The Pole of Activity and the Pole of Passivity in Existential Reflection on Technology in Russian Philosophy: Nikolai Berdyaev and Vladimir Bibikhin

Abstract

The article examines the existential reflection of technology in Russian philosophy based on the conceptions of N.A. Berdyaev and V.V. Bibikhin. It is shown that these conceptions represent a “pole of activity” and a “pole of passivity” in the issue of technology, respectively: while Berdyaev criticizes the suppression of a human by technology and calls us to an agent-based and subjective attitude to technology, then the object of Bibikhin’s criticism is “human imperialism” and activism. Berdyaev’s and Bibikhin’s positions are analyzed in the broad context of the problem of the technological civilization and modernity in general, as well as the specific features of reflection on technology in the history of Russian thought. It is demonstrated that, despite significant differences, both Berdyaev and Bibikhin equally criticize alienated ways of human perception of their relations with the world, although they interpret the sources of this alienation in different ways, which is explained by the difference in the ontological foundations of their philosophical concepts.