Gurevich, P. S. The Influence of Nikolay Berdyaev on European Philosophy

Abstract: Nikolay Berdyaev’ anniversary (140th anniversary of his birth) is a good reason to dispute against a number of opinions of Russian philosophers regarding evaluation of Nikolay Berdyaev’s philosophical heritage. In their speeches and scientific articles philosophers often note that Nikolay Berdyaev’s ideas are not integral and his publications contain many contradictory statements proving that Nikolay Berdyaev’s philosophical thought is rather contradictory and imperfect. Researchers also write that Berdyaev’s philosophy lacks originality and novelty and his only work that is worthy of attention is his ‘Philosophy of Inequality’ even despite the fact that the philosopher supposedly refused from his own work because it was too ‘anti-democratic’. Finally, researcherscomment that if Nikolay Berdyaev happened to be in the West, he would be regarded as the follower of the European existential tradition and wouldn’t even make a great contribution to it. In his article Pavel Gurevich uses the main concepts of existential philosophy and the global experience of philosophical understanding of human. The author of the article also uses discoveries of the personalistic philosophy as well as practical findings of the phenomenological reflection. The article presents the first attempt to provide an explicit description of the influence of Nikolay Berdyaev on the European philosophy. It is the author’s opinion that Berdyaev’s dialectics allowed him to enter the European philosophy not as an epigone but a great philosopher. The author also in detail views unexpected and original thoughts of Nikolay Berdyaev that made a great contribution to philosophy and anthropology.

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