Philosophy of the Russian Rosicrucians of the Late 18th – Early 19th Centuries and the Universalist Worldview

Abstract

The article focuses on the growing host of social, natural and environmental problems faced by human civilization at the beginning of this century. It is emphasized that a systemic set of generalized human views of the world, of oneself in it and of one’s relationships with it, i.e. worldview, can help to fully understand these problems and find ways, methods and forms of overcoming the general crisis (the exacerbation of these problems) through proper beliefs, orientations of beliefs, value attitudes and practical regulators. The author points out that it is necessary to form a new worldview that is most capable of reflecting reality and organizing activities in accordance with the changing world. The previous forms of worldview – holism, merism and religious onecentrism – are becoming obsolete due to the loss of relevance of reduction to the whole, part or the one, respectively. It is proposed to create a new worldview based on the traditional worldview of universalism, which is understood as a type of holism absolutizing the universal whole (the universe). The new universalism (meta-universalism), unlike traditional universalism, should be characterized by genuine non-reductionism, which is achieved through the interpenetration of the meanings of the concepts of one, whole, many, singular and unique. This fusion is ensured by the principle of convergence and the optimization procedure, structurally and functionally matching the potentials of the meanings of these concepts for their converging into a single concept, an “alloy” of a single whole, manifested in a separate, individual part. These methodological features are most consistent with modern objective reality, which means they allow one to create a worldview that is as adequate as possible to the changes taking place in nature and society. This is a contribution to the development of a philosophical methodology for the study and resolution of complex social and socio-natural, including global, problems of our time. The origins of such a worldview are traced to the ideas of the Russian Rosicrucians of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (primarily, in their metaphysics, ontology and epistemology). The article substantiates the universalist character of many of the Rosicrucians’ views.