Despotic Idea and Despotic Personality: Two Variants of Despotism in the Philosophy of К. Leontiev and F. Nietzsche

Abstract

The article suggests that the origins of some of Leontiev’s philosophical ideas should be sought in the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer. It reveals the origin of Leontiev’s “despotic idea” and, at the same time, the meaning of the term despotism, the mention of which in Leontiev’s texts used to confuse his contemporaries. The article clarifies the place of despotic idea in Leontiev’s conceptual system, its role in his theory of organic development, in his doctrine of cultural distinctness and in the philosopher’s description of his social and political ideal. An original development of Schopenhauer’s ideas in Nietzsche’s philosophy is demonstrated. The loss of the metaphysical foundation leads to the fact that it is not the idea that becomes despotic, but the personality, whose highest embodiment the philosopher called the overman.