Vladimir Bibikhin: Topology of the Encounter

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the phenomenon of encounter by drawing on the philosophical texts of Vladimir Bibikhin. The encounter is considered through the prism of key concepts of Bibikhin's thought: “the world”, “the moment”, “the event”, “the other”, and “the word”. The first point in describing the encounter is its place, which is the world. The world is understood as a whole, as something that eludes conceptualisation, yet captures us and our thought. Access to the world, and thus to the encounter, extends through detachment, silence, consent. The article further analyzes the time of the encounter, which is described through Bibikhin's concept of “the moment”. The moment is off-calendar, eventful, unique, it is kairotic time. The article then draws attention to the essence of the phenomenon of encounter, which is understood through Bibikhin's concept of “event”. The event is historically concrete, always new, lightning-fast and spontaneous, it is beyond our control. The article then considers the figure of “the other”, since the encounter is always an encounter with the other: with the other self, with God, with another person. As a result, the encounter is understood as an entrance to otherness on the other side of representation. The description of the encounter is completed through considering the phenomenon of the word. The word is the message of the event of the encounter. Without the word there is no event, but there is no word without an event. The message of the event lies at the beginning of communication and society.