The Dialectics of Slavery: From Patristic to Russian Philosophical Thought

The theme of slavery remains an inexhaustible source of speculation in Russian humanitarian thought. They are associated with the opposition of the understanding of slavery in the Christian sense (“slave of God”) and in the socio-historical sense, substantiated by the dialectic of G. W. F. Hegel and the conscious possibility of “domination” or overcoming the fear of death. Patristic thought reveals the phenomenon of slavery as the first spiritual stage of connection with physis and notes its importance in the fight against bodily passions, understanding the need for suffering and compassion for moving towards a genuine anthropological image. Russian thought, continuing the patristic one, focuses on the spiritual transformation of the “slavish”, contrasting it with the “free” principle. Freedom together with justice and conscience become the most important spiritual points of movement for Russian self-consciousness.