Region: | Russian philosophy |
Era: | 20th-century philosophy |
Boris Vysheslavtsev | |
Birth Name: | Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev |
Birth Date: | October 1877 |
Birth Place: | Moscow, Russian Empire |
Death Date: | October 5, 1954 (aged 76) |
Death Place: | Geneva, Switzerland |
School Tradition: | Russian Religious Renaissance |
Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev (Russian: Бори́с Петро́вич Вышесла́вцев; 1877– October 5, 1954) was a Russian philosopher who belonged to the Russian Silver Age and Renaissance of Religion and Philosophy.[1]
He did his doctorate on Fichte in 1914[2] and became a lecturer, later professor in the philosophy of law at Moscow University. In September 1922, he became one of a group of prominent writers, scholars and intellectuals who were sent into forced exile on the so-called "philosophers' ships".[3] He emigrated first to Berlin, then in 1924 to Paris. He spent most of his life at the Orthodox Theological Institute.[4] While in Paris, he published the book The Ethics of a Transfigured Eros (1931). This book deals with the Christianisation of Freudian sublimation and is universally considered Vysheslavtsev's best work.[5] He is noted for an attempt to apply concepts of depth psychology to ethics and to the interpretation of Christian doctrine.[6]
During World War II, Vysheslavtsev collaborated with the Nazis, helping them write anti-Soviet propaganda. After the war, he fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution.[7]
Available in English translation: