Pavel Florensky : a quiet genius : the tragic and extraordinary life of Russia's unknown da Vinci

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Pavel Florensky : a quiet genius : the tragic and extraordinary life of Russia's unknown da Vinci

Avril Pyman ; foreword by Geoffrey Hosking

Continuum, 2010

  • : hbk

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is the first biography in English of an extraordinary polymath whose great genius was stifled and finally extinguished by the Soviet Union. "Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius" is the first biography in English of an extraordinary polymath whose genius was stifled and finally extinguished by the Soviet Union. Today Pavel Florensky is often referred to as the Russian da Vinci. Florensky was, at one and the same time, a supremely gifted philosopher, mathematician, physicist, inventor, engineer and theologian. He was also a poet and wrote studies of history, language and art. Although he taught philosophy for most of his working life, his interests were wide-ranging and profound and included the study of time and space, the theory of relativity, aspects of language, and the properties of materials and geology. His book "The Pillar and the Ground of Truth" is widely seen as a masterpiece of Russian Orthodox theology. Eminent Russian scholar Avril Pyman looks at Florensky's life, from his childhood as the son of a railroad engineer to his mysterious death, and provides a populist perspective on his achievements. "Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius" celebrates the life of this unjustly forgotten victim of the Soviet Union.

Table of Contents

  • List of Illustrations
  • Foreword by Geoffrey Hosking
  • Preface
  • Chapter I: Childhood
  • Chapter II: School
  • Chapter III: From the Physico-Mathematical Faculty at Moscow University to the New Religious Consciousness
  • Chapter IV: The Melting-Pot. Autumn 1904 - Autumn 1908
  • Chapter V: The Quiet Mutiny
  • Chapter VI: The Four-leafed Clover
  • Chapter VII: Catastrophe. 1917-1926
  • Chapter VIII: Diversification - Art, Music and Science 1919-1933
  • Chapter IX: Permafrost
  • Glossary of Names
  • Chronology of Florensky's Life
  • Index.

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