From Apocalyptic to Messianic: Philosophia Universalis :: Philosophy Philosophic Essays

From Apocalyptic to Messianic Philosophia UniversalisABSTRACT Perhaps for the first time in history, the human action of a millennium is directly reflected in school of thought-as an apocalyptic end of philosophy. Recently, an attempt to channel apocalyptic into messianic has been undertaken by Derrida in his Spectres of Marx. However, Derridas endeavor does not partake directly to philosophy and thus does not alter its apocalyptic landscape. Considering the critical state of coeval philosophy, it is unclear whether such an alteration can be performed in the West. A radical reinterpretation appears to be much more probable when undertaken from an outside position. It may be that this is the case with the Philosophia Universalis developed by the Russian-American David Zilberman (1938-1977) from classical Hindu philosophies and applied, as a new synthesis, to Western philosophy. Major ideas of the Philosophia Universalis as well as its principal results and achievements comprise th e content of this presentation. It is a miraculous feelingYou are contemptible cinders,But because of your touchzThey blush they turn into diamonds.David ZilbermanContemporary Western philosophy is eschatological through and through bread of apocalypsis is philosophical daily bread there for quite an a long time already. (1) One may argue who introduced what Derrida calls an apocalyptic tone in philosophy (2) Derrida himself, Heidegger, or, even earlier, Nietzsche, Marx, or Kant. It appears, however, that the very idea of the end of philosophy is taken seriously. As any end, the end of philosophy means death, and thus, as Derrida elaborates on in his Spectres of Marx, entails funeral, eulogy, spectres, and sentiment of irretrivable loss. Could it be otherwise? Would it be possible to cogitate at (on) the end? Could philosophy be an eschatology and still remain a living thing? Questions of death and rebirth, ends and new beginnings are among those fashionable ones in contemporar y philosophy. They have been raised lately, among others, by Derrida in his indepth and novel analysis of apocalyptic and messianic. (3) This exploration, obviously inhereting to philosophical intentions of M. Blanchot, E. Levinas, and V. Benjamin, results in a broad picture of a manhood organized under the idea of the new International, a messianic structure of the future ought to replace (and actually replacing, according to Derrida) apocalyptic discourses of today. Messianic as a structure of experience within community without community, party, political structure, as focused around some secret unindentified bond between those accepted into it, appears to be the widest possible description of the human world to come.