The Archive of an Epoch: Philosophical Meanings (On the Interregional School of the Philosopher-Archivist)

Abstract

In April 2023 and October 2024, the National Research University Higher School of Economics hosted two sessions within the framework of the Interre­gional School of the Philosopher-Archivist “The Archive of the Epoch: Philosophi­cal Meanings”: “The Archive as a Strategic Resource for Russian Philosophy of the 20th Century” (2023) and “The Archive as the Foundation of University Science for the Future” (2024). Participants of the School – students and gradu­ate students from HSE University, Belgorod State National Research University (BelSU), Southern Federal University (SFU), Russian State University for the Hu­manities (RSUH), State Academic University for the Humanities (GAUGN), and the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences – explored archival work through a philosophical lens. They learned to read and interpret handwriting and abbreviations in complex philosophical manuscripts, became fa­miliar with archival work protocols, discovered archival collections of Russian philosophers from the 19th–20th centuries, and acquired basic restoration skills. The article advances the idea that the archive (of an individual, an epoch, or so­ciety) serves as the foundation for contemporary science and philosophy, which expand disciplinary horizons and focus on the development of interdisciplinary research programs. Unlike the historian-archivist, the philosopher-archivist di­rects his attention not to the external factuality of historical sources but to their specific hermeneutic meanings. The philosopher-archivist unveils the intel­lectual culture of any historical epoch, making a given span of “space-time” (i.e., chronotope) meaningful and human-sized. Thanks to archives, the predic­tive work of scholars and philosophers becomes significantly more productive.