BEWARE OF INTUITION: DID YAN VYSHATICH AND THE BOYAR VASILY GO AGAINST THE MAINSTREAM?

Abstract

The article is a continuation of the author's polemic with V. V. Dolgov regarding the issues of Old Rus rationality (2021. Vol. 31. Issue 4 of this journal). It is noted that the statement about the role of Yan Vyshatich's personal experience in his dialogue with the volkhvs has no textual confirmation, and is pure conjecture. The characters of Old Rus literature, who, according to V. V. Dolgov, retained the image of spontaneous practical thought, not “corrupted” by the dominant book traditions of the era, echo in their behavior with the texts that were used in Rus as authoritative sources. On the whole, V. V. Dolgov continues the traditions of the trends in Soviet historiography which reproduced in a simplified way the dualism of practical and Christian-religious consciousness. But such a method can say nothing about the peculiarities of individual thinking and alternative forms of logic.