The Philosophy of the Slavophiles as the Beginning of the "Religious-Philosophical Renaissance" in Russia in the First Half of the 19th Century

The article argues that, in comparison with the Westerners' views, the Slavophiles' position, archaically conservative in form, putting forward the idea of restoring the original tradition, turned out to be truly innovative, since it was necessary to rethink this tradition creatively and present it to the Russian society at the level of philosophical reflection. The significance of the Slavophiles in the development of Russian self-consciousness lies not only in posing new philosophical problems in a new way, but also in shaping the paradigms of the development of Russian history and culture. Thanks to the Slavophiles, the center of philosophical creativity gradually began to move from Europe to Russia. To a large extent, through the efforts of the Slavophiles, a process was launched in Russia designated by the researchers as a "religious-philosophical renaissance". The author of the article notes that, although the Slavophiles created Russian philosophy as a religious one, like all subsequent Russian thinkers, it was an axiological mentality rather than a religious one, with an appeal to the human in man, with striving not only to impassively comprehend the laws of the surrounding world and transform it using science and technology, but also to assess their actions morally. The philosophical and theological constructions of the Slavophiles can rightfully be regarded as a desecularization (postsecularization) of scientific knowledge of the world and man. The tradition of using theological methods in science, culture, philosophy and politics was characteristic of pre-Petrine Russia, but, since the reforms of Peter I, secularization tendencies prevailed in all these spheres. It is suggested that the leader of the Slavophiles A.S. Khomyakov was faced with the necessity of using the discourse of Orthodoxy, since the Slavophile author, like any researcher, was limited to his time. But, with the help of this discourse, he managed to determine the eternal, "timeless" values for man and humanity. The language of any philosophy is the language of its era, and, if Russian philosophy wanted to be truly original, it should have organically incorporated both the concepts of Orthodoxy and its methodology. In modern conditions, the idea of sobornost ("togetherness", "symphony"), which is key to the Slavophiles, can be expressed both in religious and secular languages, which in this case do not oppose each other, but, on the contrary, are mutually enriched. Thus, the ancestor of Slavophilism managed to overcome the one-sidedness of both religious and rational (atheistic) worldviews.

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