EPISTEMOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE NOTION OF WHOLENESS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SLAVOPHILES

Abstract

The article discusses epistemological constructions of Slavophile thinkers concerning the idea of holism. The concepts of holistic thinking and hyperlogical knowledge are revealed. The idea is emphasized that it is a holistic, spiritual mind that makes the cognition of God possible, which is the utmost task of thinking. The authors argue that Slavophiles connect such types of knowledge as heart knowledge, intuition and faith with the idea of holistic thinking. The specificity of Slavophiles’ views is that in the context of reasoning about irrational forms of cognition they introduce the theme of love. And the truth, according to them, is available only for the totality of minds connected by love. Using historical, analytical, dialectical and systematic methods of research, the authors come to the conclusion that the connection of irrational forms of knowledge with the idea of holism is an important feature not only for Slavophiles, but also for the whole Russian philosophy. The relevance of the subject-matter lies in the fact that at present, in the era of sharp social transformations and predominance of postmodernism, the idea of integrity in cognition becomes very important because any historical planning is impossible without integrity in cognition.