L. Karsavin’s method of “mystical criticism” of Catholicism
Abstract
The article deals with the method of “mystical criticism” used by L. P. Karsavin when he criticized the Catholic theological doctrine. According to the author, the conceptualization of this method will allow to achieve a deeper understanding of the internal logic of Karsavin’s philosophical constructions. The method of “mystical criticism” is regarded as an inevitable consequence of the fact that people live in different religious and mystical worlds. Thus, people of different mystical worlds, that is, worlds of different mystical experiences often understand the same dogmatic formulations in a different way, or even give them the opposite meanings. Karsavin considers the Filioque dogma in a way that completely differs from that Catholics do it. This is explained by his thinking in a world of different mystical experience rather than by his subjectivism. The radical philosophical and mystical criticism of Catholicism, which is seen in the treatise “On the principles”, is the result of Karsavin’s denial of the apologetic approach realized in his book “Catholicism”. Such a change of his attitude towards Catholicism can be explained by the fact that Karsavin, on the one hand, wanted to obtain a deeper understanding of the subject studied, and on the other, tried to apply his own version of the all-unity philosophy to interpret Catholicism. Karsavin believed that the Filioque dogma had determined the specifics of Western philosophy, in particular the criticism of I. Kant. This statement as well as the all-unity methodology of a historical and philosophical research are of interest.
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