Karsavin’s Principle: Peculiarities of Reading the Cultural and Educational Strategy in the Article “On Pedagogy”

The article is an analytical essay that precedes L.P. Karsavin’s (1882—1952) work “On Pedagogy”. Despite its mention in bibliographies, it is virtually unknown, as it was published only once in 1926 in a journal with a sporadic circulation. The authors of the preface offer their view on the features that should be taken into account for a better understanding of Lev Karsavin’s religious and philosophical thought and reveal the circumstances of his biography that served as a basis for addressing the topics of education. The central motive of the research preface is the relevance of Karsavin’s ideas for modernity. Among them, the importance of the value hierarchy of theoretical ideas for the development of Russian culture stands out. Karsavin called it the collective notion of the “unified principle” of educational organisation. It is he who ensures the integrity of Russian culture and its “genuine development”. According to the philosopher’s conviction, Orthodox doctrine and Orthodox dogmatics should become such a principle: they have for centuries defined and guided Russian culture, nurtured the spiritual values of Russia’s national consciousness and its traditions. On the contrary, the dogmatic errors of the Western churches have led to individualism, a cult of vices, and socio-cultural deformations. In the opinion of the authors of the essay, many provisions of this and other works by Karsavin also outline the trajectory of the development of Russian cultural theory, and represent elements of the methodological justification of it as a synthetic (or hybrid) discipline, capable of integrating the potential of theology and philosophy of culture and social sciences, without rejecting the accumulated positive heritage of Soviet and Russian cultural studies schools.