Konstantin Aksakov on the role of poetry in the spiritual life of a person

In the history of Russian philosophy, there were many outstanding thinkers who are authors of original philosophical ideas and authors of sublime poetic imagery. One of them was Konstantin Aksakov, a Russian philosopher, publicist, historian and poet. He viewed poetry as a way to nurture human feelings by rising to spiritual ideals. For him, poetry was not only the sphere of realization of his creative work, but also the subject of his philosophical research. Aksakov developed an anthropological approach to the study of the essence and history of the language. He believed that the word was the distinctive feature of a person, by which a person organized life in accordance with moral laws. A person may be inclined to do both moral and immoral acts. The word is deeply connected with a person's essence, and varies depending on the person's inner experiences. However, one changes oneself and one's fate by distorting the meaning of words. The historical path of the development of the humankind is also inextricably linked with the historical stages in the development of the language. Aksakov distinguished ordinary words from poetic words. Ordinary words express feelings of different moral value. Poetic words give an unconditional moral value to human feelings. Wondering about the spiritualizing action of poetry, Aksakov distinguishes three stages in its development: from poetry as an abstract idea of art to the embodiment of this idea in specific literary works of different artistic merits and, finally, to high samples of poetic art. He expressed confidence that the birth of a poetic genius is possible only with its direct connection with the national literary heritage. A genial poet creates works that become the property of all humankind and perpetuate the phenomena of the human spirit. Aksakov saw the role of poetry in the spiritual life of a person in the fact that it helps one overcome the imperfections of one's temporary existence, and reveals manifestations of eternity in one's temporary existence.

Keywords

Authors

References