Semyon Frank - Biography

Semyon Lyudvigovich Frank (Франк, Семён Людвигович 1877 – 1950) was a Jewish-born Russian religious philosopher.

Biography

Semyo′n Lyu′dvigovich Frank was born in a Jewish family. He converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1912, and became a leading Russian Orthodox thinker. He was expelled from the USSR in 1922 on the so-called "philosophers' ship". He spent the rest of life supported by the World Council of Churches and his friend Ludwig Binswanger.

Metaphysical libertarianism

Semen Frank's philosophy was based on the ontological theory knowledge. This meaning that knowledge was intuitive in whole but also abstraction in logic. Logic being limited to only part of being. Frank taught that existence was being but also becoming. As becoming, one has dynamic potential. Thus ones future is indeterminate since reality is both rational and irrational. As reality includes the unity of rationality and irrationality i.e. of necessity and freedom. Frank's position being for the existence of Free will.

Bibliography

• Vekhi [Landmarks] (1907)
• Der Gegenstand des Wissens. Grundlagen und Grenzen der begrifflichen Erkenntnis (Knowledge. Principles and Limitations of Conceptual Perception)
• Die geistigen Grundlagen der Gesellschaft [The Fundamental intellectual Principles of Society]
• Realität und Mensch [Reality and Mankind].

Bibliography

• Russian Religious Thought by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt (Editor), Richard F. Gustafson (Editor) Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (October 1, 1996) Language: English

ISBN 0299151344 and ISBN 978-0299151348

• History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951) by N. O. Lossky Publisher: Allen & Unwin, London ASIN: B000H45QTY International Universities Press Inc NY, NY ISBN 978-0823680740 sponsored by Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

See also

• Philosophers' ship
• Nikolai Lossky
• Russian philosophy