ISSN 2078-9823 (Print), ISSN 2587-7879 (Online)

Vera P. Izergina1, Nina I. Izergina2

1, 2 National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University (Saransk, Russia)

1 e-mail: vera.ivp@yandex.ru

2 e-mail: ninaini@yandex.ru

 

Actualization of the Religious and Philosophical Understanding of Personality (on the 150th anniversary of the birth of N. A. Berdyaev)

 

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes the concept of “personality” in the personalistic philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev (1874–1948) in the context of the challenges of modern material and technical civilization.

Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of this research is the philosophical works of N. A. Berdyaev, first of all, the work “On slavery and human freedom (The experience of personalistic philosophy)”. To identify the actual content of N. A. Berdyaev’s personalism, methods of reconstruction, reactualization, and interculturalism were used. The methods of analysis and synthesis are applied to analyze the modern scientific discourse on the stated problem.

Results. The author reconstructs the thinker’s views on the problem of personality, including its religious interpretation in the context of modern civilizational processes. The article shows the actual methodological significance of the philosopher’s ideas, which are in demand by modern philosophy for studying various problems: the interaction of artistic and religious culture; the development of pedagogical technologies; “ways for a person to gain existence” in the conditions of digital existence; mental security in modern society. Within the framework of the intercultural methodology, “focusing on philosophy as a form of national-original thinking”, the importance of Berdyaev’s understanding of personality in connection with the clash of different civilizational values in modern society is revealed.

Discussion and Conclusion. The study found that Berdyaev’s personalistic philosophy allows answering meaningful questions about the present and the future. The modern need for a realistic perception of the world determines the value of a religious and philosophical understanding of personality by a thinker. The personality, defined by the philosopher as a “holistic image of a person”, includes spiritual, mental and bodily principles with the primacy of the spiritual. It is a spiritual, responsible person who, by preventing human societies from slipping into a precultural state, is able to ensure the right vector of modern development. The existential freedom of man, according to the philosopher, is determined primarily by the content of human existence, and not by the forms of its organization, the choice between true and false, and not between progressive and reactionary. In the conditions of the triumph of material civilization and the clash of different civilizational values, spiritual evaluation criteria should prevail.

Keywords: personality, society, existentialism, personalism, creativity, freedom, spirituality, dignity, God, N. A. Berdyaev.

For citation: Izergina V. P., Izergina N. I. Actualization of the Religious and Philosophical Understanding of Personality (on the 150th anniversary of the birth of N. A. Berdyaev). Gumanitarian: aktual’nye problemy gumanitarnoi nauki i obrazovaniia = Russian Journal of the Humanities. 2024; 24(4): 385–395. (In Russ.)  DOI: 10.24412/2078-9823.068.024.202404.385-395.

 

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