Rammohun Roy and Pyotr Tchaadaev: Philosophical Thought in the Dialogue of the West and the East

Abstract

A comparative research of philosophical thought by Rammohun Roy and Pyotr Tchaadaev is presented in the article. At the context of the West – the East inter­action in Modernity, both philosophers became the pioneers of self-discovery and self-knowledge by India and Russia respectively. Based on a juxtaposition of the works by Indian and Russian thinkers, their thought is described as special ‘philosophy of self-finding’ for their own societies in circumstances of the dia­logue between the East and the West. It is formed owing to their reflections on reasons of crisis in their societies and possibilities to overcome one. Philoso­phy of self-finding includes two levels; the first is religious-philosophical, which correlates the being of Indian and Russian societies with the universal Absolute (the building of spiritual vertical). Seen through universalist approach, thinkers’ spiritual traditions (Vedantism of R. Roy and Christianity of P. Tchaadaev) helped to create the realistic knowledge of social life and ways of development in India and Russia. The second level is social-philosophical. Thinkers offer the prece­dents of objective understanding of the West to discover the true reasons of own societies’ backwardness and perspective for their improvement in Modernity.