Дмитрий Калугин (Dmitry Kalugin)

Die Welt der Slaven, Jahrgang 65 (2020), Ausgabe 1, Seite 007 - 017

Between philosophy and literature: The concept of presence in the texts of the 18th century

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the concept of presence in the philosophical and nonphilosophical texts of the 18th century. This concept is the meeting ground of two semantic fields. On the one hand, the word prisutstvie ‘presence’ is derived from the Old Church Slavic presenttense participle sy, sǫšti ‘existing, being’, and signifies God’s presence in the Holy Gifts. On the other hand, prisutstvie, according to the Dictionary of the Russian Academy, refers to ‘being jointly at one place’ and ‘сourt si.ing’. In addition, one finds a philosophical use of this term, where it is associated with the presence of an object in the mind (for example, in Descartes, Hume, Locke) as well as with the presence (actual or imaginary) of a person (Adam Smith). Due both to Radiščev’s philosophical interests and to biographical circumstances, his works provide abundant material for analyzing the topoi of presence and absence in their different meanings.

The article is written in Russian.

Дмитрий Калугин (Dmitry Kalugin)

Die Welt der Slaven, Jahrgang 63 (2017), Ausgabe 1, Seite 110 - 122