Vasily Sesemann’s Philosophy of Culture

The research is devoted to the analysis of the works of Vasily Sesemann (1884-1963) on the philosophy of culture. The relevance of the study is determined by the lack of special works devoted to the explication of the thinker’s views on the phenomenon of culture, the need to identify the internal connections of the philosophy of culture with other sections within the framework of studies of the philosophical system of Sesemann as a whole. To achieve the stated goal the sources and philosophical context of Sesemann’s philosophy of culture were identified; the problems of this area that are of greatest importance to the author were analyzed, the questions posed were identified and the approaches to their resolution proposed by the philosopher were considered. This made it possible to reveal the role and place of the problems of the philosophy of culture in the system of philosophy built by the author. In the course of the analysis the deep anthropological nature of Sesemann’s philosophy, close connections between the issues of culture and man with epistemological problems were revealed; reliance on the Kantian position in understanding the phenomenon of culture was discovered, and the range of the most significant issues for the author in the area under study was determined. The work demonstrates that the central place in Sesemann’s philosophy of culture is occupied by the problem of the unity of culture and the consideration of culture as a live organism, as well as the significance of the unity of the mental-body organization of the individual as a subject of culture. Understanding the phenomenon of culture turns out to be organically connected with both theoretical and practical aspects of the thinker’s philosophy, which makes the study of these works productive for a deeper understanding of the integrity of his philosophical system.