S. L. Frank: The Life And Work Of A Russian Philosopher, 1877-1950 - Hardcover

Boobbyer, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0821411101 ISBN 13: 9780821411100

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 1995

Synopsis

"There are many reasons for writing a biography of Semyon Frank. Quite apart from his philosophy, he lived a remarkable life. Born in Moscow in 1877, he was exiled from Soviet Russia in 1922 and died in London in 1950. The son of a Jewish doctor, he became a revolutionary Social Democrat in his teens and finished his life as a Neoplatonist Christian. One of the Russian revisionist Marxists, he was then involved in the Kadet Party during the 1905 revolution before breaking with active political activity and turning to philosophy. He lived in Petrograd through the First World War until September 1917, after which he went to Saratov, where he experienced the chaos of the Russian Civil War. Living in Germany after his exile, he witnessed the rise of Hitler in Berlin, left for France in a hurry in 1937, and spent part of the war hiding from the Gestapo in the Grenoble mountains. It was a life that encompassed a lot of history.

"Yet along with this, Frank was arguably Russia's greatest twentieth-century philosopher. Indeed, V.V. Zen'kovskii, the historian of Russian philosophy, considered Frank 'in strength of philosophic vision ... the most outstanding among Russian philosophers generally -- not merely among those who share his ideas.' For its lucidity, conciseness, systematic character, and unity, Zen'kovskii considered Frank's system ' the highest achievement ... of Russian philosophy.' Doubtless, Zen'kovskii's assessment is disputable, but his remarks emphasize Frank's stature in the Russian tradition. In the style of German idealism, Frank constructed a comprehensive philosophical system, which he believed offered a coherent alternative to materialism. He was deeply worried by the implications of epistemological relativism and constructed a system of metaphysics designed to link epistemology and ontology, to bridge the gulf between thought and being. In addition, he attempted to express the idea of a personal God in philosophical language. His system also embraced social philosophy, anthropology, and ethics."

-- from the Introduction by the author

About this title

From Library Journal:

Frank was an imaginative emigre Russian philosopher who struggled in poverty to sustain his philosophical vision. A Jewish convert to "universalist, nondogmatic" Christianity, he articulated a philosophy that was deeply rooted in Plotinus and Nicholas of Cusa, drew on Spinoza and Bergson, and could be related to F.H. Bradley. Boobbyer (government, London Sch. of Economics) describes him as a "liberal conservative"?a fair characterization of his politics but one that seems strangely pale for a man with a passionate commitment to human decency who believed in the power of philosophy to take us beyond ordinary experience. Boobbyer admires Frank's determination to keep alive hope and Russian humanism after his exile by Lenin in 1922. But he does not give us enough close analysis of Frank's texts to lead us to a conclusion about their ultimate importance. For academic collections.?Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"Boobbyer's book abounds with detail that animates philosophical positions that might otherwise seem unbearably abstract and dry."

-- David Bakhurst, British Journal for the History of Philosophy

"Philip Boobbyer should be praised for providing such a wealth of new biographical information about Frank and for attempting to show how Frank's social and political ideas flow from his metaphysics."

-- Boris Jakim, Symposion, A Journal of Russian Thought

"A first-rate piece of biography, Boobbyer's study deserves to be read by history and philosophy undergraduates and graduates alike."

-- G.E. Snow, Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0821411101
• ISBN 13: 9780821411100
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304