Themes "universe" and "world" in the poetry and philosophy of Aleksei Fedorovich Losev

Abstract

Aleksei Fedorovich Losev often expressed his worldview in poetic techniques. A notebook was preserved with twenty of his poems (1942-1943). These poems have ontological vocabulary of the traditional philosophical discourse, including words "world" and "universe". The universe is created by the Demiurge and is animate. Losev glorifies the feminine principle of the universe-"the Soul of the Worlds"-in his poems and philosophical prose. In Losev's poetic texts the universe has such inherent qualities as cold, snow. The semantics of cold reflects the idea of a static, eternal, pure world. "Cold" has a conceptual meaning, determining a kind of an ideal, original space, a cosmic being, eternity. Cold and calm are associated with the semantics of death. But death has no negative connotations; it is not an absolute evil. Death is a way to eternity, the crown of ascetic life. Losev identifies death and some ideal space. The description of the universe is accompanied by a lot of oppositions combined in a complex. Often, mutually exclusive concepts merge into one motive, image. Thus the concept of being is shown that is both differentiated and integrated. In the real life of mind and existence there is constant discernment and identification. An essential property of things that reflects the law of the coincidence of opposites is given the value of a symbol. In the poems the world is presented as immersed in a dream. The universe is created out of chaos, it is in a sleepy state, in the snowy calm. If there is movement, it is associated with the process of formation. Movement of the world is alarming, and, reversely, anxiety creates movement in the world. Anxiety is not just an emotion, but the ontological symbol of creation. The contextual environment of the themes "world", "universe" and "space" has words of the semantic field "senses". The world was created to be cognized and perceived by the subject. The terms "smart-seeing eye" and "smart vision" combine processes of physical cognition and mental selfdiscovery. Seeing space in poetry is a phenomenon of existence, containing the absolute truth in itself. All the senses are the symbols of mental experience: "smart smell", "smart touch". Losev interprets "universal" through conceptual images and motifs associated with the theme of crucifixion, implicitly pointing to Christ. Christ is the image of God in the creaturely nature. On the other hand, there is a parallel between the world of space and the sacrificial, suffering flesh of Christ at the moment when this flesh absorbs all the sin of the world and is in the rupture with God the Father. Losev verbalizes his teaching in two mutually complementary forms: prose and poetry. Thematic, motivic, and figurative parallels between Losev's poetry and his philosophical texts not only show their unity within the creative system of the author, but are yet another Testament to the inextricable genetic relationship of Russian philosophy with the world of poetry.