Intentions of civilization: Byzantism

Byzantism is a powerful trend in Russian philosophy. This intellectual tendency has appeared in the second half of the 19th century and still persists in modern Russian philosophical and political discourse. Byzantism is traditionally considered from the perspective of civilizational identity. The research attempts to examine the trend under review as a form of civilizational intention. The idea of civilizational intention is based on the philosophical concept of collective intentionality by J. Searle. This idea has never been widespread in Russian historiosophy. The category of civilizational intention makes it possible to precisely conceptualize the phenomenon of byzantism. The authors consider byzantism as the aim (intention) of the sociocultural entity rather than its self-identification (identity). From the standpoint of civilizational intention, the above-mentioned philosophical trend is regarded as an imaginary construct instead of an organic worldview, as utopia alternatively to destiny.