What do faith and philosophy have in common? Nothing, it seems. Nowadays many people understand ‘faith’ as a kind of sweet self-deception, a mist of vague dreams, in a word — ‘mysticism’, i. e. something completely unworthy of a reasonable person. In ‘reason’ they see the perfect opposite of ‘faith’. If so, what communication of faith and philosophy can there be? Philosophy is based on reason, hence it has nothing to talk about with faith… But is this so? If philosophy and reason were in such close and friendly communication, then the other force, the dominant force of our times, Science, would not avoid philosophy, but would participate in its labours and be nourished by its conclusions. This we do not see. Worse: the man of science, as we know, has abandoned philosophy, considers its labours worthless and despises its conclusions, because he has — at least, so he says — ‘facts’ before which all philosophical fabrications pale.

Science has abandoned philosophy just as it abandoned faith shortly before. The Christian or the philosopher are equally repugnant to the scientist because they refuse to stand on the ground of ‘undoubted facts’. Is there not in these ‘facts’, or rather, in the repulsion from these ‘facts’, something that unites faith and philosophy?

Let us begin with the fact that ‘fact’ itself is the vaguest and most difficult to define. The ‘fact’, on closer examination, is twofold and is divided into two quite different things: a phenomenon and a perception. The first does not depend on us and looks rather mysterious in general; the second is quite dependent on our will and is subject to free interpretation. There are no such things as ‘ irrefutable facts ’, which are so fondly spoken of in our days. There are phenomena which, as it seems to us, successfully confirm one or another of our thoughts — and that is all. A ‘fact’ is not a stone from a sling that can be successfully launched into the head of an opponent. In a ‘fact’ our thought meets reality, and the same reality can be paired with different thoughts to form different ‘facts’.

The above may seem like unnecessary verbal exercises, when in fact it is an example of how philosophy works. It is the simplest philosophical antidote against the involuntary confusion of our perceptions with the things of the external world. This is the way philosophy goes, the way of finding the right ways of thinking. Ironically, so-called ‘common sense’ alone is not enough to think correctly. Common sense has fallen and is falling into the same mistakes. Each of us, for example, can see exactly how the sun and the moon make their way around the earth… To prevent us from falling into this kind of error, philosophy enters the field before science wakes up.

But where does faith belong in our comparison and how does it relate to ‘facts’?  What is faith?

As has been said, many see faith as a ‘mystical mist’. In fact, mysticism revolves around religion without constituting its substance. When Bielinsky pointed out to Gogol the lack of mysticism in the Russian people and thought that by doing so he was destroying Gogol’s best hopes, he was only confusing a trait with a thing. Mysticism may or may not be a sign of religiosity. (The most sober, industrial and commercial, down-to-earth even nations, British and Americans, knew how to be religious without an admixture of mysticism. Or is Dickens not a Christian?) According to others, to ‘believe’ is to judge things without the aid of reason. This is not true. Faith does not demean reason, but recognises its power as insufficient. Still others regard faith as a set of partly obsolete moral rules, some of which can be discarded and some of which can be justified anew by a morality ‘based on the achievements of science’…

Leaving all this aside, let us say: faith is the recognition of the invisible world, manifested in the experience accessible to the heart. Faith affirms that beneath the layer of ‘reality’ visible to the eye lies another, even deeper layer, which is difficult or impossible to judge with ‘common sense’. Here it meets philosophy, which has been saying almost the same thing, in almost the same words, for centuries — but this meeting is brief. Philosophy teaches us to think about all things and to find meaning in all things — faith teaches us to think about ourselves and God and to find meaning in our own lives. The way of Philosophy is to people, the way of Faith is to solitude. They meet and part. However, this parting is not final. Ultimately, when it comes to the place of man in the world, the origin of the spirit, the exceptional and sorrowful position of the human race — only faith nourishes philosophy and gives ground for its constructions…

And Science continues its self-assured way without reflecting either on its soul or on the meaning of the marvellous phenomena it studies. The Universe spins before it like a huge star wheel, and the cognising soul flies through the spinning spokes — not wanting to know who let it fly and what awaits it ahead…

Timofey Sherudilo.
From the book Knowledge and Creativity. Essays on Cullture.

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