Views of Russian Freemasonry XVIII century on the problem of man: a historical analysis

Skopa V. A.

The article analyzes the historical views of Russian Freemasons of the 18th century on the problem of man. Freemasonry in Russia begins its official history in 1732. The history of the study of Freemasonry as a socio-cultural phenomenon is very diverse. Historians, philosophers, culturologists, philologists have considered this phenomenon from various positions and methodological approaches, highlighting certain actors. The Masonic worldview is an eclectic combination of the most diverse religious and philosophical ideas, which was formed in search of some universal foundations of wisdom. One of the dominant aspects in the teachings of the Freemasons was the doctrine of man, his place and role in society. The ideological attitudes of Freemasonry were of a pronounced religious-anthropocentric nature. All the Masons' theoretical reasoning about man is fundamentally introverted. The Masonic concept of man is largely characterized by religious perfectism. Freemasonry put forward as a starting principle not the individuality of an independent, active person, but his passive spiritual and God-given universality. Man, from this point of view, finds his face only in God, in the impersonal spiritual fundamental principle of existence.

Keywords:Russian freemasonry, Russian Empire, history, state, anthropology, Enlightenment.