Ascent to the Genus: “Memoirs” by P.A. Florensky as a Form of Philosophical Self-Reflection

The article examines one of the significant phenomena of the Russian religious Renaissance of the late XIX — early XX centuries — P.A. Florensky’s philosophy, which the author interprets in the context of the classical philosophical problem of self-knowledge. The enduring significance of Florensky’s work is justified by the fact that he continues and develops the main motives of the European metaphysical tradition in a situation where this requires new forms and ways of expression. It is assumed that one of these forms is the work carried out by Florensky in the book “To my children. Memories of the past days”, as a special experience of philosophical self-knowledge and recognition of oneself in the world. It is shown how, restoring and comprehending children’s impressions and the children’s view of the world itself, Florensky goes back to the origins of his own worldview, to the initial and direct experience of perceiving reality, which he himself correlates with the mystical experience of Plato and Goethe. It is argued that remembering here means climbing to the genus, to the ontological origins of existence. And as such, Florensky’s work may also clarify the phenomenological foundations of Plato’s doctrine of knowledge as memory. The methodological support of such an interpretation was the work of V.V. Bibikhin, devoted to the phenomenology of selfknowledge, primarily the work “Recognize Yourself’ and “Property”. The general theoretical basis of the author’s work is phenomenology and phenomenological hermeneutics