A. A. Ukhtomsky’s philosophy as existential hermeneutics

Abstract

The article deals with the “existential turn” of the twentieth century in hermeneutics, which consisted in understanding the personality as a text created by man’s inner freedom. By means of this method and with the help of the ideas of critical philosophy it seems possible to reconstruct the personal semantic “worlds”. The con­cept of Dasein proposed by M. Heidegger was considered to be a universal “cipher” for such a text. The existential effort of hermeneutics con­sists in grasping what is always “dissolved” in the interpretation of a text, which reflects the specific features of another subject – the author. The concepts of “man’s double” and the “Honored interlocutor” introduced by A. A. Ukhtom­sky made it possible to discover an anthropological problem, which consists in the fact that our perception of the world and every other “I” is determined by the two opposing dominants: 1) the dominant on one’s own “I” which turns other people perceived by man into his doubles; 2) the dominant on the Other’s face enabling man to see his true essence. In the article, the basic ontological, epistemological and ethical aspects of Ukhtomsky’s theory are analysed, the biographical context of the formation of this theory is examined. It is claimed that the type of cognition represented in Ukhtomsky’s teaching is kind of cognition resulting from the act of man’s transformation. The author argues that it is this transformation that enables man to get rid of his “doubles” and to see things correctly. It is concluded that Ukhtomsky is a founder of the Russian “existential hermeneutics” which is alternative to Heidegger’s one and should be studied and developed.