S.L. Frank and A.I. Vvedensky: pages of philosophical communication (preface to obituary)

Abstract

The article attempts to reconstruct the creative and personal relationships of the two leading Russian religious philosophers of the early twentieth century Aleksandr I. Vvedensky and Semyon L. Frank. The relationship between Vvedensky’s doctrine of criticism (“logicism”) and Frank’s absolute realism, developed in the book “The Subject of Knowledge”, is analyzed. The questions of understanding metaphysics as faith or as knowledge, as well as questions concerning the relationship of gnoseology to ontology, are considered first and foremost. The author claims that this correlation of the two specific philosophical positions reflects the generally valid problem of determining the subject of philosophy and its relationship to religion.  In addition to an analysis of published texts, the author relies on archival documents, which allows him to describe the main episodes of creative and professional communication between the two philosophers: Frank’s appeal to the ideas and theses of Vvedensky, the participation of both philosophers in the debate on the report of S.A. Alekseev, the help of Vvedensky as head of the department to organize a trip abroad for Frank, the role of Vvedensky as an opponent in the defence of Frank’s master’s thesis. It is concluded that despite their theoretical disagreemnets, both philosophers maintained warm human relations with each other. The appendix to the article contains Frank’s obituary of Vvedensky, first published in the émigré newspaper “Ruhl” (Berlin, 1925), which records Frank’s general evaluation of Vvedensky’s philosophical and professional activities, and also reflects the unique facts of their personal contacts.