Christian gnoceology of V.V. Zenkovskij: critique of autonomous reason

Рhilosophy

Abstract

In this article V.V. Zenkovskij’s doctrine of the cognition is examined as it was represented by the thinker in the first volume of his «Foundations of a Christian Philosophy». A thesis is put forward that one of the main aspect of this doctrine is the criticism against the principle of the autonomous reason which according to V.V. Zenkovskij underlies almost all gnoseological doctrines. It is proved that the given criticism was formulated by the thinker to a great extent as a response to unsatisfactory results of the gnoseological constructions developed within the Russian religious-philosophical tradition. Key aspects of this criticism and decisions of the main gnoseological problems made by V.V. Zenkovskij are examined. These are the problems of the relation between reason and experience, reason and «heart», reason and belief, the problems of the gnoseological subject and of the gnoseological coordination. V.V. Zenkovskij’s formulation of the doctrine of the integrity of the human cognition is traced as well.