art, he began writing the “Stunden-Buch”, a poem about the spiritual
experience of a monk-iconographer, and immersed himself in studying the Russian
language and literature. In 1900, he embarked on his second trip to Russia, now
recognized as his true homeland. There would be no third journey, but Russia — real,
literary, and imagined — would forever remain in Rilke’s works and in his personal
identity. In this article, I aim to analyze the impact of his Russian travels on Rilke’s
work, paying special attention to how these travels infl uenced the development of
Rilke’s personality and his understanding of himself, his creativity, and his vocation
as a poet — an aspect often overlooked in the literature on this subject.

The theory of practice is according to its self-conception a poststructuralistic research program. It is proceeding on the assumption of a body, that performs his material arrangement with artefacts on the basis of a social habitus in the sense of Bourdieu. In view of recent diagnosis of an affective turn in the social sciences the article fathoms on the basis of Michel Henry's phenomenology the possibility to understand the (living) body as a body of mood or what he calls flesh. The body which is always in a special mood thus has an influence on acting. In a further step this assumption will broaden the scope to the entire room of interaction, where the practices take place. This includes next to the body of mood, collective moods of social groups and atmospheres as further parameters.

This chapter explores a pivotal period in Henry Corbin’s intellectual trajectory, focusing on his relocation to Istanbul at the end of 1939. During this time, Corbin developed a deep engagement with Eastern Orthodoxy and Byzantine mystical theology, profoundly shaped by his interactions with Russian émigré theologians and philosophers such as Fr. Sergei Bulgakov, Fr. Georges Florovsky, and Nikolai Berdyaev. Aligning himself with their critiques of modern Western philosophy and theology, Corbin grew increasingly disillusioned with Protestant neo-orthodoxy, particularly the theology of Karl Barth (1886–1968), whom he had previously supported in the early 1930s. Central to this reorientation was Florovsky’s notion of “Christian Hellenism,” which emphasized the integration of Greek philosophy and Christian revelation, and Bulgakov’s sophiology, which sought to reconcile philosophy and theology through the concept of Divine Wisdom (Sophia). In this period, Corbin came to see Eastern Orthodoxy and Islamic mysticism as part of shared “Eastern” theological tradition rooted in “Hellenism”—an inheritance he positioned in stark contrast to the secular ideologies of the “Latin West.” The chapter begins with an overview of Corbin’s theological activities in the late 1930s, tracing his intellectual break with Barth and his turn toward Russian Orthodox thought. It then examines his conception of Orthodoxy as represented in his unpublished manuscripts and correspondence from his Istanbul years, shedding light on how he sought to integrate Orthodox theology with Islamic spirituality. Finally, the chapter explores Corbin’s postwar shift away from Eastern Orthodoxy toward Islamic esotericism and his advocacy of an eschatological Christianity, which he framed in contrast to institutional Christianity. Despite this evolution, the chapter argues that Orthodox theological concepts and Russian religious thought remained a lasting influence throughout Corbin’s intellectual career, ultimately shaping his ecumenical vision centered on Eternal Wisdom (Sophia Æterna).

Largely remembered today—and often sharply critiqued—as a scholar of Islamic philosophy and mysticism, Henry Corbin (1903–1978) resisted confinement to what he called the “ghetto of Orientalism.” His expansive body of work, spanning Protestant theology, Shiʿite philosophy, Neoplatonism, and Gnosticism, shaped a dynamic framework for comparative religious studies, a compelling ecumenical theology, and a distinctive philosophical anthropology that bridged intellectual traditions of East and West, establishing him as one of the most influential scholars of religion in the twentieth century. Yet the sheer breadth of Corbin’s scholarship can be daunting. Readers often struggle to discern the unity underlying his diverse intellectual pursuits or to grasp how he journeyed, as he later put it, “from Heidegger to Suhrawardi.” This challenge is further compounded by his phenomenological approach, which sought to “bring to life” the texts and figures he studied while blurring the boundaries between his own ideas and those of his subjects. While Corbin’s legacy has sparked debate within academic circles, his ideas have also profoundly influenced both religious thought and artistic practice. Catalyzed by renewed scholarly interest, this collection brings together researchers from diverse fields to offer fresh perspectives on his work, life, and legacy. Rather than imposing a singular, fixed interpretation—whether critical or laudatory—it explores the many ways in which his thought has been engaged, expanded, and adapted. The volume presents a spectrum of sometimes contrasting approaches, examining how contemporary encounters with Corbin’s ideas shape both the academic study of religion and its lived, spiritual expressions.

With the end of Communism in Russia, non-materialist contexts were enthusiastically restored to Mikhail Bakhtin's globally famous ideas of carnival, dialogism, and polyphony. This essay surveys Rowan Williams's 2008 study Dostoevsky: Language, Faith + Fiction as a major contribution to this effort, concentrating on those general philosophical principles that Williams and Bakhtin share: the Trinitarian nature of interpersonal relation, our need for affirmation from the outside, the inexhaustible potential of the Word, the relevance of the Orthodox icon to Christian charity, the seriousness of the demonic and yet the negotiability of the tragic. Williams is not without his criticism of Bakhtinian readings of Dostoevsky-especially any tolerance for that miserably failed Christ figure, Prince Myshkin. However, both Williams and Bakhtin prefer to integrate others' views rather than to confront or exclude. Williams opens up Bakhtin (and Dostoevsky as well) in ways unavailable to Bakhtin from inside his own time and place. "You may hear all these other voices. Do you think I don't? But it's not every voice that tells how things really are." Hastings to Will, scene IX from Rowan Williams, Shakeshafte 1 1

In this paper we try to extend the range of the our past investigation on Jones’s book “Philosophy of Mystcicism” [Vincenzo Nuzzo, “La mistica ed il suo moderno ruolo in Richard Jones. La retorica orientaleggiante della ‘meditazione’”
< https://cieloeterra.wordpress.com/2024/12/06/vincenzo-nuzzo-la-mistica-ed-il-suo-moderno-ruolo-in-richard-jones-la-retorica-orientaleggiante-della-meditazione/ >]. Particularly we try to search of other traditional forms of mystic could confirm (or not) the Jones’s definition of the nature of this practice. However, Jones stated that the mystic is substantially an experience (but not a knowing) and that it overlaps mainly with the oriental (and especially Buddhist) practice of meditation, regardless of whether God is present or not.
Whit this aim, we examined the Greek pagan mystic, the Christian one (occidental and oriental) and the Islamic one – especially through the studies of Yannis Spiteris (Gregorio Palamas), Vladimir Losskij (Greek patristic tradition), Sergej Bulgakov (Sophiology and Greek patristic tradition) and Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Islamic tradition). We examined also very critically the surprising metaphysical ideas of the modern Greek theologian John D. Zizoulas.
Our investigation revealed many detailed and very complex items in the comparison between these different types of mystic, but showed mainly what follows: − 1) the mystic seems not to be only an experience because it is also a knowing (whenever only conditionally); 2) the mystic is certainly mainly an experience, but only if it contains the God’s presence; 3) the nature of mystic overlaps not at all with a purely mental and solipsistic experience, that is the oriental meditation.

Western philosophy coincides with the disclosure of the other where the other, in manifesting itself as a being, loses its alterity. From its infancy philosophy has been struck with a horror of the other than remains other -with an insurmountable allergy. It is for this reason that it is essentially a philosophy of being, that the comprehension of being is its last word, and the fundamental structure of man. . . . The God of the philosophers . . . is a god adequate to reason, a comprehended god who could not trouble the autonomy of consciousness, which finds itself again in all its adventures, returning home to itself like Ulysses, who through all his peregrinations is only on the way to his native island. -Emmanuel Levinas, "The Trace of the Other" L evinas is well known for his assault of the history of Western ontology and its allergy to otherness. In seeing all in terms of Being, philosophy subordinates ethics to ontology by reducing the other to an object of knowledge within Being. Recent work by Fiona Steinkamp, Joseph Lawrence, and Drew Dalton has called attention to a possible