Alexander Moiseevich Pyatigorsky is a man who "denied denial" and "pondered over reflections." He was called a philosopher, semiotic scientist, dissident. However, any definitions never touched or worried him, because first of all he was a free man.
This is probably what a real philosopher should be. Moreover, one who studied Buddhism and other oriental worldviews and teachings in detail.
Biography
Alexander Moiseevich was born in 1929 in Moscow, in an intelligent Jewish family. Already in those years, his father often went on business trips abroad and on internships in England and Germany in his specialty - steelmaking. The Pyatigorskys gave their son a good education, they themselves studied with him at home. In addition, Sasha read a lot in childhood, was diversified.
When he was 12 years old, the war began, and together with his family, the boy moved to Nizhny Tagil, where he worked at the plant on an equal basis with adults.
After the war, they returned to Moscow, Alexander graduated from high school and entered the Moscow State University at the philological faculty. After university, he was sent as a teacher to one of the Stalingrad schools, where he worked for several years.
Almost immediately after the end of his teaching career, Pyatigorsky came to work at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where the famous Yuri Roerich worked at that time.
This was the period of the formation of the young scientist Pyatigorsky, and Roerich had a very strong influence on him at that time. In his interview, Alexander Moiseevich said that they could not yet cover the scale of the personality of the genius scientist. The elite of his thinking was just beginning to be realized.
It was at that time that Pyatigorsky began to understand what a different approach to science, culture, and philosophy meant. Using the example of Buddhism, he said: "There is a real attitude to the philosophy of Buddhism, there is a vulgar one, and there is an ideological one." And its perception is exactly the same. Roerich had a real perception of Buddhism and other Eastern teachings, and by this he helped his students a lot, passing them on to his worldview and worldview.
Apparently, it was then that Pyatigorsky developed an interest in other countries, in other languages. After Moscow, he worked in Tartu, and then emigrated to Germany. A little later he moved to London.
However, back in the USSR, he began to write and publish his books and articles. He was an active and not indifferent person, therefore he participated in the protests of dissidents. Among his friends were such people as Ginzburg, Sinyavsky, Daniel.
However, he did not notice any encroachment on freedom by the authorities, about which he later wrote from abroad. He left only because he wanted to live freely - where he wants to. And he really wanted to live in different countries. By the time of emigration, Alexander Moiseevich was already over forty, and he wanted to quickly experience the taste of freedom that was abroad.
Emigration
In England he taught, participated in radio and television shows, and also wrote extensively. The best books by Pyatigorsky are considered books of different genres: "What is political philosophy", "Thinking and observation", "The philosophy of one lane. Ancient Man in the City (collection) "," Introduction to the study of Buddhist philosophy "," Stories and dreams "," Symbol and consciousness "and others.
Pyatigorsk was a polyglot: he knew several foreign languages well, including Sanskrit and some dialects of Tibet. Therefore, he was trusted to translate Buddhist and Hindu sacred texts. At the University of London, he received the title of professor.
When perestroika began in the Russian Federation, Pyatigorsky often came to his homeland. And he even received an award from the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the novel "Remember a Strange Man". He was even offered to act in films, so he also mastered the profession of an actor: he starred in the films "Butterfly Hunt", "Shantrap", "Clean Air of Your Freedom", "The Philosopher Escaped".
Of all his occupations, Pyatigorsky especially loved travel, and most of all he loved to travel to India. Therefore, he devoted many of his lectures at the university to India, its culture and philosophy. He tried to convey to his students the understanding that science and Buddhism are so close that it is difficult to imagine a modern material person.
He tried to bring into their consciousness that scale of thinking and that elite culture that Yuri Roerich passed on to him in his time.
Philosophy, as it was understood in the West, Pyatigorsky was not too willing to refer to a full-fledged science. He said that without physics and mathematics, humanity would hardly have developed, but without philosophy - quite, The scientist Pyatigorsky left a great scientific legacy, which is yet to be studied by philosophers, semiotics and simply curious people. The main thing that he wanted to convey to everyone who heard him is that everyone should have their own philosophy. Without this, no other philosophy will be useful.
Personal life
Piatigorsky until his old age was an attractive, charming, charismatic person. Perhaps that is why women loved him so much.
The first time he got married was when he was still living in the USSR. There he divorced and married a second time. And when he moved to Germany, he took with him his son from his first marriage, a son from his second marriage and his second wife. Then he married again, and he loved and welcomed all wives and children equally.
He invited his parents to London, and everyone healed as one friendly family. His parents died in London, a little before they lived to be a hundred years old - they had such a strong family. Pyatigorsky himself died in London at the age of eighty.
