Which of the Lovers Will Achieve Salvation? (One Question to “Metaphysics of Love” by Lev Karsavin)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2024.305Abstract
One of the many difficulties in Lev Karsavin's metaphysics of love is how the author solves the issue of preserving human individuality in the series of transformations. On the one hand, the uniqueness of a person is the starting point of the metaphysics of love: love according to Karsavin creates such unity in which the differences of individuals is preserved. On the other hand lovers create a single personality which in turn is an element of the all-human personality of Adam Kadmon. Moreover, according to Karsavin's reasoning this multi-unit human personality will be transformed into the personality of Jesus Christ. Here the question arises: how can their personalities be preserved in the series of transformations awaiting lovers? An attempt to solve the question of the possibility of preserving the human personality in view of the conditions set by the metaphysics of love is the purpose of the article.
To achieve the goal the authors use the following circumstances. Firstly, they expand the source base of the study by involving into the analysis Karsavin’s translation and interpretation of the Memoriale by Angela of Foligno. Secondly, in view of the nature of Karsavin metaphysics, the authors found it possible to place the terminological apparatus of "Noctes Petropolitanae" in a broader conceptual field, in particular, assuming that salvation can be considered as the entelechy of love. Thirdly, the question of the uniqueness and composition of human existence was interpreted through the term hypostasis. The acceptability of such a step is justified by the existing tradition of understanding the personality coming at least from the Izbornik of Sviatoslav 1073 and from the Slavic translations of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy.
As a result of the analysis of the metaphysics of love undertaken from the described methodological positions the authors come to the conclusion that the preservation of human individuality turns out to be highly problematic. This conclusion however may indicate both the imperfection of the methodological apparatus of the study and the fundamental undecidability of the question posed by means of metaphysics.
Keywords:
metaphysics of love, personality, hypostasis, salvation, Noctes Petropolitanae by Lev Karsavin, Memoriale by Angela of Foligno, Preparation by Theodore of Raithu, Izbornik of Sviatoslav (1073)
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Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.