Spiritual Philosophy of Johann Schwarz

Abstract

Johann Georg Schwarz was a professor of Moscow University in 1779-1882 and a mason. In his lectures for students and for general public he spoke mainly about spiritual aspects of both philosophy and masonry and stressed the importance of spirituality in both personal and social life. Schwarz distinguished three kinds of cognition and thus three kinds of knowledge: an interesting kind, pleasant knowledge, and useful knowledge. He viewed the human being as a tripartite entity composed of three essences: conscience in the heart, taste or the will in the belly, and the mind or reason in the brain. This allowed him to see in the human being a likeness of the Trinity. Schwarz’ anthropological categorization is confirmed by the ubiquity of tripartite divisions in his writings used to show the universal presence of the Trinity in all aspects of reality. The article also shows that although Schwarz’ anthropology was not entirely Orthodox, his spirituality and eschatology were in line with the Orthodoxy.