Review of: Lyudmila Gogotishvili, Lestnitsa Iakova. Arhitektonika lingvofilosofskogo prostranstva [Jacob’s Ladder. Architectonics of Linguo-philosophical Space], Moscow, Publishing House Languages of Slavic cultures, 2021, 616 pages. Dust-cover, ISBN 978-5-907290-35-8, 10 € (936 )

Studies in East European Thought. 2023. Vol. 75. P. 203–208.

A. A. Gravin

This book review discusses the work of the Russian linguophilosopher and historian of philosophy Lyudmila A. Gogotishvili. Iosif Friedman has reconstructed the late author's intentions by compiling a number of texts and the first attempt at a philosophical interpretation of Gogotishvili`s legacy. The book focuses on the core question in Gogotishvili's output: the correlation of the relative and the universal (unconditional) and, further, the adequacy of the expression of meaning in language. In Jacob's Ladder the examination of this problem is divided into a phenomenological (hence the titles of the parts) and a symbolist component (the correlation of binary and ternary types of symbol, which is pursued throughout the book). Gogotishvli`s dialogical and interpretive approach does not allow one to define Jacob's Ladder solely as a book on the history of philosophy in the usual objectivist sense. Gogotishvili’s research has a methodological and conceptual character.

Keywords: phenomenology, philosophy of language, symbolism, adequacy, modern Russian philosophy, Unconditional