Semyon L. Frank on the “secret of transcendence”: lecture version of the “Object of Knowledge”

Abstract

Based on archival materials, personal correspondence and Swiss periodicals, a historical and philosophical reconstruction of the circumstances of Semyon L. Franck’s lecture visit in Switzerland in 1929 have been performed. The place and significance of the report “The Secret of Transcendence” (“Das Rätsel des Transzendenz”), which was given in Zurich at the invitation of the local Philosophical Society, in the philosopher’s creative heritage was established. It was concluded that the content of Semyon L. Frank’s lecture is reflected the epistemological problems that the philosopher set out systematically in his pre-emigrant work “The Object of Knowledge” (1915), and then presented it to the Ger­man-speaking professional community in an abridged form in two articles published un­der the general title “Cognition and Being” (“Erkenntnis und Sein”) in 1928 and 1929 in the German edition of the international yearbook on the philosophy of culture “Lo­gos”. The appendix introduces the German-language synopsis of Semyon L. Frank “The Secret of Transcendence”, stored in Box 16 of the Philosopher’s Foundation in the Bakhmetev Archives of Columbia University (New York, USA) – Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Co­lumbia University, New York. S.L. Frank Papers. Box 16. S.L. Frank – Manuscript Frag­ments Notes; archival materials are provided with Russian translation and comments.