Russian philosophers in France in the interwar period : a review of the studies of emigrant philosophers

Abstract

While the older generation of Russian immigrant philosophers in France in the 1920s and '30s clung to most of their Russian culture, the younger generation – Koyré, Kojève, Gurvitch, and Levinas – introduced German philosophy and created the specific conditions for the transfer of German culture to France at a time when French scholars ignored the academia of defeated Germany. The marginal position of Russian emigrants, which contributed to this cultural transfer, made possible the formation of a new French philosophy based on German phenomenology. The research methodology answering questions on the specifics of the scientific rejection of German science in the inter-war period is taken from Schroeder-Gudehus. Based on a quantitative analysis of the texts in digital databases, the article also tries to follow the status change of the young emigre philosophers. It finds 1933 to be the year when the institutional participation of young philosophers in the community of Paris's Russian emigrants ended, and the elevation of their status to "French philosophers" began.