Alexandre Kojeve's concept of the "end of history" in the context of the current state of culture

The article discusses Alexander Kojeve's concept of the "end of history" in the context of the current state of culture. The presentation begins with the key notions of Kojeve's concept: Slave, Master, Citizen. The "end of history" is the "sublation" of contradictions between the Slave and the Master by the emergence of the Citizen of a universal homogeneous state. Before that, the Slave only labors, it is his duty; the Master only fights, it is his prerogative. The Citizen is involved in labor, as he created the state he lives in; he is also involved in fighting because he defends the state he created. Therefore, the Citizen unites and reconciles the Slave and the Master. The Citizen appears as the Artist in art. Before the "end of history" the Artist is not able to realize his potential completely. This incompleteness is reflected in the fact that perception stops at a thing the Artist created and does not "reach" his personality; there is no communication. The "end of history" is a condition when the Artist completely embodies his personality in a work of art. Therefore, through the perception of a work of art the personality of its creator is perceived; perception becomes communication. The "end of history" is the overcoming of the modern. The modern in its essential features begins to take shape during the Renaissance. The peculiarity of the ideology of the Renaissance, and further modernity in general, is that it is the result of the "diffusion" of Christianity and paganism. The mechanism of this "diffusion" is considered on the basis of the discussion of the Tabor light in the formulation of Gregory Palamas. To describe the differences in the Christian and pagan understanding of a work of art the provisions of John Damascene are used. Overcoming the modern at the "end of history" is a return to Christianity cleared of "diffusion" with paganism. This return is seen in the phenomenon of mass culture. Mass culture is "unspiritual" in the New European sense of the term, which means that there is no opposition between the spiritual and the physical. In the movement towards the spiritual which mass culture demonstrates, the physical is not denied but "sublated".

Keywords

Authors

References