“Tchaadaev's Paradigm” in the Intellectual Search for the Bengali Renaissance

The phenomenon of resemblance between the meaning and content of the intellectual search by Modern Eastern thinkers and Pyotr Tchaadaev’s social-philosophical thought is considered in the article. Based on a juxtaposition of his works and Modern Indian thinkers, the author substantiates the methodological value of Tchaadaev’s heritage for Oriental studies. The thinking paradigm had been created in Lettres Philosophique and other texts by Tchaadaev; it was founded in different cultural areas of the East in the beginning of Modernization and the meeting of traditional societies with the West and, therefore, it could serve as the model of juxtaposition. Tchaadaev’s Paradigm originates from the thinking features in the space of society that involves interaction with the West: religiosity, correlation and understanding of the Other in dialogue, a critical attitude towards society’s condition. The first principle to indicate the paradigm is the strict adherence to principles of truth in verifying all ideas and judgments. The base of Tchaadaev’s philosophical approach is the principle of universality (catholicity) of the spiritual and social world; and because of this, the national (the Own – country, tradition, people, culture) is considered as one special part of a universal whole – humanity, and the question of foundational differences between distinct societies is raised. The foundational questions include the spiritual and cultural traditions of peoples in their development in history that help explain the present condition and features of the Own and to predict its future. The method of posing the problem is a correlation of the Own with the Other, ‘our’ with the ‘universal’, in an East – West context. ‘Tchaadaev’s questions’ are asked and certain themes are raised to discover the critical cognition of the Own in the process of correlation. There are two levels of philosophizing in the paradigm. The first is religious, to ground the religious-philosophical foundation of thinking based on native tradition. The second level is social philosophizing based on understanding and interpretation of the Own, such as tradition, history, people, and their development in time and modern condition. The image of the Own is created in self-cognition with clearly outlined advantages and disadvantages, values and ideas, a role and a place in world history, and the perspectives of the future are defined.