Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky: Encyclopedia II - Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky - Work

Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky - Work

Danilevsky is mainly remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and for his theory of historical-cultural types.

Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky - Evolution

Danilevsky's main work in this area is Darwinism: Critical research (1885, which brings together more than 1,200 pages of arguments against Darwin's theory (mostly assembled from the literature that already existed at the time). This was, in fact, only meant to be the first volume of a longer work, the second volume containing Danilevsky's own theories (which he characterised as "natural theology"), but it was unfinished at his death, and when published posthumously contained only preliminary studies.

Danilevsky had been influenced by the work of von Baer, whose had developed his own teleological theory of evolution, and who had gone on to criticise Darwin's work in the 1870s. Danilevsky took from von Baer's theory the notion of Zielstrebigkeit — the German word means literally "singleness of purpose", but Danilevsky imbued it with a religious aspect. He argued that evolution (and the original creation of the world) has a rational purpose, and follows the will of a divine creator.

Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky - Theory of historical-cultural types

Danilevsky first published "Russia and Europe: a look at the cultural and political relations of the Slavic world to the Romano-German world" in the journal Zarya in 1869, though it was republished as a monograph, and was the work that brought him international fame.

The work pioneered the use of biological and morphological metaphors in the comparison of cultures. Danilevsky compared the cultures and nations to biological species, denying their commonality, and arguing that each nation or civilisation is united by language and culture, which cannot be passed on to any other nation. Thus he characterised Peter the Great's reforms as doomed to failure, as they involved the attempt to impose alien values on the Slavic world.

Danilevsky distinguished four categories of historical-cultural activity: religious, political, sociopolitical, and cultural; these gave rise to ten historical-cultural types: Egyptian, Chinese, Assyro-Babylonian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, Muslim, Slavic, and Romano-German. He then applied his teleological theory of evolution, stating that each type went through various predetermined stages of youth, adulthood, and old age, the last being the end of that type. He characterised the Slavic type as being at the youth stage, and developed a socio-political plan for its development, involving unification of the Slavic world, its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul), ruled by an Orthodox Emperor. While other cultures degenerate in their blind struggle for existence, the Slavic world should be viewed as a Messiah among them. In Danilevsky's view there is no genuine or absolute progress, however, as history is circular.

Aspects of Danilevsky's book were important influences on Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West and Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History. It was the subject of much controversy, however, and polarised its readers. On the one hand it was praised by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, while on the other it was severely criticised by such Occidentalists as Nikolai Kareev, Pavel Milyukov, and Nikolai Mikhailovsky.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Work", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki