Comparative analysis of the historiosophic ideas of Konstantin Leontiev and Alexander Kojève

Annotation

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the historiosophical views of K. Leontiev and A. Kojève; it focuses on the problem of the “end of history”. The paper hypothesizes that Leontiev’s historiosophy influenced Kojève`s philosophy of history. At the beginning it is substantiated purely factually: it mentions Kojève`s Heidelberg dissertation on Vladimir Soloviev, which testifies to the Russian- French philosopher’s erudition in the history of Russian thought, Kojève`s communication and cooperation with the Eurasians, who considered Leontiev his intellectual predecessor, and the fact of Kojève`s personal acquaintance with N. Berdyaev, who in the year of Kojève`s arrival in France (1926) published a monograph devoted to Leontiev`s philosophy. After a general disclosure and further comparison of the historiosophic views of both philosophers, a number of conceptual points are revealed that are present in the philosophy of both Leontiev and Kojève. Attention is drawn to the recognition of inequality and antagonism as constitutive attributes of the historical process, the abolition of which will result in the “end of history”, which deserves only a pessimistic, thanatological assessment (physical and spiritual death of mankind/death of man as a negative and logos being). It is noted that the onset of the posthistorical state is associated with a global revolutionary process that eliminates the former hierarchical relations and social differentiation, as well as abolishes nation- states in favor of a global homogeneous state. It is pointed out that the French Revolution and Napoleon`s military- state activity are attributed a key and archetypal significance in the framework of the realization of transformations of this kind. It is fixed that posthistorical society is a radically egalitarian society, whose members are primitive consumers, incapable of self-overcoming and creativity, and at the same time atheists, who have made man himself an object of quasi- religious worship. In conclusion, three conceptual points peculiar to Leontiev`s philosophy but alienating Kojève`s historiosophy (theism, naturalization of history, aesthetic pathos) are emphasized.

Keywords

А. Kojève, K. Leontiev, philosophy of history, aestheticism, egalitarianism, French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, idea of the end of history, “desire for recognition”, world homogeneous state

Literature

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