6 The Encyclopedism of the Russian Enlightenment in the History of Ideas (original) (raw)

2020, Passions, Politics and the Limits of Society

TatianaA rtemyeva 6T he Encyclopedism of the Russian Enlightenment in the Historyo fI deas The history of encyclopedism is an important part of intellectual history and helps us understand philosophicalfoundations of research and thinking.The encyclopedic look at the world wasa no utcomeo fn ew epistemologicalp rinciples and the separation of science into as pecific sphere of knowledge.I nitial attempts to systematise knowledge in Russia were presented through linguistic dictionaries, which acted as asubstitute for universal encyclopedias in the Enlightenment period. Russian scholars, however,did not follow famous examples like Zedler's Universal-Lexicon, Encyclopaedia Britannica,o re ven Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des métiers,d espite the fact that manyt exts from the Encyclopédie weret ranslated into Russian and the authors weresupported by manyprominent Russianaristocrats, including Empress Catherine the Great herself. French philosophers such as Voltaire, Diderot,D ' Alembert,R ousseau,a nd Montesquieu weren ever studied systematicallyi nc onnection with the specificity of the encyclopedic discourse. The birth of the phenomena of encyclopedism as an epistemological ideal or aform of universal knowledge in the Enlightenment epoch signaled the emergence of an encyclopedic thinker like Christian Wolff. Wolff'sp hilosophicalm ethodw as adequately grasped by Russianthinkers,who used it in the process of assimilation and classification of new knowledge.His method proved to be most valuable for natural sciences,a si ta llowed the separation of physical, chemical, mathematical, and other studies from socio-political and ideological problems, thus separatingphilosophyand science. His method formed awhole generation of Russian scholars and formulateds cientific thinkingi nR ussia, creatingasystem of encyclopedia principles which later developed into anew type of rationality that graduallyencompassed science, philosophy, history,p hilologya sw ell as political and economic theories. This "encyclopedic" view of the world emphasised the universality of method thatm ade it possiblet ow orko ut new knowledge when required and to bringitinto correlation with otherbranches of knowledge.However,Wolffianism was interpreted and modified to fit the requirements of the Russian Enlightenment.