Lev Karsavin 1882 – 1952
Lev Platonovich Karsavin was a Russian Orthodox religious philosopher, medieval historian, and one of the most original metaphysicians of the Russian religious renaissance. After early scholarly work on the medieval religious movements of Italy, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1922 with the Philosophers' Ship and settled at the University of Kaunas in Lithuania, where he produced his Philosophy of History, On Personality, and many essays. His characteristic doctrine of all-unity and symphonic personhood developed Solovyov's themes in an original direction. Arrested by the Soviet authorities after the annexation of Lithuania, he died in 1952 in a labor camp in Komi.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Russian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental, Christian
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to Lev Karsavin:
“All-unity is the structure of being and the law of love.”
-
Attributed to Lev Karsavin:
“Personality is the bearer of metaphysical reality.”
-
Attributed to Lev Karsavin:
“History is the struggle of all-unity to realize itself in time.”
-
Attributed to Lev Karsavin:
“The nation is a personality of higher order, included in the universal.”
-
Attributed to Lev Karsavin:
“Symphonic personhood unites uniqueness and communion.”