Published: 2024-07-15

Humanistic Dwelling vs. Existential Homelesness: The Ivanov – Gerschenzon Debate in the Light of Modern Historiosophy

Michał Kruszelnicki Logo ORCID

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michal-Kruszelnicki
Section: debates - confrontations - diagnoses
https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.14493

Abstract

The paper revisits the dialogue between Vyacheslav Ivanov and Mikhail Gershenzon in order to present two essentially different orientations in the approach to humanistic heritage and its meaning in human life. The first of these two perspectives is represented by V. Ivanov who feels amongst the great works of culture “at home,” who praises their charms and spiritual-aesthetic riches. The second perspective – as evoked by Gershenzon – is more pessimistic, existentially inclined, filled with tragic awareness. It points out to the problem of crucial importance to the historiosophical self-awareness of modernity: the accumulation of cultural knowledge and the release of theoretical reflection have alienated the human being and cast it into existential homelessness. The paper further argues that (1) there exists an irreducible hiatus between culture and the reality with its power of negativity, and that (2) the ambassadors of culture, such as Ivanov, conceal this hiatus in an attempt to convince us that theoretical humanistic reflection intensifies our perception of the world, while in Gersenzhon’s historiosophical view it ruins the immediacy and spontaneity of life.

Download files

Citation rules

Kruszelnicki, M. (2024). Humanistic Dwelling vs. Existential Homelesness: The Ivanov – Gerschenzon Debate in the Light of Modern Historiosophy. Er(r)go. Theory - Literature - Culture, (48), 213–232. https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.14493

Cited by / Share

No. 48 (2024)
Published: 2024-08-23


ISSN: 1508-6305
eISSN: 2544-3186
Ikona DOI 10.31261/errgo

Publisher
University of Silesia Press | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego i Wydawnictwo Naukowe "Śląsk"

This website uses cookies for proper operation, in order to use the portal fully you must accept cookies.