The Phenomenon of the Georgian Spirit in Grigol Robakidze’s Thought

Abstract

Until the 1930s, Grigol Robakidze always considered Georgian artistic and philosophical thought in a continuous context with Western civilisation, which largely led to the fact that the Tsisperkantsi people (and not only them) considered him their meter.

While in emigration, Grigol Robakidze delved into the phenomenon of Georgian ethnoculture or ethnopsychology, as evidenced by his essays, publicistic writings, and artistic thought. Emigration became a kind of transformation for Grigol Robakidze – the more perfectly he wrote in German, the greater his interest in the spirituality of his own nation and the more intensively he explored, as he himself called it, the “Urphänomen” of the Georgian nation. Distancing from his homeland gave Grigol Robakidze’s work the same special flavor as it did in the case of Davit Guramishvili – it seems that the main driving force for both thinkers was thinking and reflecting on the fate of the homeland and the mentality of the Georgian nation, its purpose and the duty of a particular person to the country and God.