Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (russian: Влади́мир Серге́евич Соловьёв; – ) was a Russian

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, theologian, poet, pamphleteer, and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, who played a significant role in the development of

Russian philosophy Russian philosophy is a collective name for the philosophical heritage of Russian thinkers. Historiography In historiography, there is no consensus regarding the origins of Russian philosophy, its periodization and its cultural significance. The ...

and poetry at the end of the 19th century and in the spiritual renaissance of the early 20th century.

Life and work

Vladimir Solovyov was born in Moscow; the second son of the historian Sergey Mikhaylovich Solovyov (1820–1879); his elder brother

Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod (russian: Все́волод ; uk, Все́волод ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princ ...

(1849-1903), became a historical novelist, and his younger sister, Polyxena (1867-1924), became a poet. Vladimir Solovyov's mother Polyxena Vladimirovna (née Romanova, d. 1909) belonged to a family of Polish origin and among her ancestors was the philosopher

Gregory Skovoroda Hryhorii Skovoroda, also Gregory Skovoroda or Grigory Skovoroda ( la, Gregorius Scovoroda; uk, Григорій Савич Сковорода, ''Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda''; russian: Григо́рий Са́ввич Сковорода́, ...

(1722–1794). In his teens, he renounced Eastern Orthodoxy for

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

, but later his disapproval of

positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

saw him begin to express some views that were in line with those of the Orthodox Church. From 1869 to 1873 Solovyov studied at the Imperial Moscow University, where his philosophy professor was

Pamfil Yurkevich Pamfil Danilovich Yurkevich (russian: Памфіл Дани́лович Юрке́вич, label=ukrainian; February 28, 1826, Poltava, Russian Empire – October 16, 1874, Moscow, Russian Empire) was a Ukrainian philosopher and teacher of philosop ...

(1826-1874). In his 1874 work ''The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Positivists'' ( ru , Кризис западной философии (против позитивистов), Solovyov discredited the positivists' rejection of Aristotle's

essentialism Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...

, or philosophical realism. In ''Against the Positivists'' he took the position of intuitive noetic comprehension, or insight. He saw consciousness as integral (see the Russian term '' sobornost'') and requiring both phenomenon (validated by dianoia) and noumenon validated

intuitively Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

. Positivism, according to Solovyov, validates only the phenomenon of an object, denying the intuitive reality that people experience as part of their consciousness. As Solovyov's basic philosophy rests on the idea that the essence of an object (see

) can be validated only by intuition and that consciousness as a single organic whole is done in part by reason or logic but in completeness by (non-dualist) intuition. Solovyov was partially attempting to reconcile the dualism (subject-object) found in German idealism. Soloviev Trubtskoy Grot Lopatin

In 1877, Solovyov moved to Saint Petersburg, where he became a friend and confidant of the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881). In opposition to his friend, Solovyov was sympathetic to the Roman Catholic Church. He favoured the healing of the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

(

ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

, '' sobornost'') between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. It is clear from Solovyov's work that he accepted papal primacy over the Universal Church, but there is not enough evidence, , to support the claim that he ever officially embraced Roman Catholicism. As an active member of

Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia The Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (Hebrew: ''Hevra Mefitsei Haskalah''; Russian: ''Obshchestva dlia Rasprostraneniia Prosveshcheniia Mezhdu Evreiami v Rossii'', or OPE; sometimes translated into English as "Society ...

, he spoke Hebrew and struggled to reconcile Judaism and Christianity. Politically, he became renowned as the leading defender of Jewish civil rights in

tsarist Russia Tsarist Russia may refer to: * Grand Duchy of Moscow (1480–1547) *Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721) *Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of ...

in the 1880s. Solovyov also advocated for his cause internationally and published a letter in ''The London Times'' pleading for international support for his struggle. The ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' describes him as "a friend of the Jews" and states that "Even on his death-bed he is said to have prayed for the Jewish people". Vladimir-Solovyov

Solovyov's attempts to chart a course of civilization's progress toward an East-West Christian

developed an increasing bias against Asian cultures—which he had initially studied with great interest. He dismissed the Buddhist concept of Nirvana as a pessimistic nihilistic "nothingness", antithetical to salvation and no better than Gnostic

dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another ** ...

. Solovyov spent his final years obsessed with fear of the " Yellow Peril", warning that soon the Asian peoples, especially the Chinese, would invade and destroy Russia. Solovyov further elaborated this theme in his apocalyptic short-story "Tale of the Antichrist" (published in the ''Nedelya'' newspaper on 27 February 1900), in which China and Japan join forces to conquer Russia. His 1894 poem ''Pan-Mongolism'', whose opening lines serve as epigraph to the story, was widely seen as predicting the coming Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Solovyov never married or had children, but he pursued idealized relationships as immortalized in his spiritual love-poetry, including with two women named Sophia. He rebuffed the advances of the Christian mystic Anna Nikolayevna Schmidt, who claimed to be his divine partner. In his later years, Solovyov became a vegetarian, but ate fish occasionally. He often lived alone for months without a servant and would work into the night.

Influence

It is widely held that Solovyov was one of the sources for Dostoevsky's characters

Alyosha Karamazov Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov (russian: Алёша Карамазов), usually referred to simply as Alyosha, is the protagonist in the 1880 novel ''The Brothers Karamazov'' by Fyodor Dostoevsky. He is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, being ...

and

Ivan Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...

in '' The Brothers Karamazov''. In Janko Lavrin's opinion, Solovyov has not left a single work which can be considered an epoch-making contribution to philosophy as such. And yet his writings have proved one of the most stimulating influences to the religious-philosophic thought of his country. Solovyov's influence can also be seen in the writings of the

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

and Neo-Idealist writers of the later Russian Soviet era. His book ''The '' can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy's '' The Kreutzer Sonata'' (1889). It was also the work in which he introduced the concept of 'syzygy', to denote 'close union'.

Sophiology

Solovyov synthesized a philosophy based on

Hellenistic philosophy Hellenistic philosophy is a time-frame for Western philosophy and Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period. It is purely external and encompasses disparate intellectual content. There is no single philosophical school or cu ...

(see Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus) and early Christian tradition with Buddhist and Hebrew

Kabbalistic Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

elements ( Philo of Alexandria). He also studied Gnosticism and the works of the Gnostic

Valentinus Valentinus is a Roman masculine given name derived from the Latin word "valens" meaning "healthy, strong". It may refer to: People Churchmen *Pope Valentine (died 827) *Saint Valentine, one or more martyred Christian saints *Valentinus (Gnostic) ...

. His religious philosophy was syncretic and fused philosophical elements of various religious traditions with Orthodox Christianity and his own experience of

Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...

. Solovyov described his encounters with the entity Sophia in his works, such as ''Three Encounters'' and ''Lectures on Godmanhood''. His fusion was driven by the desire to reconcile and/or unite with Orthodox Christianity the various traditions by the Russian Slavophiles' concept of sobornost. His Russian religious philosophy had a very strong impact on the

Russian Symbolist Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It arose separately from European symbolism, emphasizing mysticism and ostranenie. Literature Influences Primary ...

art and poetry movements of the Silver Age and his written arguments in favor of the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Holy See played an instrumental role in the formation of the Russian Greek Catholic Church. His teachings on Sophia, conceived as the merciful unifying feminine wisdom of God comparable to the Hebrew Shekinah or various goddess traditions, have been deemed a heresy by

Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (russian: Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей, lit=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, translit=Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov' Zagranitsey), also called Ru ...

and as unsound and unorthodox by the Patriarchate of Moscow. This condemnation, however, was not agreed upon by other jurisdictions of the Orthodox church and was directed specifically against Sergius Bulgakov who continued to be defended by his own hierarch Metropolitan Evlogy until his death. In his 2005 forward to Solovyov’s ''Justification of the Good'', the Orthodox Christian theologian David Bentley Hart wrote a defense of Sophiology including a specific defense of Solovyov's later thought:

Sobornost

Vladimir Solovyov 1892 by Nikolay Yarochenko

Solovyov sought to create a philosophy that could through his system of logic or reason reconcile all bodies of knowledge or disciplines of thought, and fuse all conflicting concepts into a single system. The central component of this complete philosophic reconciliation was the Russian

Slavophile Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...

concept of ''sobornost'' (organic or

spontaneous order Spontaneous order, also named self-organization in the hard sciences, is the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos. The term "self-organization" is more often used for physical changes and biological processes, while "spontaneous o ...

through integration, which is related to the Russian word for 'catholic'). Solovyov sought to find and validate common ground, or where conflicts found common ground, and, by focusing on this common ground, to establish absolute unity and/or integral fusion of opposing ideas and/or peoples.

Death

Intense mental work shattered Solovyov's health.Zouboff, Peter P. (1944). ''Vladimir Solovyev's Lectures on Godmanhood''. International University Press. p. 14. "The passionate intensity of his mental work shattered his health. On the thirty-first of July, in "Uzkoye", the country residence of Prince P. N. Troubetskoy, near Moscow, he passed away in the arms of his close friend, Prince S. N. Troubetskoy." He died at the Moscow estate of Nikolai Petrovitch Troubetzkoy, where a relative of the latter, Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, was living. By 1900, Solovyov was apparently a

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

pauper. He left his brother, Mikhail Sergeevich, and several colleagues to defend and promote his intellectual legacy. He is buried at Novodevichy Convent.

Quotes

Selected works

English translations * ''The Heart of Reality: Essays on Beauty, Love, and Ethics''. University of Notre Dame Press, 2020. * ''The Burning Bush: Writings on Jews and Judaism'', Compiled 2016 by Lindisfarne Books,
''The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Positivists''
1874. Reprinted 1996 by Lindisfarne Books, * ''The Philosophical Principles of Integral Knowledge'' (1877) * ''The Critique of Abstract Principles'' (1877–80) * ''Lectures on Divine Humanity'' (1877–91) * ''The Russian Idea'', 1888. Translation published in 2015 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, *

' (novel), 1900. Reprinted 2012 by Kassock Bros. Publishing Co.,
''The Justification of the Good''
1918. Reprinted 2010 by Cosimo Classics,
''The Meaning of Love''. Reprinted 1985 by Lindisfarne Books

''War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ''
1915. Reprinted 1990 by Lindisfarne Books,
''Russia and the Universal Church''
. Reprinted 1948 by G. Bles. (Abridged version: ''The Russian Church and the Papacy'', 2002, Catholic Answers, ) * 103 pages

Bibliography

882 __NOTOC__ Year 882 (Roman numerals, DCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 20 – King Louis the Younger dies in Frankfurt. He ...

References

Footnotes

Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* *
Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900)
– entry on Solovyov at ''

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pape ...

'' * http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/end/antichrist.shtml
ALEXANDER II AND HIS TIMES: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky
Several chapters on Solovyov * http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/s/solovyov.htm * http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/soloviev/soloviev.html * http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/soloviev/biffi.html (address by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi)
Vladimir-Sergeyevich-Solovyov
// Britannica * http://www.valley.net/~transnat/solsoc.html * – excerpt from ''Three Conversations'' by Solovyov
Civil Society and National Religion: Problems of Church, State, and Society in the Philosophy of Vladimir Solov'ëv (1853–1900)
– research project at Centre for Russian Humanities Studies, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen * http://rumkatkilise.org/necplus.htm

* ttps://archive.org/details/bub_gb_R2kMAAAAIAAJ English translations of 2 poems by Babette Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky, 1921
"The Positive Unity: How Solovyov's Ethics Can Contribute to Constructing a Working Model for Business Ethics in Modern Russia"
by Andrey V. Shirin {{DEFAULTSORT:Solovyov, Vladimir 1853 births 1900 deaths Russian people of Polish descent Russian people of Ukrainian descent 19th-century Christian mystics 19th-century Christian theologians Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Christian philosophers Critics of atheism Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Imperial Moscow University alumni Pamphleteers People from Moscow Governorate Philosophers of literature Philosophers of mind Philosophers of love Philosophers of religion Platonists Russian male poets Russian Orthodox Christians from Russia Sophiology Writers from Moscow Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire