Alexander Piatigorsky facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky
Alexander Piatigorsky in 2009
Born	(1929-01-30)30 January 1929 Moscow, Soviet Union
Died	25 October 2009(2009-10-25) (aged 80) London, England
Era	Contemporary
School	Analytic
Main interests	South Asian philosophy and culture, semiotics

Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky (born January 30, 1929 – died October 25, 2009) was a very important Russian thinker. He was a philosopher, a historian, and a writer. He was also known as a Soviet dissident, meaning he disagreed with the government in the Soviet Union.

Piatigorsky was an expert in Indian culture and languages. He knew many languages, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, and Tibetan. Many people considered him one of the greatest Russian philosophers of his time.

Early Life and Learning

Alexander Piatigorsky was born in Moscow, which was then part of the Soviet Union. When World War II started, his father, an engineer, moved to the Urals to work in weapons production. Alexander also worked in the factory during the war.

He wasn't very good at subjects like math or chemistry. In fact, he was even expelled from school twice! But he loved to read and learn languages. He taught himself Latin and other languages just because he was curious. He read almost every book he could find.

Studying and Working in the USSR

Piatigorsky studied philosophy at Moscow State University and finished in 1951. After teaching high school history for a short time, he joined the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. There, he became an expert in Tamil languages and Hindu studies.

In 1960, he helped create the first Russian-Tamil dictionary. He also helped start the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School in 1963. This school studied how signs and symbols (like words or gestures) create meaning in society and culture.

Life in the Soviet Union could be difficult for thinkers. In 1964, his friend, the poet Joseph Brodsky, was sent away for five years. Piatigorsky's ideas about ancient South Asian culture were seen as a hidden way to criticize the Soviet system.

He and his friends, who were also experts in India, would talk in Sanskrit to avoid being spied on by the KGB. Because of his independent thinking, he was removed from the Oriental Institute in 1968.

Piatigorsky continued to teach at the University of Moscow. He kept studying Buddhist thought and worked on ideas about consciousness and philosophy. He often worked with other Russian philosophers, like his close friend Merab Mamardashvili.

Mamardashvili was a key person in the "Moscow School of Methodology." This group explored deep philosophical ideas. Their work was very important, but it was not well-known outside the Soviet Union. This was because of the "Iron Curtain" and strict government control.

In 1972, Piatigorsky's Buddhist teacher, Dandaron, was arrested and later died in a labor camp. During this time, Piatigorsky and Mamardashvili wrote a very important book together. It was called "Symbol and Consciousness" and was published in 1982.

This book combined Western and Eastern ideas and is considered one of the most important philosophical works written in Russian. The book's manuscript was secretly taken out of the country in 1974, just before Piatigorsky left the Soviet Union.

Moving to London and Career at SOAS

Alexander Piatigorsky left the Soviet Union in 1974. He first went to Israel, then to Oxford University in England to give lectures. Life was hard at first for him and his family in London. He earned very little money.

However, he decided to stay in London. In 1975, he joined the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. He became a lecturer there, with strong support from famous thinkers like Isaiah Berlin. Berlin even called Piatigorsky "quite simply a genius!"

Piatigorsky didn't see himself as a "dissident" who wanted to fight the government. He said he left the Soviet Union simply because he was "bored" and felt something was missing there.

At SOAS, Piatigorsky wrote many articles and books. Some of his important works include The Buddhist Philosophy of Thought (1984) and Mythological Deliberations (1993). His book Who's Afraid of Freemasons? (1997) was a bestseller.

In 1991, he became a Professor of the Ancient History of South Asia. He retired from this position in 2001.

In his later years, Piatigorsky also wrote several philosophical novels in Russian. One of his novels, The Philosophy of a Small Street (1994), was very popular in Russia. He won the Andrei Bely prize in 2000 for his writing.

He also wrote Remember the Strange Person (1999) and An Ancient Man in the City (2001). He became one of the few philosophers who also became successful novelists, like Jean-Paul Sartre and Umberto Eco. He even appeared in a documentary film about his life and played a small role in a movie!

Piatigorsky didn't like complicated academic language. He believed scholars should publish less and think more. His lectures were very engaging. He would walk around, smoke, and sometimes pause to think before making his next point. He never used notes.

He was married four times and had five children: Galia, Max, Ilya, Veronica, and Anna. He passed away suddenly on October 25, 2009.

Works

• Пятигорский А. М., Рудин С. Тамильско-русский словарь. – М., 1960 (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Материалы по истории индийской философии. – М., 1962 (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky, D. Zilberman The Emergence of Semiotics in India (1976)
• Пятигорский А. М., Мамардашвили М. К. Символ и сознание. Метафизические рассуждения о сознании, символике и языке. – Иерусалим, 1982 (reprinted М., 1997) (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky Buddhist Studies: Ancient and Modern (1983)
• A. Piatigorsky The Buddhist philosophy of thought. – Totowa, N. J., 1984
• A. Piatigorsky Mythological Deliberations. – L., 1993
• Пятигорский А. М. Избранные труды. – М., 1996 (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky Who’s Afraid of Freemasons? The Phenomenon of Freemasonry. – L., 1997
• A. Piatigorsky The Bhagavat Gita (Element Classic of World Spirituality Editions (1997)
• Пятигорский А. М. Мышление и наблюдение (Рига, 2002) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Избранные труды. – М.: 2005 (In Russian)

Fiction and essays

• Пятигорский А. М. Философия одного переулка (London, 1989, М., 1994) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Вспомнишь странного человека (М., 1999) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Рассказы и сны. (М., 2001) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Древний человек в городе (М., 2001) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Непрекращаемый разговор (М., 2004) (In Russian)

See also

• Chancery Slavonic