Malinov A. ‘Philosophy of history’ of L.P. Karsavin and the tradition to teach the philosophy of history in St. Petersburg university. Solovyov Studies, 2019, 2 (62): 193-206.

Abstract

The article discusses L.P. Karsavin’s Philosophy of History (1923) in the context of teaching philosophical, historical and theoretico-methodological disciplines at St. Petersburg University based on the courses of philosophy and methodology of history taught at St. Petersburg University by M.M. Stasyulevich, A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky and N.I. Kareev. The article decribes the philosophical and historical views of K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and V.I. Lamansky - followers of the Slavophil doctrine. It is noted that Lamansky’s ideas were developed in the historical philosophy of the Eurasians rather than in the philosophical and historical teaching of Karsavin who participated in the Eurasian movement. The article pays attention to the conceptual coincidences in the views of Karsavin and his predecessors. However, in general it is recognized that the philosophical attitudes of positivism and neo-Kantianism, that guided the teachers of philosophical and historical disciplines, did not correspond to Karsavin’s philosophical preferences. It is noted that Karsavin’s “Philosophy of History” was based on the ideas of the philosophy of All-Unity and thus can be recognized as an original development of V.S. Solovyov’s ideas in history and historiography. It is concluded that in contrast to the works of the predecessors whose philosophical and historical works are nothing but the arguments of philosophizing historians, Karsavin’s “Philosophy of History” is a philosophical work in a strict sense. It is written in philosophical terms and is of practical, theoretical and conceptual interest to the historians. The article defines and interprets the basic terms of Karsavin’s “Philosophy of History”: hierarchical personality, qualitating (kachestvovanie), contraction, individuation, etc. It is recognized that, unlike most university philosophizing historians who consider history as a science, Karsavin developed a religious model of historical process and historical knowledge. The main issue of this model is the connection between the absolute beginning and the created world.