Alexander Sergeyevich Lappo-Danilevsky

“ This unifying principle of self-conscious action can be realized in Russia, of course, only under liberal political conditions; in its strict sense it implies, moreover, a reciprocal acknowledgment of its value for every nation; the Russian nation must acknowledge, therefore, other nations just as she herself is acknowledged by them as a self-conscious cultured nation acting for the good of humanity, and thus she becomes, in concert with other nations, a part of humanity, and obtains, in agreement with them, her right to relative independence ”

“ The scientific conception of evolution provoked, moreover, some criticism in the domain of moral and historical sciences. It was formulated in a transcendent way by Solovyev; he acknowledged an Absolute Cause or a Creative Force, without which evolution is not possible; but he supposed that God's thought, which is absolute destiny in regard to things, is only a duty for a moral being. In this way he tried to solve the problem of "free will" and of man's mission, which is to realize, "in union with God," Truth, Good, and Beauty in the World. ”

“ Thanks to the growth of Russian thought the principle of its unity, which was formerly established only from a religious and specially orthodox point of view, could now be formulated afresh. This tendency manifests itself more and more in Russian philosophy, science and learning. Some examples, relating to modern times, will clear up this growing tendency to unify our general conception of the world and our knowledge of nature and history. ”

“ Chebyshev, in one of his treatises on averages, proved that a general theorem underlies the different problems of the theory of probabilities and implies the famous theorem of Bernoulli as a special case of it.
This unifying tendency acquired a different character in the knowledge of the external World. In natural science, besides the doctrine of conservation of force or transformation of energy, this movement manifested itself particularly in the conception of matter as a system of elements, and in the doctrine of "consensus" and evolution, as a unifying process of life. ”

“ Religious thought, whatever may be the factors of its evolution, gives, even at its lowest stages, a conception of the world, which tends to a certain unity. Even in heathen times we can trace such a frame of mind. Although Russian mythology could not, of course, reach systematic unity, it contained some germs of unification, around which the varieties of heathen experience were gathered ”

“ Thus far Russian thought has been considered in its general aspect apart from its connection with practical life; but unity of thought studied in its process of unification must be made or worked out; hence, its close relation to practical life; such a real unity supposes a permanent harmony between thought and action; and consciousness, in the sense stated above, works it out and thus gives unity to our activity. ”

“ Mathematics have developed in a much more logical manner, than other branches of knowledge: for they were much more independent of exterior circumstances and had no need of expensive laboratories, complicated implements, etc ; nevertheless they turned out to be of great practical value and inspired no alarm in the Government.
It is natural, therefore, that mathematics have continuously developed in Russia from the times of Bernoulli and Euler. The latter trained the first Russian mathematicians who were able to use mathematical analysis, particularly Kotelnikov and Rumovsky. ”

“ In these Russian conceptions of consciousness as a compound of thought, will, and feeling, the religious or, at least, moral point of view plays a prominent rôle, and, perhaps, in the main, appears, although not very clearly, to mark out its unifying principle. ”

“ The solution of such a problem in its totality would be, probably, unattainable for any one man, even if he were familiar with all branches of human knowledge—science and learning. I have, of course, no such claims and intend to give you merely an approximate idea of what might be done to elucidate some general aspects of Russian thought, as manifested in the scientific and learned work, which is going on in Russia. ”

“ German philosophy excited in Russian coteries a growing interest in the problem of unity of thought, of a systematic conception of the world, of a harmonious comprehension of nature and man; but it was often marked by its transcendent, metaphysical character, and exceeded the limits of positive science and learning which German scholars were introducing into Russia. ”

“ Karyeev shared this view and conceived historical progress as a gradual ascent of human beings from coarse reality to ideals, produced by their yearning after Truth and Good, "inherent in our soul," by their desire to be happy without encroaching on the happiness of others. ”

“ They had some influence on our political relations with other Orthodox Slavonic nations [10] .
This unifying orthodox conception of the world was, however, a dogmatic construction: it suppressed the varieties of religious experience and fettered the development of Russian thought. This is the principal reason why the Orthodox system could not endure: it was crippled by the great Schism (Raskol) , which embodied a protest in regard to some religious rites, and it was unable to stifle the growing power of secular thought in Russia. ”

“ While psychology was dominated by speculative philosophy, it could not have much influence on the development of sociology: but social science was, especially at first, closely related to ethnography, which developed in connection with natural science and thus produced a corresponding conception of social phenomena.
The ethnographical study of the different nations and tribes of the Russian Empire was simplified by the ethnographical maps, anticipated by Kirilov and compiled by Koeppen and Rittich. ”

“ The humanistic and individualistic spirit of the Renaissance was not quite unknown to the Russians of the 17th century. Peter Mogila, the enlightened metropolitan of Kiev, had an opportunity of learning something about it, and the monk Epiphanius Slavinetsky, who came from Kiev to Moscow, was acquainted with some of its literary productions. For instance, Russian translations of the treatises of Vesalius on anatomy and of Mozhevsky on politics prove that this movement was beginning to penetrate into literary circles at Moscow. ”

“ Meantime the system of Kant encountered further criticism from Russian intuitionists: Lossky, a pupil of Kozlov, developed comprehensive views on the intuition of the external "transsubjective" world; he formulated a theory concerning the original "coordination" between one's self and the content of this world, and applied it to different parts of philosophy [18] .
The gradual rise of independent research in Russia can be observed even better in the evolution of mathematics, natural sciences and humanistic studies. ”

“ The Russian scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries were obliged to conform to the precepts of Russian Orthodoxy, as expounded in the "Profession" of Peter Mogila and the later treatises of Stephen Yavorsky and Theophan Prokopovich, though these were influenced to some extent by Catholic and Protestant ideas. Orthodoxy continued to subdue reason and to humble its independent creative power: for a long time it preserved among Russian scholars the dogmatic and traditional conception of science and learning, and produced such a view as might be expected of natural and historical phenomena. ”

“ During the same period the evolution of independent Russian thought concerning the real world in its natural and historical aspect can also be exemplified. Such a knowledge supposes a theoretical conception of Reality as an object of experience, and experience, from an epistemological and even practical point of view, becomes a problem in itself. ”

“ According to this doctrine, this unified Whole determines the unity of the human mind, which is conscious of its connection with it. Integral knowledge includes, moreover, faith and various other elements of consciousness: it ascends from feeling to thought and from thought to mystical love which leads us to the cognition of the transcendent World. ”

“ This idealistic conception of Russian history could not find favour with those "Westerners" who supposed a general uniformity in the evolution of nations and set a high value on the influence of Western civilization upon Russian life; under Hegel's influence and Savigny's direction they insisted on the part played by the State in national development and preferred to study the history of institutions, fixing the main epochs of Russian history in accordance with these. Solovyev, although not quite indifferent to the Slavophile tendencies, belonged to the opposite school. ”

“ French sensualism and English empiricism did much to promote the rise of secular thought and its development in Russia; and the culmination of French and English science which crowned the 18th century and inaugurated the 19th has contributed as much as German learning, and perhaps even more, to the growth of Russian thought in its secular aspect. ”

“ Chicherin showed the scarcity of information concerning patriarchal society and divided the subsequent times, like Kavelin, into two periods—the period of "civil union," during which individual will predominated, and the period of "political union," during which public will prevailed and organized social life. This theory was accepted by Sergueyevitch; he distinguished in Russian history the two periods of Chicherin almost in identical terms and expected a third period, during which the opposed principles of the two former will be reconciled. ”

“ In a similar realistic and "sociological" spirit Milyukov explained the evolution of Russian culture, arranged in a homogeneous series, and with Kisewetter, Bogoslovsky and others entered upon definite investigations concerning the history of certain Russian institutions. This "realistic" conception of Russia's past could not, however, satisfy those who, like Pokrovsky, believed in Marxism: and he worked up again, from a materialistic point of view, the materials collected by the idealists. ”

“ Russian scholars became aware that "general human knowledge cannot be realized by a nation without self-knowledge," which is the chief factor of progress, and many of them turned their minds to the study of Russian history.
This idea was not easy of access to historians like Karamsin, who was much more interested in the fortunes of the Russian monarchy than in the history of the Russian nation; but it was one of the leading principles of Solovyev's great work. Solovyev at one time attended the lectures of Ritter and was a disciple of Guizot and an adherent of Ewers ”

“ Byelinsky wrote in 1834: "Romanticism was the principle proclaimed in the times of Pushkin, nationality is the alpha and omega of our own times," and in the name of this "national spirit" Nadezhdin required from his countrymen appreciation of their national individuality, and proper pride in themselves. This doctrine was developed by the Slavophiles—Kiryéevsky, Homyakov, and Aksakov, and later by Danilevsky, the critic of Darwinism, by his friend Strachov and others; some of the "Westerners " also, chiefly Solovyev and Kavelin, were inclined to accept it, but in a different sense. ”

“ V. Solovyev criticised in this spirit the onesidedness of Comte's conception of the three stages of evolution; the Russian writer could not agree with a theory, which excluded theology and metaphysics from a general conception of the world and restricted itself to positive science; he formulated the postulates of his own system as follows: the "creative principles which are needed for the transformation of general facts or laws into a harmonious scientific edifice, cannot be deduced from these materials, just as the plan of a building cannot be deduced from the bricks employed to construct it" ”

“ This independent spirit might have grown much more quickly and continuously, if it had been placed in suitable political conditions: but political circumstances were not favourable to it. I shall not speak of the times when Moscow was a fortified camp, rather than a centre of civilization; but even in later periods of Russian history, when thought was growing up, it was held under considerable restraint. ”

“ One of the adherents of this doctrine, Iljin (Lenin) , stood forth recently in its defence against those "Marxists" who try to combine empirical criticism with Marxism.
These dogmatical constructions could not satisfy the critical spirit of those, who were conscious of the epistemological problems implied in them: the doctrine of Kant could not establish itself before the sixties, or even later, and only towards the end of the century, after Vvedensky began to lecture at the University of Petrograd, the critical philosophy was accepted by some Russian thinkers. ”

“ These views were applied especially by Aksakov to Russian history: according to him, the principle of "true equity" is incorporated in the community and manifests itself in the mutual love and solidarity of its members; these communities invited, of their own free will, the princes, who founded the Russian state with its external justice; and thus Land and State became the principal elements of Russian history ”

“ The doctrine of evolution performed a similar rôle in respect to our conception of organic processes. Darwinism found many able adherents in Russia. Darwin himself had a very high opinion of the palaeontological studies of Vlad. Kovalevsky and appreciated the zoological investigations of his brother Alex. Kovalevsky on the lowest vertebrates and invertebrates and on their genetical relationship. His works, as well as the works of Metchnikov, were in the main directed to establish unity of organization in animals. ”