Scholarly record
PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RUSSIA
Abstract
The history of happiness in the European Enlightenment is well researched and studied. In eighteenth-century Russia the problem of happiness was also one of the central philosophical issues of the time, as were questions about the meaning of human life and human nature. Nevertheless, the concept of Russian happiness was on the periphery of humanitarian thought. This paper deals with philosophical aspects of happiness presented in eighteenth-century Russian literature; the main goal of the article is to identify the major interpretations of happiness and to analyse the logic of change in conceptions. Seeking happiness moves along different trajectories throughout the Russian Enlightenment. Two main types of happiness presented in the Russian written works of the time are public happiness and individual happiness. Public (universal) happiness is thought attainable by the foundation of a just society. Development of this type of happiness goes in two directions: the first is the positive (perfect) direction, such as in the solemn odes (Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Petrov), happiness, as well as utopias, are conceived as having already been achieved in Russia, represented in the model of an ideal society that exists in a dream (Sumarokov), on the Moon (Levshin) or on the edge of the world (Shcherbatov). The second direction is accusatory or satirical, for example, satires (Kantemir) and odes “to happiness” (translations of the ode by G.-B. Rousseau). Personal (private) happiness is achievable in different ways, through: an escape from a society; the harmony of love and friendship; wealth or career (L'vov, Nicolev, Murav'ov, Kheraskov, Kapnist, Karamzin). True happiness in Russian culture is endowed with an important temporal characteristic: it must be constant, eternal. That is why by the end of the eighteenth century Russian thinkers and writers came to the conclusion that true – absolute – happiness could only be found in Heaven and there is no happiness on Earth.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References9
Murray O., Price S. The Greek City from Homer to Alexander / Ed. O. Murray and S. Price. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Pp. xv, 372. 19 figures, 4 plates.; Festjuzh'er A.-Zh. Lichnaja religija grekov / Per. s angl., komment. i ukazatel' S. V. Pahomova. SPb.: Aletejja, 2000, 253 pp.; Svencickaja I.S. Schast'e i gore u drevnih grekov // Kazus 2002. Individual'noe i unikal'noe v istorii, issue 4. M.: OGI, 2002, pp. 16-25.
Patch H.R. The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature. N.Y, 1967 (the first edition 1927), pp. 4-161; Doren A. Fortuna im Mittelalter und in der Renaissance // Vortrage der Bibliothek Warburg. Berlin, Leipzig, 1924, pp. 71-144; Kudrjavcev O. F. Predstavlenija o fortune v srednie veka i v jepohu Vozrozhdenija / O. F. Kudrjavcev, V. I. Ukolova // Vzaimosvjaz' social'nyh otnoshenij i ideologii v srednevekovoj Evrope. M.: In-t vseobshhej istorii AN SSSR, 1983, pp. 174-201; Ukolova V.I. Fortuna v mire zapadnogo Srednevekov'ja // Vestnik istorii, literatury, iskusstva. Otd-nie ist.-filol. nauk RAN. M.: Sobranie; Nauka. V. 1, 2005, pp. 174-184.
Mauzi R. L’idee du bonheur au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1960, pp. 725; Potkay A. The Passion for Happiness: Samuel Jonson and David Hume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000, pp. 241; Adam Potkay A. Narrative Possibilities of Happiness, Unhappiness, and Joy // Social Research 77, 2 (summer 2010), pp. 523-544; Kavanagh T. Esthetics of the Moment: Literature and Art in the French Enlightenment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996, pp. 294; Kavanagh T., Norton B.M. Fiction and the Philosophy of Happiness: Ethical Inquiries in the Age of Enlightenment (Transits: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850). Bucknell University Press, 2014, pp. 159.
Kosheleva O.E. Rakursy «shhast'ja» v Rossii XVII-XVIII vekov // Kazus 2002. Individual'noe i unikal'noe v istorii, issue 4. M.: OGI, 2002, pp. 108-117; Abramzon T. Leibniz’s combinatorial idea and the literary experiences by A. Sumarokov // SGEM International Multidisciplinary Scietific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts. 1-10 September, 2014 (Albena, Bulgaria). Anthropology, Archaeology, History, Philosophy. Conference proceedings. Bulgaria, 2014, pp. 777-785; Abramzon T. O zabavnoj Fortune v russkoj pojezii XVIII veka // Jumor i satira v koordinatah XXI veka. I Mezhdunarodnoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferencii 1 aprelja 2015. Sbornik nauchnyh statej. Varna, Bulgaria. Varna, 2015, pp. 5-10.
Kantemir A. Collected Works. Leningrad, 1956, pp. 151-152.
Trediakovsky V. Sonet iz seya grecheskiya rechi <>, to yest dobrodetel pochitayuschih venchayet (Sonnet on this Greek speech <>, that crowns those who revere virtue) // Trudolyubivaya pchela, 1759, Mart, pp. 187-188; Anonym. V kraynostyah terpeniye polzuet (In exigence patience cures) // Ezhemesyachnyie sochineniya (Monthly Notes), №2, 1755, pp. 139-140; Anonym. Yepistola k G* (Epistola to G*) // Ezhemesyachnyie sochineniya, №4, 1755, pp. 299-306; Dubrovsky A. Na oslepleniye strastyami (On blinding with passions) // Ezhemesyachnyie sochineniya, 1755, № 8, pp. 127-140; Kheraskov M. Ode to Mr. V* // Ezhemesyachnyie sochineniya, 1755, №8, pp. 162-165.
Rousseau J.-B. OEvres. A Bruxelles (Paris), MDCCXLIII (1743). V. I, pp. 94.
Zhizn' i prikljuchenija Andreja Bolotova, opisannye im samim: V 3 t. M., 1993, t.1, stb. 119.
Anonym. Na chto znat' Lokka mne, Vol’tera… // Poleznoe uveselenie, 1761, №23, pp. 198.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
