Vladimir Solovyov is the greatest Russian philosopher of the 19-20 century. What is its uniqueness? Soloviev received an excellent education, was well versed in many areas, was able to successfully synthesize knowledge from various industries and combine them into a single concept. His works had a great influence on the philosophy of that time. Its main achievement is the creation of the idea of the unity of being, which is relevant in our modern world. Let's consider this question in more detail.
Soloviev’s philosophy of total unity consists of many important postulates. Let's try to formulate the main ones. In Soloviev’s conception, two opposite poles are connected. The philosopher writes about such a thing as an absolute being. What it is? Absolute being exists in two planes. This is all and nothing at the same time. The absolute being is devoid of all forms, it cannot be anything. At the same time, this definition includes everything that exists. There is nothing beyond the bounds of absolute being. That is, nothing that is is everything.
The first pole is free from material forms, it exists only in the form of something, not yet expressed, it is a potential, an idea. He “lives” above all existence. The second pole, on the contrary, appears before us in all the variety of its forms. The absolute can be designated as unity. It is already there. The whole world, this is just becoming unity. These two poles are inextricably linked.
Solovyov’s philosophy of total unity puts forward the thesis that the absolute is impossible to imagine without direct manifestation in the material world. That is, these two poles generate themselves and flow smoothly into each other. The all-one, which is still becoming, can be called the soul of the world, its main divine element.
God, according to Soloviev, has a twofold unity. That is why there is such a thing as a holy trinity.
Soloviev’s philosophy of total unity destroys the idea of creating the world. According to the great thinker, God, in principle, cannot exist without humanity, because they are inextricably linked, it is practically one whole, divided into two poles.
In addition, it is worth noting Soloviev’s thesis that the personality of the individual is the root of all world problems. Why did the philosopher make such a conclusion? It must be remembered that Vladimir Soloviev believed that humanity is, one might say, a single organism. The triumph of individuality repels individuals from each other. Egoism prevents to fully embody the idea of the unity of all things, as the ideal of the world.
Here you can draw an analogy with the ideas of another great thinker Schopenhauer. Soloviev’s philosophy of total unity denies individuality, isolation of personality. Schopenhauer called the same problem self-affirmation, which forces people to oppose themselves to all of humanity. The Russian thinker sees a way out for everyone to strive to free themselves from the hard paths of isolation and individuation.
What does Vladimir Solovyov’s philosophy of total unity “say” about the immortality of the soul? Here, his ideas, again, are sufficiently contrary to Christian dogma. The philosopher denied the idea of the immortality of the individual soul of the individual. He wrote about the eternal man, as a universal individuality, which is one among all people, and not isolated. Here you can indicate another interesting point. The philosophy of all-unity excludes the importance of one person. Moreover, according to a similar system, a separate person is just an abstraction. However, Vladimir Solovyov recognizes humanity in its unity as one real reality that can only be.