Berdyaev's âSense of Creativityâ is one of his most significant philosophical works, which the author himself valued almost more than anyone else. This book was written by the great political and religious philosopher in 1912-1914. At the same time, it was first published only in 1916. It is worth noting that it was created when the author was virtually alienated from the metropolitan Orthodox environment in response to the works of Marx, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and other thinkers of his time. The philosopher himself considered this work to be the most inspirational, since in it for the first time he managed to formulate his own original philosophical thought.
Philosopher's Biography
Prior to The Meaning of Creativity, Berdyaev had written more than one significant work. The philosopher was born in 1874 in the Kiev province. Received initial home education, then studied in the cadet corps. He began to receive higher education at the natural faculty of Kiev University, and then entered the law.
In 1897 he was arrested for participating in student unrest, exiled to Vologda. Since 1899, began to be published in the Marxist press. In 1901, his article "The struggle for idealism" was published, after the publication of which he became one of the leading figures of the revolutionary intelligentsia. He participated in the creation of the Liberation Union and its activities.
In 1913, he was sentenced to exile in Siberia for an article called âSpirit Suppressors,â in which he defended Athos monks. However, the verdict was never carried out due to the outbreak of the First World War, the subsequent revolution. Instead of Siberia, he again carried out the exile in the Vologda province.
Until 1922, when he was expelled from Soviet Russia, the philosopher wrote many articles and books, but of them N. A. Berdyaev appreciated âThe Meaning of Creativityâ and âThe Meaning of Historyâ. He was an iconic figure during the Silver Age, founded the "Free Academy of Spiritual Culture".
Life in exile
The creativity of Nikolai Berdyaev was not appreciated by the Bolsheviks. He was arrested twice. In 1922, when the philosopher was under arrest, they said that he was being expelled from the country, and would be shot if he tried to return.
Having left on the âphilosophical steamboatâ, Nikolai Alexandrovich first settled in Berlin. In 1924, he moved to Paris, where he lived until his death.
At that time he was one of the ideologists of the Russian student Christian movement, edited the magazine of Russian religious thought "The Way", and participated in the philosophical process.
Among his most significant works written in exile, it is worth noting the New Middle Ages, On Slavery and Human Freedom, and the Russian Idea. From 1942 to 1948, he was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in literature, but never received the award.
In 1946, Soviet citizenship was returned to him, but he did not return to the USSR. In 1948, at the age of 74, he died in his office in a suburb of Paris from a broken heart.
Freedom from the world
Freedom from the world is the main requirement that Berdyaev puts forward in "The Meaning of Creativity." In this book, the philosopher seeks to consider all sorts of aspects of creativity.
Under his close attention are mysticism, being, beauty, love, faith, morality. It is worth noting that no matter how vast his legacy is, perhaps the main theme in him remains creativity. The full title of this book by N. A. Berdyaev is "The Meaning of Creativity. The Experience of the Justification of Man." Researchers believe that this is the most secret of his work. In it, he talks about the transition to a new religious era, which he calls the era of the Third Testament. In it, according to the philosopher, a person will finally reveal himself as a creator.
This theory, set forth in Berdyaev's The Meaning of Creativity, was based on the Old and New Testaments, in which there is nothing about creativity. The philosopher considered this a great silence, the meaning of which he is to reveal.
Property of being
In the book of Nikolai Berdyaev "The Meaning of Creativity" there is not a word about boredom, although it is certainly familiar to every creator. Of course, in this context we are not talking about sad sighs behind a mediocre book, but about the ability to hear and listen to boredom.
In philosophy, almost no one wrote about this feeling. In 1999, a small treatise, The Philosophy of Boredom, was published by the Norwegian Lars Svendsen. In it, he interprets boredom as an inalienable property of our being, as a real form of time, and not just a state of mind or mood. Recognizing the lack of research in this area, the Norwegian philosopher admits that if boredom cannot be taken seriously in philosophy, then this is an occasion to think about its fate.
For Berdyaev, boredom became the very silence that he did not mention in his work. Interestingly, the thinker himself often did not consider himself an academic philosopher, skeptical of people who called themselves that. For him, it was a special art, the so-called art of cognition.
The theme of boredom is very familiar to art very well, especially if we are talking about romanticism, which in many respects gave rise to it. Prior to this, readers and writers were more familiar with the usual apathy, longing or tiredness from life. Berdyaev was an unconditional romantic, but at the same time he did not write about boredom.
It is known that he was always proud of his aristocratic origin, but kept silent about boredom, even considering that this is a very aristocratic feeling, not peculiar to plebeians. Instead, Nikolai Berdyaev devotes his entire book, âThe Meaning of Creativity,â to the justification of everything that a person makes, to be creative, it is through him that he improves the world.
Change of mind
It is worth noting that the work itself was of rather great importance in the work of the thinker. In the book "The Meaning of Creativity. The Experience of Justification of Man" Berdyaev summarizes a certain result of his previous searches, opening up the prospect of his own original and independent philosophy.
It is interesting that the entire book was created during the conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church, with which the thinker had a confrontation. At the same time, he enters into a real controversy with the propagandists of Orthodox modernism, primarily with the Merezhkovsky group, which was oriented towards the ideal of the religious community, as well as with the sophiologists Florensky and Bulgakov.
The book "The meaning of creativity. The experience of justification of man" Berdyaev turned out to be very extraordinary. She was received with interest in Russian philosophical and religious circles. Rozanov reacted very actively to it, who emphasized that, in comparison with all the previous works of the author, one can see a certain result in this, the philosopher brings his ideas and proposals to a certain common denominator.
Philosophical Synthesis
Noteworthy are the conditions under which the "Meaning of Creativity" was created by Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev. He spends the winter of 1912-1913 in Italy with his wife, poetess Lydia Yudifovna Trusheva. It was from there that he brought the first pages and the very concept of the new book, which was finally completed in February 1914.
Society evaluated Berdyaevâs philosophy in âThe Meaning of Creativityâ immediately after the publication of the book in 1916. In it, the author noted that his usual religious philosophy was first set out quite consciously. It is believed that he succeeded only because the very principle of building philosophy by identifying the depths of personal experience was unambiguously recognized by him as the only possible way to cosmic universalism, which he also called universal.
In the work and philosophy of Berdyaev, this work plays a big role, because in it the thinker decides on a bold and very original experiment. He connects the medieval mysticism of Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, as well as Nietzscheâs nihilism, Baaderâs anthropology, modern occultism, to this classic traditions of Russian philosophy, in this case Schreiner's anthroposophy is given as an example.
At first, it seemed that Berdyaevâs philosophy of freedom in The Meaning of Creativity would maximize the boundaries of philosophical synthesis, creating additional, possibly insurmountable difficulties for the author. However, he went on this quite consciously. By that time, he already owned the key to the harmonization of significant historical, cultural, philosophical and religious material, which lay at the basis of the "Sense of Creativity." The philosophy of freedom of Berdyaev, substantiated in this work, has become the principle of the so-called anthropodicy. So the thinker himself calls the justification of man through creativity and in creativity itself.
For him, it was a decisive rejection of traditionalism, as well as theodicy, which at one time was considered the key task of Christian consciousness, a refusal to recognize the revelation and completeness of creation. As a result, it was a man who turned out to be at the center of being, determining the general outline of his fundamentally new metaphysics, presented as a concept of monopluralism. The problem of freedom in the works of Berdyaev is considered as detailed as possible. The central core of this work is the idea of ââcreativity as a revelation of man, as a creation that continues with God.
It was this concept that formed the basis of Berdyaevâs âSense of Creativityâ. The analysis of this work should be based precisely on this thesis. As a result, the author manages to clarify as clearly and thoroughly the basis of his philosophical and religious concept as possible, to express it most adequately and clearly.
Creative freedom
Berdyaevâs creative problem becomes the main one in this work. Speaking of it, the thinker largely repeats the ideas of Hegel and Kant on the interaction of creativity and freedom.
As the philosopher notes, creativity always exists inseparably from freedom. Only a free man could actually create. If a person tries to create something out of necessity, this can only give birth to evolution, and creativity is born exclusively out of complete freedom. When a person begins to talk about this in his imperfect language, understanding creativity from nothing, then in reality refers to creativity born of freedom. This is one of the main thoughts of Berdyaev, embedded in this work.
The so-called human creativity, born from "nothing", does not mean the absence of resisting material. It confirms only absolute non-deterministic profit. But only evolution is determined, in this case, creativity does not follow from anything previous. Speaking about the freedom of creativity, personality, N. Berdyaev noted that it is one of the main and inexplicable secrets of mankind. The thinker identifies his secret with the secret of freedom. And in turn, the secret of freedom is inexplicable and bottomless, it is a real abyss.
The mystery of creativity itself is just as inexplicable and bottomless. People who decide to deny the possibility of the existence of creativity from "nothing" are inevitably obliged to place it in a deterministic series. Thus, they reject his freedom. Speaking of freedom in creativity, Berdyaev means the mysterious and inexplicable power to create from ânothingâ, non-deterministically, adding the individualâs energy to the worldâs energy cycle.
The act of creative freedom, according to Berdyaev, is transcendental in relation to the world given, to the vicious circle of world energy. He breaks through the deterministic chain of world energy. Berdyaev writes about this freedom in The Meaning of Creativity. The authorâs philosophy is considered from the point of view of the world given. At the same time, the fearful denial of the existence of creativity from ânothingâ is considered submission to determinism, and obedience is a necessity. Creator, according to the thinker, seeks from within a person. It arises from its inexplicable and bottomless depths, and not from a global need from somewhere outside.
In this case, the very desire to make a creative act understandable, as well as to find grounds for it, is his misunderstanding. To understand a creative act becomes possible only by recognizing its groundlessness and inexplicability. Any attempt to rationalize creativity leads to an attempt to rationalize freedom itself. This is attempted by those who recognize it, while denying determinism itself. At the same time, the rationalization of freedom, in fact, is already determinism, since at the same time there is a denial of the bottomless secret of freedom. Freedom, according to the philosopher, is ultimate; it is impossible to deduce from anything or reduce it to anything. Freedom is the foundationless being, becoming deeper than being itself. It is impossible to reach the rationally tangible bottom of freedom. It is a bottomless deep well, and at the bottom of it is the last mystery.
At the same time, freedom cannot be considered a negative ultimate concept that only indicates a boundary that cannot be crossed rationally. Freedom itself is meaningful and positive. This is not a denial of determinism and necessity. Freedom Berdyaev is not considered the kingdom of chance and arbitrariness as opposed to the kingdom of necessity and law. The philosopher was convinced that the secret of freedom was not realized by those who saw in it only a certain form of spiritual determination, internal, and not external. Thus, everything that is generated by the reasons underlying the human spirit inside it is considered free. This is the most acceptable and rational explanation. While freedom remains unacceptable and irrational. Due to the fact that the human spirit enters into the natural order, everything is determined in it in the same way as in all natural phenomena. As a result, the spiritual is no less determinate than anything material. In particular, in this place Berdyaev cites as an example the Hindu doctrine of Karma, which he also compares with the form of spiritual determinism. Karmic incarnation is unfamiliar with freedom. In the end, only the human spirit remains free, as much as it remains supernatural.
As a result, Berdyaevâs determinism is understood as a form of natural being, which becomes inevitable. At the same time, this is a form of human existence as a natural being, when causality in a person becomes not physical, but spiritual. In the determinate order of nature, creativity is not possible. Only evolution remains possible.
Supernatural creature
Talking about creativity and freedom, the philosopher comes to the conclusion that man is a supernatural being. This means that he is not only a physical and mental being in the natural sense of these concepts. Man, according to Berdyaev, is a supernatural spirit, a free microcosm.
As a result, materialism and spiritualism see in man only a natural being, although they do not deny his spirituality. In reality, he submits to spiritual determinism, just as materialism submits to material. Freedom becomes not only a product of spiritual phenomena from those that preceded in the same being. It is creative positive power, which is not conditioned or substantiated by anything, pours from a certain bottomless source. The philosopher concludes that freedom is based on the ability to create from nothing, from oneself, and not from the natural world around.
Creative act
Much attention is paid to the creative act, which becomes overcoming and liberation for the creator. An experience of power is felt in it. To discover one's own creative act does not mean to demonstrate lyrical outpouring or passive suffering. Pain, horror, death and relaxation should lose to creativity, be defeated by it. Creativity - this is the main outcome, the way out leading to victory. The sacrifice of creativity cannot be considered horror or death. Sacrifice itself is not passive, but active. Crisis, lyrical tragedy, fate are experienced by man as a tragedy, this is his path.
Fear of personal death and concern for personal salvation are selfish in nature. Immersed in a crisis of personal creativity and fear of their own powerlessness are proud. Proud and selfish immersion means a painful fragmentation of the world and man.
The Creator created a man of genius, and he must reveal genius in himself with creative activity, defeating the proud and selfish. In its primary principle, human nature is understood through the Absolute Man of Christ. Moreover, she has already become the nature of the New Adam, reunited with the Divine nature. After that, she no longer feels isolated and divorced. Suppression is considered a sin against divine calling, against God's need for man, his call.
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At the same time, the concept of âcreaturehood of beingâ appears. The increase is talking about creativity and the creator himself. Moreover, in a twofold sense, as a Creator, creator of created being, and creativity itself in it. The philosopher claims that the world was created not only created, but also creative. How does he prove this? Without a creative act, the world would not know anything about creativity and would not be capable of it. Penetration into the createdness of being turns into an awareness of the opposite between emanation and creativity. If the world was created by God, then the creative act itself and all creativity are considered justified. But if the world only emanates from God, then creativity itself and a creative act can be considered unjustified.
According to Berdyaev, nothing disappears in true creativity, everything only arrives, just as God's creativity does not decrease divine power due to its transition to the earthly world. On the contrary, new power arrives. As a result, as the philosopher believed, creativity is not a transition of a certain force to a different state, but it draws attention to the positions allocated to it, such as creativity and creatureiness. In this case, it is possible to assume that it is precisely these positions that Berdyaev sees as phenonyms. As a result, we can conclude that createdness is creativity. As a result, the world is creativity. In this case, it manifests itself everywhere, even in the culture of everyday life.
At present, one can fully get acquainted with this problem in the two-volume work of Berdyaev, "Philosophy of Creativity, Culture, and Art." The first volume includes his essay "The Meaning of Creativity", and the second includes works on literature and art. This is âNew Thebaidâ, âThe World View of Dostoevskyâ, âAboutâ the Eternally Indian âin the Russian Soulâ, âTragedy and Ordinanceâ, âThe Crisis of Artâ, âOvercoming Decadenceâ, âRussian Temptationâ and many others.
Significant work
Speaking about the works of the philosopher, it is necessary to highlight several of his significant works that will help to understand his thoughts and ideas in full. In 1946, the Russian Idea appeared in Berdyaevâs work . This is a programmatic work, representing a definite result of his many thoughts on the historical fate of his country, the Russian soul, and the religious calling of its people.
The main question that the thinker seeks to investigate is what exactly the Creator intended when creating Russia. To characterize the Russian idea, he uses the concept of "communitarianism", considering it fundamental. In it, he covers the secular and religious content of the concepts of collegiality and community. All this is summarized in the idea of ââGod-manhood.
Berdyaev notes that in the Russian idea, individual salvation becomes impossible, since salvation must be communitarian, that is, everyone becomes responsible for everyone. The idea of ââa brotherhood of peoples and people seems to him the most realistic. The philosopher also notes that the Russian idea is religious, it reflects the characteristics of the national spirit, which is permeated by atheism, the atheistic moods, materialism, nihilism. Prone to paradoxical thinking, Berdyaev notes the conflict of the Russian idea with Russian history, a large number of contradictions that have appeared over the entire existence of his people. At the same time, he emphasizes that with all the desire for unity and integrity, he regularly comes to pluralism and further fragmentation.
In 1947, another work, significant for the understanding of the philosopher, âThe Experience of Eschalotic Metaphysics. Creativity and Objectificationâ was published. Berdyaev in it considers several problems that he considers fundamental. Among them are the problem of being and existence, the problem of objectification and cognition, the problem of eschatology and history. He also writes about the so-called mystery of novelty, creativity and being.