Criteria of Discourse on the Reception of Aristotle in Russian Culture

The study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 24-28-01811, https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-01811/

Abstract

The paper examines approaches to the reception of Aristotle's ideas in Russian culture, from the era of Old Russian Culture to the present day. Special attention is paid to the problem of the “Russian Aristotle” – the perception of the philosopher's legacy in the context of transformations of European intellectual culture. The study emphasizes the difference in approaches to understanding Aristotle's legacy in Western and Eastern cultural traditions. The question is raised about the influence of paradigm shifts on the perception of the philosopher, starting with the Enlightenment. It is shown that in the Russian tradition of the early 20th century, in publicism and some scientific works was formed an idea of the Aristotle's reception inconsistency in Russian culture in comparison with “Aristotelian scholasticism”. Such an assessment seems culturally biased and declarative. In order to move away from declarative statements about the reception of Aristotle, the author clarifies the content of the concept of “reception” and introduces reception criteria (Rezeptionsgeschichte-block (R) и Wirkungsgeschichte-block (W)) that allow scaling the idea of reception, ranking the degree of appropriation, adaptation of received samples, assessing the degree and form of borrowing ideas, as well as the level of transformation of culture due to the effect of the received sample. The article analyzes the monographs of V. M. Lurye and D. Bradshaw as an example of research focused on the W-block of reception, i.e. on assessing the effect and result of reception. These samples, built on the methodology of the history of ideas and the history of concepts, emphasize the originality of the adaptation of Aristotelian key concepts (hypostasis, nature, energy) in the Orthodox tradition, are considered as an alternative to the “scholastic Aristotle” and give reason to think of Aristotelianism as an internal form and code of Orthodox culture and Russian civilization. The article raises an important question about the need to rethink the role of Aristotle in Russian culture, which allows us to deepen our understanding of the cultural foundations of philosophy and assess the significance of those ideas for contemporary times.