Comparative Eschatology and Philosophy of History of Karl Jaspers and Nikolai Berdyaev

摘要

This article focuses on comparison of understanding the eschatology and philosophy of history in philosophical ideas and concepts of K. Jaspers and N. Berdyaev. The authors provide the analysis of similarities and differences in K Jaspers' and N. Berdyaev's philosophy of history. Jaspers' conception of Axial Age (Aschenzeit) is characterized by the necessity and actuality of turning to cultural-historical heritage of the West and the East. Exit from historical process and the way to eternity, for N. Berdyaev, is a result of general comprehension of spirit. The eschatology of two philosophers is connected with their philosophy of history and derives from it. Historical process and sense of history, according to Berdyaev, can be understood only beyond the boundaries of historical time, in the area of free spirit, "new eon". Eschatological concepts of the two thinkers have common features, but they differ in understanding the end of the history: for Jaspers this end is a dramatic prognosis of our real history and is like an alarm for humanity; for Berdyaev the end of the history is a utopian idea of transcending real time and coming into some new era/eon.