Kitaro Nishida and Sergei Bulgakov on the Marxist concept of “practice”. Points of intersection and divergence

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the reaction of Russian and Japanese religiously oriented philosophical traditions to the Marxist notion of practice. By means of examining the works by Sergey Bulgakov and Kitaro Nishida the author asserts that Bulgakov was agree with Marx when in “Philosophy of Economy” he stressed the importance of human creative ability to transform the world. However, Bulgakov introduced the concept of the noumenal nature of the transcendental economical subject. This made it possible for Bulgakov to create such a model of economy which is always in tense dialogical relations with the ethically characterized invisible divine “last instance” functioning as an apophatic criterion for the moral value of economics and history. The Japanese philosopher Nishida in his work “I and Thou” proposed a model of the universe, according to which fundamental historical being reveals itself through its “self-limitation” – individuals and the “environment”. This idea can also indicate the influence of Marxism. However, Nishida stressed that every moment in historical time should be understood as a unique one-time act of self-negation or the “death” of the “eternal present”, i.e. the fundamental layer of being. According to the author, Nishida tried to reject the idea of history as an immanent process, completely independent from the ahistorical reasons. Thus, despite different religious beliefs, Bulgakov and Nishida come to the refutation of Marxist monism and to understanding the necessity of interpreting history religiously and morally.