The teachings of N.Ya. Danilevsky as a source of Western European philosophy of history

Abstract

The article is devoted to the comprehension of the historiosophic concept of N.Ya. Danilevsky in the context of its influence on the teachings of O. Spengler and A. Toynbee. By means of the comparison of philosophical and historical views of the Russian, German and English thinkers the author considers the problem of insufficient research of the influence of Russian thought on Western philosophy of the non-classical period. He claims that some basic concepts of Spengler's philosophy of history (such as "gestalt of history", "culture", "civilisation", "soul of the people", "pseudomorphosis") appeared as a result of the reception of Russian historiosophy. In fact, Spengler made a synthesis of Danilevsky's and K.N. Leontiev's ideas about the "youth" of the Russian cultural-historical type, its Eastern Byzantine foundations, the insufficient effectiveness of its cultural-state life, and the negative nature of Western cultural influence, refracted through the prism of Eurocentrism. The absence of direct references in Spengler's works to Danilevsky is interpreted as what proves the importance of the latter's ideas for the German thinker, as the main principle of his work with sources was to refer to this or that author on private issues, but not when addressing the central ideas. The author of the article insists that there might have been the indirect influence of Danilevsky's ideas on Toynbee's civilisation concept, the fundamental principle of which is cultural pluralism, or the belief in the diversity of forms of social organisation of mankind. It is concluded that further work on revealing and studying the hidden and indirect influence of Russian thinkers on European philosophers is of great importance and might be productive, especially within the framework of comparative analysis methodology.