Kant in Imperial Russia

Kant in Imperial Russia
Author: Thomas Nemeth
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2017-02-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319529145

This book presents a comprehensive study of the influence of Immanuel Kant’s Critical Philosophy in the Russian Empire, spanning the period from the late 19th century to the Bolshevik Revolution. It systematically details the reception bestowed on Kant’s ideas during his lifetime and up to and through the era of the First World War. The book traces the tensions arising in the early 19th century between the imported German scholars, who were often bristling with the latest philosophical developments in their homeland, and the more conservative Russian professors and administrators. The book goes on to examine the frequently neglected criticism of Kant in the theological institutions throughout the Russian Empire as well as the last remaining, though virtually unknown, embers of Kantianism during the reign of Nicholas I. With the political activities of many young radicals during the subsequent decades having been amply studied, this book focuses on their largely ignored attempts to grapple with Kant’s transcendental idealism. It also presents a complete account of the resurgence of interest in Kant in the last two decades of that century, and the growing attempts to graft a transcendental idealism onto popular social and political movements. The book draws attention to the young and budding Russian neo-Kantian movement that mirrored developments in Germany before being overtaken by political events.

Russian Neo-Kantianism

Russian Neo-Kantianism
Author: Thomas Nemeth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2022-03-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 311075553X

This, the first in-depth and comprehensive book-length study of the Russian neo-Kantian movement in English language, challenges the assumption of the isolation of neo-Kantianism to Germany. The present investigation demonstrates that neo-Kantianism had an international dimension by showing the emergence of a parallel movement in Imperial Russia spanning its emergence in the late 19th century to its gradual dissolution in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. The author presents a systematic portrait of the development of Russian neo-Kantianism starting with its rise as a philosophy of science. However, it was with the stream of young students returning to Imperial Russia after a period of study at German universities that the movement accelerated. More often than not, these enthusiastic, young philosophers returned home imbued with the neo-Kantianism of their respective but divergent host institutions. As a result, clashes were inevitable concerning the proper approach to philosophical issues as well as the very understanding of Kant's philosophy and his legacy for contemporary thought. In the end, the broad promise of a Western-oriented neo-Kantianism could not withstand the pressures it confronted on all sides.

Philosophy in Imperial Russia’s Theological Academies

Philosophy in Imperial Russia’s Theological Academies
Author: Thomas Nemeth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2023-07-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3111002861

This work is a historical study of the philosophical writings emerging from Imperial Russia's theological "academies" – Orthodoxy’s higher educational institutions that ran parallel to the secular universities – from their inception to the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. Unlike with nineteenth century Russian revolutionary thought, there are few secondary studies of the philosophical works stemming from the academies. These philosophical works focused on ontology and, as such, stand in sharp contrast to the shift toward epistemology in that century as happened in Germany. Another feature of the "academy" philosophies was the continual and explicit attempt to set themselves apart from the pervasive "subjectivism" of Western philosophical systems, although a largely unacknowledged influence persisted. At no time did the academy philosophers look to rational inquiry for more than an assist in understanding their theology. Instead they appealed to tradition and to an alleged direct insight into religious truths at the expense of logic and rational argument. The ultimate result was the pecular historical insularity of their community and concomitantly a subservience to the political state, traits that persist to this day.

Russian Neo-Kantianism

Russian Neo-Kantianism
Author: Thomas Nemeth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2022-03-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110755408

This, the first in-depth and comprehensive book-length study of the Russian neo-Kantian movement in English language, challenges the assumption of the isolation of neo-Kantianism to Germany. The present investigation demonstrates that neo-Kantianism had an international dimension by showing the emergence of a parallel movement in Imperial Russia spanning its emergence in the late 19th century to its gradual dissolution in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. The author presents a systematic portrait of the development of Russian neo-Kantianism starting with its rise as a philosophy of science. However, it was with the stream of young students returning to Imperial Russia after a period of study at German universities that the movement accelerated. More often than not, these enthusiastic, young philosophers returned home imbued with the neo-Kantianism of their respective but divergent host institutions. As a result, clashes were inevitable concerning the proper approach to philosophical issues as well as the very understanding of Kant's philosophy and his legacy for contemporary thought. In the end, the broad promise of a Western-oriented neo-Kantianism could not withstand the pressures it confronted on all sides.

Dostoevsky and Kant

Dostoevsky and Kant
Author: Evgenia Cherkasova
Publisher: Rodopi
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9042026111

"In this book, Evgenia Cherkasova brings the philosopher Kant and the novelist Dostoevsky together in conversations that probe why duty is central to our moral life. She shows that just as Dostoevsky is indebted to Kant, so Kant would profit from the deeply philosophical narratives of Dostoevsky, which engage the problem of evil and the claims of human community. She not only produces a novel reading of Dostoevsky, but also guides us to later, often neglected Kantian texts. This study is written with scholarly care, penetrating analysis, elegance of style, and moral urgency: Cherkasova writes with both mind and heart." Emily Grosholz, Professor of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University

Internal Colonization

Internal Colonization
Author: Alexander Etkind
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2013-04-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0745673546

This book gives a radically new reading of Russia’s culturalhistory. Alexander Etkind traces how the Russian Empire conqueredforeign territories and domesticated its own heartlands, therebycolonizing many peoples, Russians included. This vision ofcolonization as simultaneously internal and external, colonizingone’s own people as well as others, is crucial for scholarsof empire, colonialism and globalization. Starting with the fur trade, which shaped its enormous territory,and ending with Russia’s collapse in 1917, Etkind exploresserfdom, the peasant commune, and other institutions of internalcolonization. His account brings out the formative role of foreigncolonies in Russia, the self-colonizing discourse of Russianclassical historiography, and the revolutionary leaders’illusory hopes for an alliance with the exotic, pacifistsectarians. Transcending the boundaries between history andliterature, Etkind examines striking writings about Russia’simperial experience, from Defoe to Tolstoy and from Gogol toConrad. This path-breaking book blends together historical, theoretical andliterary analysis in a highly original way. It will be essentialreading for students of Russian history and literature and foranyone interested in the literary and cultural aspects ofcolonization and its aftermath.

Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Author: Vladislav Lektorsky
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2019-01-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1350040606

Philosophical Thought in Russia in the Second Half of the 20th Century is the first book of its kind that offers a systematic overview of an often misrepresented period in Russia's philosophy. Focusing on philosophical ideas produced during the late 1950s – early 1990s, it reconstructs the development of genuine philosophical thought in the Soviet period and introduces those non-dogmatic Russian thinkers who saw in philosophy a means of reforming social and intellectual life. Covering such areas of philosophical inquiry as philosophy of science, philosophical anthropology, the history of philosophy, activity approach as well as communication and dialogue studies, the volume presents and thoroughly discusses central topics and concepts developed by Soviet thinkers in that particular fields. Written by a team of internationally recognized scholars from Russia and abroad, it examines the work of well-known Soviet philosophers (such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Evald Ilyenkov and Merab Mamardashvili) as well as those important figures (such as Vladimir Bibler, Alexander Zinoviev, Yury Lotman, Georgy Shchedrovitsky, Genrich Batishchev, Sergey Rubinstein, and others) who have often been overlooked. By introducing and examining original philosophical ideas that evolved in the Soviet period, the book confirms that not all Soviet philosophy was dogmatic and tied to orthodox Marxism and the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. It shows Russian philosophical development of the Soviet period in a new light, as a philosophy defined by a genuine discourse of exploration and intellectual progress, rather than stagnation and dogmatism. In addition to providing the historical and cultural background that explains the development of the 20th-century Russian philosophy, the book also puts the discussed ideas and theories in the context of contemporary philosophical discussions showing their relevance to nowadays debates in Western philosophy. With short biographies of key thinkers, an extensive current bibliography and a detailed chronology of Soviet philosophy, this research resource provides a new understanding of the Soviet period and its intellectual legacy 100 years after the Russian Revolution.

Thinking Orthodox in Modern Russia

Thinking Orthodox in Modern Russia
Author: Patrick Lally Michelson
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299298949

This collection of essays on Russian religious thought focuses on the extent to which Russian culture and ideology has been informed by the nation's roots in Orthodox Christianity.

Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia

Liberal Ideas in Tsarist Russia
Author: Vanessa Rampton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2020-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108483739

Liberalism is a crucially important topic today; this book adds the important yet neglected Russian aspect to its history.

Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity

Russia's Bitter Path to Modernity
Author: Alexander Chubarov
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780826413505

Will it follow the model of the Western capitalist democracies, as those who applied the economic shock therapy of the early 90s hoped, or will it chose its own distinct path of development? In this history of Russia from 1917 to the present, Alexander Chubarov teases out certain themes developed in his previous book on tsarist Russia (The Fragile Empire). One of the key factors to Russia's distinctiveness is its halfway location in the center of the Eurasian landmass. This lends an inevitability to the traditional cultural schism between Westernizing reformers and Slavophiles. Neither approach, says Chubarov, will work on its own. Chubarov offers "a balanced view, abstaining from narrow, ideologically biased assessments," and examines the triumphs (yes) and failures of Russia's Soviet development "within Russia's own cultural and historical context." Without ever minimizing the brutalities of the Soviet period-the state terror, the collectivizations, the labor camps, the deportations of whole peoples-Chubarov demonstrates much continuity between tsarist and Soviet Russia, with the latter often repeating the former's mistakes. Russia, says Chubarov, cannot turn its back on its Soviet experience. Far from being a blind alley or "aberrant phase," the Soviet period was an organic part of Russia history and "was largely successful in turning Russia and most of the other Soviet republics into modern states.">