Michaił Epstein - filozofujący humanista i jego alians z fantastycznością

Abstract

The author of this article aims to bring the output of Mikhail Epstein, a Russian culture specialist and philosopher to a Polish reader closer. What is outlined is an academic career of this versatile thinker that cannot be pigeonholed by any field of the humanistic studies. He is as much a culture specialist as he is a literature theoretician and philosopher, writer and author of the Internet projects, as well as a researcher. The analysis covers his research method and narration characterized by an inclination for neologisms, mixing a humanistic and academic discourse, as well as a synthesizing perspective of an utterance. The author comes to a conclusion that Epstein, following the paths determined by post-structuralism, goes beyond its limitations, creating the philosophy of a new era, the philosophy of the “possible” modus. The hypothesis was put forward that the philosophy of the possible can become methodology in studies on fantasy, what Epstein suggests in his declarations directing philosophy at searching and multiplying the worlds of the possible.