Vasilij Vasil'evič Sokolov (1919 - 2017) en #Spinoza [9e en afrondend blog]



Vasilij Vasil'evič Sokolov,
still uit 1e video opgenomen door M.S. Naydenkina
voor de Stichting Mondelinge Geschiedenis.

In de week van 20 oktober tot 27 oktober 2018 had ik een achttal blogs over Vasilij Vasil'evič Sokolov (1919 - 2017), Russisch filosoof, die in zijn tijd dé scholar van de Sovjet Unie over Spinoza was. Het kwam er tot heden niet van, maar ik was van plan deze reeks met een slotblog af te ronden.

Deze Sokolov was mij, tot ik aan deze blogs begon, volkomen onbekend. Het begon ermee dat ik deze cover tegenkwam en nieuwsgierig op zoek ging naar wie de auteur was. Het bleek om een Hongaarse vertaling te gaan van Sokolovs hoofdwerk over Spinoza.* Ik moest nogal moeite doen om achter zijn levensdata te komen: Google gaf zijn geheimen niet zomaar prijs. Mevr. Iva Manova, Assistant Prof. Aan de the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was zo vriendelijk mij de link te bieden naar de Russische Wikipediapagina over hem. Hoe meer ik vervolgens te weten kwam, des te meer verbaasde ik mij erover dat er in het Westen zo weinig belangstelling voor deze Spinoza-geleerde bestond. En dat terwijl er alle aanleiding is door het onderscheid dat hij maakte m.b.t.

Spinoza’s pantheïsme.

Iva Manova schrijft in haar “Interpretations of Spinoza’s ontology in Soviet philosophical historiography”:

In his later studies, Sokolov develops and defends his own historiographical thesis, unprecedented in Soviet Spinoza scholarship, namely the view that Spinoza was a materialist insofar as he was a pantheist. […] In Filosofija Spinozy i sovremennost’, the exposition of the historical development of pantheism runs parallel to the introduction of certain historiographical concepts. For example, Sokolov introduces a differentiation between religious-mystic (religiozno-mističeskij) and naturalistic pantheism (naturalističeskij panteizm). He explains how difficult it is to appraise pantheist teachings with respect to the basic question of philosophy and shows that it is possible to distribute the thinkers of the past, including Spinoza, in the two historical-philosophical trends of materialism and idealism solely by applying a sufficiently broad concept of «materialism».

Regarding the appraisal of pantheistic teachings with respect to the basic question of philosophy, Sokolov says:

An examination of the history of pantheistic ideas proves that it is not possible to unequivocally define pantheism from the point of view of the division of the philosophical doctrines into materialistic and idealistic. […] The appraisal of whichever pantheistic conception as materialistic or idealistic must be based on a specific historical analysis, by taking into account the main line of the philosophical battle in a particular historical period.

The history of pantheistic ideas, as reconstructed by Sokolov, begins with the Greek philosophers Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Democritus, who elaborated the earliest form of philosophical pantheism, namely a type of organic-hylozoistic outlook. Sokolov maintains that they are responsible for the formulation of «the most important idea in all ancient and medieval philosophy, that is the idea of the coincidence of the macro- and micro-cosmoses». […]

In his analysis of the pantheistic elements in the philosophical doctrines of the Middle Ages, Sokolov distinguishes between a religious-mystic and a naturalistic pantheism72. The former characterizes mainly heretical, or in some way oppositional, teachings with respect to official church ideology, whereas the latter characterizes authors interested in the exploration of nature.

Although the religious-mystic type of pantheism is closer to the line of idealistic teachings in the universal history of philosophy, Sokolov believes its role in the history of thought is a positive one for it is critical of religious dogmatism and Church hierarchy. Its criticism consists, on the one hand, in denouncing «the pseudo-rationalism of Scholasticism, which tries to use Aristotelian logic to prove religious dogmas and to demonstrate irrational theological ‘truths’ amenable to no demonstration»73. On the other hand, mystic experience and written accounts of it, by associating God with man and with nature in an intimate unity, undermine the stability of the teaching of God’s transcendency and unattainability. In Sokolov’s account, in the Middle Ages the religious-mystic type of pantheism was more common than the naturalistic kind, which, by contrast, had almost no adherents. […]

In his 1964 book, as well as in other later publications, Sokolov argues that naturalistic pantheism is very close to the materialistic perspective, although «it is not possible to identify it completely with materialism». «And yet», he goes on, «pantheism has become one of the main forms of world-view the materialistic tendency has adopted in the history of philosophy». In particular, Sokolov states that it is this very form that was adopted by Spinoza, whose «conception of substance as its own cause belongs principally to the tradition of naturalistic pantheism». The main argument by which Sokolov sustains his interpretation of Spinozistic ontology as pantheistic, is Spinoza’s idea of God as an immanent cause of all things operating from within rather than from without. According to Sokolov this idea runs through the entire corpus of Spinoza’s works.

 

Ook Siegfried Wollgast, Philosophie in Deutschland zwischen Reformation und Aufklärung 1550–1650 [Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2016 - 1037 pagina's] besteedt uitgebreid aandacht aan Sokolov's indeling van pantheïstisch denken

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Hoe V.V. Sokolov gemist wordt in overzichten van de geschiedenis van de Russische filosofie – enige voorbeelden:

• Thomas Nemeth, “Russian Philosophy.” In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosopy; [daarin komen Solokov en llyenkov niet voor]

• Vladimir L. Marchenkov (2005), “Russian Philosophy.” In: Encyclopedia of Philosophy - 2006 Thomson Gale [idem, geen Solokov en llyenkov]

• Mikhail Epstein. AN OVERVIEW OF RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY [ op emory.edu]

• Aileen Kelly, “Russian philosophy [1. The development of Russian philosophy; 2. Major themes in Russian philosophy]’. in: Edward Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  1998; cf. books.google – heeft eveneens geen Sokolov, geen Ilyenkov

•  Z. A. Kamenskii, “The Philosophical Encyclopedia Is Twenty-Five. In: Russian Social Science Review, Volume 38, 1997 - Issue 6  [cf. tandfonline]

• Alyssa DeBlasio, “Writing the history of Russian philosophy.” In: Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 63, No. 3 (August 2011), pp. 203-226 – PDF [Geen Sokolov of Ilyenkov]

• Β. William Leatherbarrow & Derek Offord (Eds.), A History of Russian Thought. Cambridge University Press, 2010; heeft één x V.V. Sokolov (wel 2x A.V. Sokolov) en meer over Ilyenkov [meest als Ilenkov] Met enige interessante feitjes...- books.google

• David Bakhurst, Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov. Cambridge University Press; 1st Edition edition (June 28, 1991) [cf.]

• Evert van der Zweerde, Soviet Historiography of Philosophy: Istoriko-Filosofskaja Nauka. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013 - 296 pagina's – books,google zat in de collegebanken bij Sokolov en schrijft over hem – books,google

• Niet te verwarren met Ippolit Vasil'evic Sokolov

Ulrich Weisstein, Expressionism As an International Literary Phenomenon: Twenty-One Essays and a Bibliography [John Benjamins Publishing, 1973] schrijft: “"The history of Russian E.[ Expressionism] begins with one man Ippolit Vasil'evic Sokolov.” ... – books,google

*) Die vertaling is later nóg eens uitgekomen:
V. V. Szokolov, Spinoza filozófiája és a jelenkor. Budapest, 1981 - 442 p. Je komt er met deze cover meerdere aanbiedingen van tegen als je de titel in Google ingeeft.

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Blogs over
Vasilij Vasil'evič Sokolov (1919 - 2017) Russisch filosoof, was in zijn tijd dé scholar van de Sovjet Unie over #Spinoza
[1, algemene introductie van Sokolov],
[2, George L. Kline over V. V. Sokolov, "Mirovozzreniye Benedikta Spinozy," (Benedictus Spinoza’s wereldvisie)],
[3, review Friedrich Rapp van V. V. Sokolov: Filosofija Spinozy i sovremennosf (The Philosophy of Spinoza and the Present Day)],
[4, Sokolov’s Spinoza-bibliografie],
[5 Lemma Spinoza, Baruch in “The Great Soviet Encyclopedia”],
[6 Vladimir Ivanovič Metlov over Sokolov],
[7, Lewis S. Feuer over zijn bezoek aan Sokolov].
[8, Vasilij Vasil'evič Sokolov (1919 - 2017) versus Evald Vasilevič Ilyenkov (1924 - 1979) over Spinoza