"Real good "as a synthesis of morality and art in the spiritual quest for N.V. Gogol. The 210th Anniversary of the Birth of N.V. Gogol.

Author(s):  E.D. Meleshko, Dr., Prof., Tula State Pedagogical University of L.N. Tolstoy, Tula, Russia, eilen2016@yandex.ru

V.N. Nazarov, Dr., Prof., Tula State Pedagogical University of L.N. Tolstoy, Tula, Russia, sophiya@yandex.ru

Issue:  Volume 44, № 3

Rubric:  History of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Humanities

Annotation:  The relevance of the research is connected with anniversary events – 210 years since the birth of the mysterious and secret writer, whose work has not been studied sufficiently, especially in the context of his religious and moral quests, which later determined the vectors of the spiritual development of Russian culture. In the modern cultural discourse the study of creativity N.V. Gogol is also relevant because it is used for various political purposes, for example, in Ukraine, where the religious and moral positions of the writer and thinker are distorted. The purpose of this article is a holistic cultural and philosophical analysis of the main stages of the development of religious and moral quests of the thinker, based on the spiritual and creative experience of finding real good: from aesthetic moralism through moral self-knowledge to theological justification of culture. This research vector defined the objectives of the present work: an analytical review of artistic and religious-philosophical works, such as "Selected passages from correspondence with friends" (1844-1847) and "Author's confession" (1847). The result of this cultural-philosophical analysis allowed us to identify the main positions of religious and moral quests in the works of N.V. Gogol: aesthetic moralism; the collapse of aesthetic utopia; moral self-knowledge; religious and moral teaching; the theological justification of culture (the moral and religious unity of life, given in the "law of Christ"); idyll of righteous management; moral and religious justification of art (“reconciliation of art with life”) and others. The novelty of the research lies in the holistic cultural and philosophical analysis, which allowed to identify ideological positions (moral ideal, aesthetic inspiration, love - moral action), which determine spiritual, moral and aesthetic ideas concepts of culture, as the content and meaning of real good.

Keywords:  Nikolai V.Gogol, spiritual quest, real good, aesthetic utopia, moral self-knowledge, universal guilt, indirect sin, righteous management, the ethos of good.

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