G.V. Florovsky on the nature of historical knowledge

The paper studies the theory of historicalknowledge of G.V. Florovsky. The author shows that for Fr. George Florovsky historical cognition is a personal, creative act of a scientist,the act, which takes place in the specific conditions of historical time and space. Historical cognition in the view of G.V. Florovsky isalways a spiritual act, it is an event in the spiritual history of mankind. Fr. George emphasizes that historians must never forget that «thesubjects» of their study are - like historians themselves - free and creative human beings. The paper also lays stress on G.V. Florovsky'sbelief that the true vision of history can be achieved only if it is considered as a series of singular, individual acts of people intertwined witheach other in such a way that they form a fantastically complex, dynamic and open system which can hardly be described by any rationalmodel. The author focuses a special attention on G.V. Florovsky's critique of the philosophy of history which overemphasizes the unity ofthe historical process and seeks to explain it in terms of deterministic or teleological models. Such an approach to history results in theideology of social Utopism, the ideology that has played a fateful part in the history of Russia in the XX, h century. The author argues thatFlorovsky's analysis of the spiritual and metaphysical roots of such a deterministic and Utopian vision of history is still of vital importancefor the philosophy of history and the theory of historical knowledge.

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