A. N. Radishchev's Anthropology in Sociopolitical Perspective

Abstract

This article reconstructs the anthropological ideas of A. N. Radishchev in the context of his Enlightenment project based on the “Conversations about who is the son of the Fatherland” and the treatise “About man, about his mortality and immortality”. Special attention is paid to the socio-political aspect of his anthropology, in particular, the view on a person as on a son of his fatherland. The article shows the proximity of Radishchev's main anthropological attitudes to Rousseau's ideas. It also considers Radishchev's socio-political views as being in the intermediate position between the classical (Aristotelian) paradigm of political philosophy, which presupposes the initial political state of a person, and the modern paradigm, which found its expression in the concept of the social contract. In addition, the thesis about the proximity of Radishchev's Enlightenment project to I. Kant's project is raised and it is concluded that with the external similarity of their main formulations, these projects are based on different and difficult-to-reconcile ethical concepts.