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

DOI: 10.24412/2078-9823.071.025.202503.263-272

УДК 130.2:159.923.2

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

 

Forms of Slavery and Possibilities of Liberation: N. A. Berdyaev’s Philosophy in the Light of the Challenges of the Information age

 

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the main forms of human slavery in the personalistic philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev (1874–1948) in the light of modern civilizational challenges.

Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of this research was the famous work of

N. A. Berdyaev “On slavery and human freedom (The experience of personalistic philosophy)”. The methods of reconstruction, reactualization, and interculturalism became the methods that served to reveal the actual content of the views of the Russian thinker on the problem of slavery. The consideration of the modern scientific discourse on the designated topic is carried out on the basis of methods of analysis and synthesis.

Results. The author reconstructs the philosopher’s views on the essence and forms of slavery in the context of modern civilizational processes. A meaningful description of human slavery is given, according to N. A. Berdyaev, in being, nature, society, civilization and cultural values, “oneself” (individualism) and possible ways of liberation from it. The methodological significance of Berdyaev’s religious and philosophical ideas, which are currently in demand by philosophy for understanding modern conditions of slavery and its root causes, the relationship between slavery and freedom, is actualized. The author shows the importance of Berdyaev’s interpretation of slavery for the preservation and strengthening of traditional spiritual and moral Russian values in the light of the intercultural approach to philosophy as a “form of national and original thinking”.

Discussion and Conclusion. The research has shown that Berdyaev’s religious and philosophical ideas about slavery and freedom make it possible to study the modern manifestations of these phenomena. In the current conditions of an increasingly energetic offensive of material and technical civilization, the clash of values of different civilizations, the philosopher’s thought is methodologically significant that any slavery stems from materiality, objectification, materialization, and mechanical community. Freedom is subjective, spiritual, and manifests itself through creativity. The liberation of a person (individual) means the formation of a spiritual personality capable of resisting the enslaving factors of the objective material world. Berdyaev’s approach to liberation from various forms of slavery is based on the ways of connecting the human and divine spirit, which has urgent methodological significance for understanding and overcoming various human addictions in the modern information age.

Keywords: slavery, freedom, personality, N. A. Berdyaev, existentialism, philosophy, the information era.

For citation: Izergina V. P., Izergina N. I. Forms of Slavery and Possibilities of Liberation: N. A. Berdyaev’s Philosophy in the Light of the Challenges of the Information age. Gumanitarian: aktual’nye problemy gumanitarnoi nauki i obrazovaniia = Russian Journal of the Humanities. 2025; 25(3): 263–272. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.24412/2078-9823.071.025.202503.263-272.

 

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