Vasily (Wilhelm) Sesemann is the most important Lithuanian philosopher of all times. Born in Vyborg in 1884 by parents of German descent, Sesemann grew up and studied in St. Petersburg. A close friend of Viktor Zhirmunsky and Lev P. Karsavin, Sesemann taught from the early 1920 until his death in 1963 at the universities of Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania (interrupted by his internment in a Siberian labor camp from 1950 to 1958).
Sesemann authored the first review of Heidegger’s Being and Time to be published in Russian.
This book delves into Baltic culture of the early twentieth century and analyzes Sesemann's idea of "experience" as a dynamic, constantly self-reflective, "ungraspable" phenomenon.
The book contains translations of two essays by Sesemann as well as a translation of an essay by Karsavin, all three of which existed so far only in Russian.
With a preface by Eero Tarasti.
Sesemann around 1909. Courtesy Svenska Litteratursallskapet i Finland.
Sesemann around 1920
Contents:
Preface by Eero Tarasti
Introduction: Experience as a Subject of Philosophy in the Early Twentieth Century
ONE. Sesemann’s Life and Work
TWO. Neo-Kantianism, Formalism, and the Question of Being
THREE: New Approaches to the Psychic Subject: Sesemann, Bakhtin and Lacan
FOUR: Intuition and Ontology in Sesemann and Bergson: Zeno’s Paradox and the Being of Dream
Appendix I: V. Sesemann: “Socrates and the Problem of Self-Perception” (1925) trans. T. Botz-Bornstein
Appendix II: V. Sesemann: On the Nature of the Poetic Form (1925) trans. T. Botz-Bornstein
Appendix III: L.P. Karsavin: “The Foundations of Politics” (1927) trans. T. Botz-Bornstein
Appendix IV: A Letter by Henri Parland from Kaunas
Appendix V: Research Bibliography of Sesemann’s Works
"A competent and enlightening description of the complicated philosophical milieu which provided the background to Sesemann's philosophical endeavours. The milieu comprised, first, a fusion of some German philosophical schools, in particular Neo-kantianism (or the Marburg School) and to a lesser extent the early phenomenology, with the more local Russian varieties such as Formalism and Intuitivism. ... Botz-Bornstein's study of Sesemann disentangles the strands with both historical competence and sensitivity."
Lithuanian Papers, No. 22, 2008.
Thus, “Sesemann’s work culminates in a new logic of dream,” critical of “undue objectivization of the subjective”(77-78) even in Freud, yet anticipating Lacan while presenting parallels with Bergson. ... This precious study of this overlooked philosopher includes useful bibliographies, with revealing, hard-to-find Eurasian texts in appendix. The European Legacy 13: 6 2008.
Viborg in around 1930
The book's cover photo, called "A Journey to Vyborg," is by Finnish photographer and film director Eeli Aalto who shot this in 1990. Aalto offers some interesting comments on Vyborg on this website.
Another photo from Aalto's Viborg series.
Sesemann with wife Wilma in 1937
%20in%201939.jpg)
Sesemann at Lake Salakas in 1939
After his release from camp in 1957
Sesemann with mother and sister in 1926
Kaunas in 1921
Tikkala estate became property of the Sesemann family in 1861. See Natalia Baschmakoff and Mari Ristolainen: The Dacha Kingdom.
An oil painting (photo) of the Tikkala estate by J. Rinne from 1985. See this interesting website about the painter Elga Sesemann
