Description
By Daria Platonova Dugina
Translated by Jafe Arnold
Edited by John Stachelski
356 pages / Released August 2023 / Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook.
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In the Myth of the Cave as told in Plato’s Republic, a prisoner of the cave of illusions escapes and comes to know the true reality of the outside world and the heavens above, only to realize that he must make a return descent to enlighten his fellow humans — at the risk of sorrow and even death. Socrates insists that the true philosopher and just statesman does not rest content in the bliss of ascended knowledge and harmony, but dares to live, think, teach, and struggle in the world of illusions, here and now. Eschatological Optimism, the posthumous philosophical testimony of Daria Platonova Dugina, explores and develops this ancient idea amidst the overwhelming kaleidoscope of the cave of the modern world. Engaging a vast spectrum of philosophical, theological, sociological, and literary perspectives, Dugina shows that the decision to decipher and face the illusions of our “reality” is only the beginning of an intellectual, existential, spiritual, and political journey which diverse thinkers, ancient and modern, have dared to undertake. At once a philosophical theory, a hermeneutic lens, and a way of life, “Eschatological Optimism” is a watchword, orientation, and mission that inspires one to dare to know, live and die for the higher principles that forever shine through and beyond the cave.
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Table of Contents From the Translator and Publisher Part I: Eschatological Optimism
From the Editor: On and For Dasha
Foreword – The Maiden Slain by the Ray of the Logos
Eschatological Optimism: Sources, Development, and Main Directions
Eschatological Optimism and the Metaphysics of War
Athos, the Feminine Principle, Apophaticism, and Eschatological Optimism
Part II: The Feminine Principle and the Problem of the Subject
Woman and Tradition
The War of the Sexes
Homo Hierarchicus: Tripartite Anthropology and the Experience of Hierarchical Society
The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism
The Sublime and the Aesthetics of Great Pan
The Poor Subject
The Russian Kitezhian, Oleg Fomin-Shakhov
Andrei Bely’s Petersburg and Infernal Russia
The Political Subject of Populism and the Problem of “Unhappy Consciousness”
Part III: Neoplatonism and the Ideal Polis
The Political Philosophy of Proclus Diadochus
The Political Platonism of Emperor Julian
Julianism
Emperor Julian, Empire and Neoplatonism
The Apophatic Moment
Apophatic Tradition in the Theology of Dionysius the Areopagite
Part IV: Philosophical Fragments and the Involution of Modernity
The Voluptuous Universe of Lucretius Carus
Wolffian Theology and Gogol’s Insight into Decay
Bergson and Popper’s “Open Society”: A Traditionalist View
Dark Deleuze: A Postmodern Reading of Leibniz’s Monadology
Afterword – Daria Dugina: Philosophy as Destiny
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Daria Platonova Dugina (1992-2022) was a Russian philosopher, journalist, political analyst, and artist. Dugina studied philosophy at Moscow State University and Bordeaux Montaigne University, specializing in Neoplatonism, and was an active member of the International Eurasian Movement. Her life was tragically cut short by a car bomb on the night of 20 August 2022. Eschatological Optimism is the first volume of Dugina’s posthumously collected works to appear in English.
