Boris Vysheslavtsev

Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev (Russian: Бори́с Петро́вич Вышесла́вцев; 1877– October 5, 1954) was a Russian philosopher who belonged to the Russian Silver Age and Renaissance of Religion and Philosophy.^[1]

He did his doctorate on Fichte in 1914^[2] and became a lecturer, later professor in the philosophy of law at Moscow University.^[1]: 203 In September 1922, he became one of a group of prominent writers, scholars and intellectuals who were sent into forced exile on the so-called "philosophers' ships".^[3]: 575 He emigrated first to Berlin, then in 1924 to Paris. He spent most of his life at the Orthodox Theological Institute.^[4] While in Paris, he published the book The Ethics of a Transfigured Eros (1931). This book deals with the Christianisation of Freudian sublimation and is universally considered Vysheslavtsev's best work.^[5]: 203 He is noted for an attempt to apply concepts of depth psychology to ethics and to the interpretation of Christian doctrine.^[6]

During World War II, Vysheslavtsev collaborated with the Nazis, helping them write anti-Soviet propaganda. After the war, he fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution.^[7]

Available in English translation:

• The Eternal in Russian Philosophy. Translated by Penelope V. Burt. Grand Rapids, MI, and Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2002.

• Crone, Anna Lisa (2010). Eros and Creativity in Russian Religious Renewal: The Philosophers and the Freudians. Russian History and Culture. Vol. 3. Netherlands: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-9004180055.
• Lossky, N.O. (1951). "B. Vysheslavtsev". History of Russian Philosophy. New York: International Universities Press Inc. ISBN 978-0-8236-8074-0.

• James P. Scanlan ^[Wikidata]. "Vysheslavtsev, Boris Petrovich" article in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy