The Paradoxical Ethics of Nicholas Berdyaev: Towards an Understanding of the Philosopher’s Anthropological Innovations

Abstract

This article examines the philosophical-anthropological foundation of N. A. Berdyaev’s ethics, which are most systematically presented in his work entitled “The Destiny of Man” (1931). Berdyaev proposes looking at ethics not as some kind of system of moral rules or values, but as the creative enterprise of the human spirit; Berdyaev views the entire history of mankind as a particular epiphenomenon of this creative enterprise. This view has its roots in his very particular understanding of human freedom which, for him, is the source of absolute innovation not only for this world but for God himself, as well as that very energy by which man participates in God’s continuing creation of the world. The originality of Berdyaev’s approach is related to the extreme integrity of his overall thought, a trait which is typical of the entire Russian religious philosophical tradition at the beginning of the 20th century. Berdyaev does not pen his ethics as a separate chapter of his philosophical system; on the contrary, his entire system is specifi cally an outworking of his ethical quest. This is very evident in his book “The Destiny of Man”, in which historiosophy, gnoseology, anthropology and Berdyaev’s personal ethical dilemma are obviously interconnected, as this article also demonstrates.