“Four Planes of Being”: S.I. Hessen on Human Freedom

The article is dedicated to the work of Sergey (Sergius, Sergiusz) I. Hessen (1887–1950), a Russian neo-Kantian philosopher and teacher, whose legacy, ac­cording to researchers, remains undervalued and largely misunderstood. In his work, S.I. Hessen dealt with a wide variety of issues: philosophical, political and religious, issues of the philosophy of history, ontology, axiology, problems of culture and freedom. The author of the article shows that all this diversity of philosophical problems turns into a single system of views if we consider the late works of the Polish period of Hessen’s life (1936–1950). Therefore, the central place in the article is occupied by the analysis of Hessen’s doctrine of the four planes of being, developed during this period, in which he integrates his views on various philosophical problems presented earlier in his works. The objective of this study is to show how this synthesis of philosophical views leads to the creation of a unified systematic conception on the history of mankind, to the substantiation of the meaning of history. Hessen assigns a key role in his doctrine to parenting, which he understands as the process of introducing a per­son to freedom and living conditions in society, to cultural values that open up new paths to self-realization. The parenting of a person is a process that lasts throughout his life, and the decisive role in it is played by the free effort of a per­son creating his own worldview. The author of the article shows that these views of Hessen are integrated into his doctrine on the four planes of being, forming a philosophical and historical systematics that allows him to substantiate a holis­tic ontological conception.