Jerzy Kapuścik

The problem of good as conceptualised by Vladimir Solovyov
Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), a great Russian philosopher of religion, in his concept of all-unity assumed an integrity of a human being and his natural drive towards realization of an ideal of good, truth and beauty. He was voicing a belief that these values, being an ethical imperative, should be rooted in foundations of faith in that morality, hidden inside us and manifested through conscience and reason, synthetizes everything that a person does. Believing that good – in nature, in a human being, society and history – has a Devine provenance, the philosopher was also emphasizing the need for action which proves a human calling to fulfil what is good – on every level of participation in life. This belief, shaken a bit towards the end of the philosopher’s life as a result of his difficult life experiences, remained strong enough to find its expression in the last decade of the 19th century in an important treatise The Justification of the Good (Оправдание добра), which to a significant degree is an attempt to “deal with” I. Kant’s moral teaching, based on rational premises, and amoralism of F. Nietzsche. This article outlines Solovyov’s perspective on ethics, which having evolved in his work, has as a result gained a status of a separate discipline.

Synthetism – the Basic Idea of the Russian Silver Age
The article is an attempt at complex apprehension of the synthesis concept existing in Russian literature during the Silver Age. At the turn of the 19th century, Russian authors, endeavoured to unite any forms and aspects of human activity, giving a complete – one that was not divided into separate areas, such as science, religion, philosophy, art – image of the world. The paper emphasizes that the synthesis concept, having native religious origin, acquired wide support from religiously oriented Russian thinkers (Vladimir Solovyov, Nikolai Fyodorov, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Pavel Florensky). They perceived the world as marked by God’s element called constitutional unity i.e. a unity bonding truth, goodness and beauty. Following Solovyov, renown artists wished to express the unity of the world by using symbols picturing connection between the visible and the invisible, the accustomed and the mysterious, the reasonable and the unreasonable. The art – especially poetry and music practised by inspired artists, becomes – in imitation of the Richard Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk concept – an important area of cognition unifying both the ethical and aesthetic tasks.