The influence of B. Spinoza’s metaphysics on the evolution of V.S. Soloviev’s philosophy of all-unity

Philosophy

Abstract

The article attempts to provide a comparative philosophical analysis of the metaphysical systems of B. Spinoza and V. Soloviev. Many philosophical concepts influenced the formation and development of Soloviev’s philosophy of all-unity. Among such concepts, it is worth highlighting the metaphysics of Spinoza, one of the first with which Soloviev became acquainted. In his early works, Soloviev criticizes the philosophy of Spinoza, comparing him with other rationalists, and discovers some contradictions in metaphysics and the doctrine of knowledge. Despite the apparent differences, the ideas of Spinoza and Soloviev in the field of metaphysics are based on common principles. The main concept of Soloviev’s philosophy, «all-unity», is considered as a development of the ideas of the characteristic Spinoza’s doctrine of substance with a greater influence of Christian theology. The possible influence of Spinoza on the development of Soloviev’s Sophiology is also analyzed. Sophia, Divine Wisdom, appears in Soloviev’s system as an element that coordinates and potentially unites the spheres of the divine and the human, the ideal and the material, or as the soul of the world that endows being with subjectivity. Through the doctrine of Sophia, Soloviev comes to the conclusion about the need to consider the absolute being as divided within itself into positive nothingness and the first matter, which represent absoluteness and relativity in a single Deity. This refers to Spinoza’s concept of substance. Substance exists in a multitude of attributes, but is given to man in the attributes of thought and extension (in ideas and things). Thus, Soloviev develops the idea of substance as the unity of idea and matter, changing it under the influence of Christian theology.