title: Pavel Florensky and “inactive effort”. Philosophy of religion as a source of concepts for epistemology
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Mach, Jakub
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2020-05-26T10:56:30Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2020-05-26T10:56:30Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2020-03
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Mach J. Pavel Florensky and “inactive effort”. Philosophy of religion as a source of concepts for epistemology. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2020, vol. 36, issue 1, pp. 95–104.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2020.108
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/17853
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: Pavel Florensky in “The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in
  Twelve Letters” in “Letter Two: Doubt” describes the complex epistemic structure of religious
  experience. The article shows that the central element of this structure is the act of “inactive
  effort”, which does not give a clear result, but gives rise to a “tone of hope” in the mind of the
  subject, the expectation of discovering the possibilities of comprehending the object, which
  cannot be obtained in the way of the usual rational method of cognition. According to the
  thoughts of Florensky, the presence of such an act is due to the fact that the object of religious
  experience (in this case, dogmas) is beyond what is possible for rational cognition, and
  nevertheless it must be somehow captured and expressed by this cognition. As a result of the
  analysis of Florensky’s text, the article formulates an epistemological model of cognitive acts
  of this kind, which require great effort from the cognitive, but at the same time are devoid of
  any signs of action. In addition to the subject of cognition and its object, the structure of such
  an act contains a third element, the “tone of hope,” which allows the act of cognition carried
  out by the intellect to go beyond the intellect into the realm of transcendental. This model,
  obtained in the analysis of religious experience, may be useful for describing some cognitive
  events that are not related to religion. For example, in a situation where the conditions of cognition
  do not allow for obtaining a reliable result, but the subject continues to carry out cognitive
  acts according to the model of “inactive effort”, and suddenly, without sufficient reason,
  receives knowledge that exceeds all expectations. This opens up the possibility of significantly
  expanding the problem field of epistemology.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: The article was written as part of the research project “Epistemology of Religious Experience in
  Russian and Jewish Philosophical Thought” (No. 2014/13/B/HS1/00761) with financial support from the
  “National Science Centre” (Poland).
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies;Volume 36; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: P. Florensky
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: philosophy of religion
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: epistemology
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: cognitive act
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: inactive effort
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Pavel Florensky and “inactive effort”. Philosophy of religion as a source of concepts for epistemology
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 95-104.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/17853/1/95-104.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 622,69 kB