Universe of Platonic Thought 2022

31st International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Plato’s Dialectics: Method, Norm, Self-Knowledge”

Alexander Prokhorov, CSc in Philosophy; Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia), Researcher

"External Revelation" as a type of historical memory in the metaphysics of J. G. Schwarz*

I.G. Schwartz (1751-1784) was a professor of philosophy at the Moscow Imperial University. In fact, he was the only one who, in a completely professional and relevant philosophical language, expressed the philosophical worldview of the Moscow Freemasonry of Catherine's time, of which he was a prominent representative. Researchers admit that Freemasonry of that period had a significant impact on the formation of the spiritual culture of Russia in the 18th century and became a preparatory platform for Slavophilism and Russian Schellingism.Both in domestic and foreign historical and philosophical literature, the legacy of Schwartz is almost not studied. As a rule, the biography and work of the thinker attract the attention of researchers in the history of Russian Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. In this regard, it seems quite justified to pay attention to the legacy of Schwartz, first published in the last decades. Its main part is notes and preparatory materials for lectures.This report discusses how one of the common places of the Masonic worldview - the metaphysics of light - in the work of Schwartz is associated, on the one hand, with his teaching about two types of revelation (internal and external), and on the other hand, with his idea of the historical process of transmission knowledge.

Keywords: historical memory, metaphysics of light, freemasonry, Russian philosophy, 18th century

Comparing the few texts that remained after J. G. Schwartz and are now published, one can be convinced that his philosophizing was based on a fairly straightforward Masonic-theosophical worldview. In general terms its essence is: the world was created by a single all-good Creator from light and darkness in accordance with a set of universal principles that were once sufficiently known to human. First, as a result of the Fall, and then because of the ongoing strife, true knowledge was gradually lost by mankind. However, throughout history there have been separate groups of initiates who have preserved the knowledge of the truth and pass it on from generation to generation, up to the present day. Separate reflections of this great knowledge became the cause of the emergence of well-known centers of ancient wisdom. There is also a certain “hermetic philosophy”, about which it is said that it “is a mother, it bases herself on the knowledge of nature, does not go further than to its knowledge, has knowledge of the elements, the first matter, the correction of metals...”. Hermetic philosophy is the very secret knowledge that the Rosicrucians keep, a special secret society, which is the core of another secret movement, Freemasonry.

Schwartz's social position did not allow him to openly preach Masonic views. In the early 1880s, when he became a professor of philosophy, he already had enough detractors ready to take advantage of the slightest pretext to expose the ambitious young Mason. The historical situation only contributed to this. The attitude of Catherine II towards the Freemasons rapidly deteriorated, especially after in 1782, when the Moscow Freemasons placed an advertisement in the newspaper that they submitted to the Grand Lodge of Sweden. In 1785, the Empress wrote a series of plays ridiculing Masons, and already in 1792, one of the main Masons of that time, Novikov, was arrested and thrown into the Shlisselburg fortress.

In this dangerous situation, Schwartz, in order to express his worldview, is trying to find such an argumentation that would be quite legitimate within the framework of the academic and social environment. This causes him to deviate from pure mysticism and alchemy towards philosophy. This leads Schwartz to a rather original arrangement of various ideas, the complex of which can already be considered as Schwartz's own philosophy, which determines his place in the history of Russian thought of the corresponding era.

November 5, 1782 Schwartz gives a lecture on two types of revelation, internal and external. With internal revelation, God enters the heart of a person in an inexplicable way and awakens him to a good life. External revelation is given through “experiences and sciences”, its purpose is to prepare a person for internal revelation. The need for such a revelation, coming from outside, is connected with the moral depravity of man. In various forms of external revelation, God leaves man a chance for correction and salvation. External revelation, in turn, has three forms, each of which is directed to a corresponding aspect of human nature. The first form refers to sensuality — God demonstrates his wisdom through the phenomena of nature. This form of external revelation predominated in antiquity. This allowed people to learn the three most important arts: making fire, farming and writing. The second form refers to the mind — these are the prophets whom the Lord revealed to the world to exhort mankind. And the third form has to do with the heart — the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

A review of the three forms of external revelation shows that their maximum concentration falls on times very remote even for the 18th century. At the same time, Schwartz's position does not allow us to conclude that external revelation is no longer valid. It is quite distributed in the space of cultural and historical experience. And there is a way opened to a person — a harmonious combination of education and spiritual improvement, the synthesis of which allows one to reconstruct that experience of external revelation, which is already a thing of the past, but dispersed as many authentic traces in the cultural heritage — in works of art, in sacred texts, as well as in language, which for many centuries absorbed wisdom.

* The research was carried out at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No 22-18-00214, https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00214/