The burden of freedom: The doctrine of subject in Thomas Carlyle’s works

Authors

  • Александр Александрович Львов St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St.Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2018.407

Abstract

Although Thomas Carlyle’s contemporaries were Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill, the pillars of the classical positivism, he was anxious to found the ontological status of the subject. Kant showed that the subject is an epistemological institution that plays its part as a way to the domain of pure metaphysics; Hegel, a radical Kantian, subdued the whole course of logics, nature and history to self-realization of the Absolute Spirit. In Carlyle’s work we find an interesting method: he tends to reveal a historical person (“a hero”) as a subject of history and interprets him as the one subdued to Providence, or Nature. On this basis he endows the hero with the status of a mean of Nature. Although this outlook provides us with a profound attempt to create a qualitative or metaphysical foundation of the description of human being rather than quantitative approach of sciences and the positivists, it cannot help emerging the paradox of “weak and powerful”; in the paper it is discussed as the Carlyle’s paradox. It also significant that Carlyle discovers his philosophical inspiration in the tradition of German idealism. J. G. Fichte’s doctrine of the destination of men becomes here very illustrious. As a result, Carlyle’s doctrine of hero-worship is considered as a doctrine of freedom: to be free means to him to accept the burden of Providence and realize it as a certain life project.

Keywords:

Thomas Carlyle, conservatism, hero-worship, doctrine of freedom, aissez-faire liberalism, Carlyle’s paradox

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References

References

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Published

2019-01-14

How to Cite

Львов, А. А. (2019). The burden of freedom: The doctrine of subject in Thomas Carlyle’s works. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 34(4), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2018.407

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 4 (2018): Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies

Section

Philosophy

License

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.