Konstantin Leontiev’s “Ascetic Philosophy”: Thesaurus and Context

Abstract

A holistic and close study of journalism, works of art and letters of K. N. Leontiev allows the author of the article to show the formation of the writer’s views, designated by him at the end of his life with the words “my ascetic philosophy”, the context they existed in and his vocabulary changes. The work discusses Leontiev’s creative, philosophical and personal interest to the issues of life of the spirit, the dynamics of his views, it is shown, how in the 1860s Leontiev comes from an aesthetic interest in the Church and its political defense in consular posts to a thirst for faith. The author pays special attention to the idea and concept of obedience, which are associated with Leontiev's idea of ​​“transcendental egoism”, focusing on personal salvation. Behind the idea of ​​obedience, Leontiev thinks about self-condemnation. The writer and thinker clearly explains the interdependence and interdependence of two principles, the “world” and the “monastery”; for Leontiev, monastery culture becomes a synonym for Orthodox culture. Leontiev tried to introduce ascetic principles of discipline and “sobriety” into his own artistic creation, and not only into content, but also into “performance”, applying in practice the rules that he formulated later in his famous article Analysis, Style and Trends.

Keywords

• konstantin leontiev
• russian literature
• philosophy
• christian asceticism
• obedience
• morality