Western Reason and Russian Spirituality

The main research objective of this dissertation is to draw attention to the fact that Russia’s cultural and intellectual formation happened to a large extent in opposition to Western civilization. Although Russian thinkers clearly capitalized upon Western ideas, they nevertheless believed that the West's dependence on materialism, logical thinking and rationality rendered it morally corrupt. The epitome of this antagonistic tendency towards the West is especially expressed in the (fictional and non-fictional) writings of F.M. Dostoevsky and A.I. Solzhenitsyn, two key figures of Russia’s intellectual and political history. Both authors dwelled upon the Western tradition’s conceptual and theoretical fallacy with regards to the nature of men and socio-economical conditions.
Thereby at variance with the key philosophical currents of scientism in the nineteenth century and Marx’s materialism in the twentieth century, Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn espoused the notion that morality and belief in a god not only surpass materialism or rationality of a Western kind but even can lead to a better societal order and inter-human relationships. Moreover, for Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn the road to truth and justice is not based on the realization of logical thinking, materialism or rationalism but in the pursuit of moral and ethical strength.
Taken together, the critique by leading Russian intellectuals of the Western paradigm of thinking and interpreting the world combined with Russia’s ‘philosophical’ and intellectual endeavour of showing that moral principles and spirituality dominates the existence of men basically frames the methodological layout of this dissertation. With regard to this research scheme, it is essential to highlight the importance of Russia’s reflection on the nature of the Western mind, for it gives a new insight into the intellectual history of the Western world, and also Russia’s.