List of Russian philosophers
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Russian philosophy includes a variety of philosophical movements. Authors who developed them are listed below sorted by movement.
While most authors listed below are primarily philosophers, also included here are some Russian fiction writers, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, who are also known as philosophers.
Russian philosophy as a separate entity started its development in the 19th century, defined initially by the opposition of Westernizers, advocating Russia's following the Western political and economical models, and Slavophiles, insisting on developing Russia as a unique civilization. The latter group included Nikolai Danilevsky and Konstantin Leontiev, the early founders of eurasianism. The discussion of Russia's place in the world has since become the most characteristic feature of Russian philosophy.
In its further development, Russian philosophy was also marked by deep connection to literature and interest in creativity, society, politics and nationalism; cosmos and religion were other notable subjects.
Notable philosophers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries include Vladimir Solovyev, Vasily Rozanov, Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Nikolai Berdyaev, Pitirim Sorokin and Vladimir Vernadsky.
Since the early 1920s to late 1980s Russian philosophy was dominated by Marxism presented as dogma and not grounds for discussion. Stalin's purges, culminating in 1937, delivered a deadly blow to the development of philosophy.
A handful of dissident philosophers survived through the Soviet period, among them Aleksei Losev. Stalin's death in 1953 gave way for new schools of thought to spring up, among them Moscow Logic Circle, and Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School.
Major Thinkers
Russian Enlightenment
- Mikhail Shcherbatov (1733–1790)
- Alexander Radishchev (1749–1802)
Slavophiles and Pochvennichestvo
- Ivan Kireevsky (1806–1856)
- Aleksey Khomyakov (1804–1860)
- Vladimir Odoevsky (1803–1869)
- Konstantin Aksakov (1817–1860)
- Yuri Samarin (1819–1876)
- Fyodor Tyutchev (1803–1873)
- Nikolay Danilevsky (1822–1885)
- Nikolay Strakhov (1828–1896)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) Religious philosopher artist (see Nikolai Berdyaev)
- Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907)
- Konstantin Leontiev (1831–1891)
- Ivan Ilyin (1883–1954)
Russian Symbolists
- Valery Bryusov (1873–1924)
- Alexander Blok (1880–1921)
- Andrei Bely (1880–1934)
- Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866–1949)
- Innokenty Annensky (1855–1909)
- Fyodor Sologub (1863–1927)
Westernizers
- Pyotr Chaadaev (1794–1856)
- Nikolai Stankevich (1813–1840)
- Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848)
- Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) Father of Russian Socialism
Russian Positivists
- Peter Lavrovich Lavrov (1823–1900)
- G. Virubov
- E. de Roberty
- Nikolay Mikhaylovsky (1842–1910)
- K. Kavelin
- M. Troitsky
- N. Kareyev
- N. Korkunov
Russian cosmists
- Nikolay Fyodorov (1828–1906) N O Lossky lists Fyodorov as primarily a Christian philosopher.
- Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945)
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935)
- Alexander Chizhevsky (1897—1964)
Occultists
- Nikolay Novikov (1744–1818)
- M. M. Speransky (1772–1839)
- Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891)
- G. I. Gurdjieff (1872–1949)
- P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947)
Epistemologists, Logicians and Metaphysicians
- Boris Chicherin (1828–1904)
- N. Debolsky
- P. Bakunin
- M Karinsky
- N. Grot
- Sergei N. Trubetskoy (1863–1905)
Anarchists
- Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) listed also as a Materialist, Nihilist
- Count Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) listed also as the greatest of novelists
- Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) listed also as the 'Anarchist Prince' or 'Father of Anarchism'
Materialists, Nihilists
- N. G. Chernyshevsky (1828–1889)
- Dimitri Pisarev (1840–1868)
- Ivan Sechenov (1829–1905)
Socialists and Marxists
- George Plekhanov (1856–1918) The first major Russian Marxist thinker.
- Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) The founder of Leninism.
- Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928)
- Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) The founder of Trotskyism.
- Sofya Yanovskaya (1896–1966)
- Aleksandr Zinovyev (1922–2006)
- Evald Ilyenkov (1924–1979)
Christian philosophers
Pre- Solovyov
- P. Yurkevichh
- V. Kudriavtsev
- Vladimir Solovyev (1853–1900)
Solovyev is noted to have created the first complete encompassing system of Russian philosophy. - Vasily Rozanov (1856–1919)
- Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944)
- Pavel Florensky (1882–1937)
Orthodox Christian Theologians
- Georges Florovsky (1893–1979)
- Michael Pomazansky (1888–1988)
- Alexander Schmemann (1921–1983)
- John Meyendorff (1926–1992)
- Vladimir Lossky (1903–1958)
Intuitivist-Personalists
- Nikolai Lossky (1870–1965)
- Semen L. Frank (1877–1950)
- A. F. Losev (1892–1988)
- Leo Mikhailovich Lopatin (1855–1920)
- Dmitri Vassilyevich Boldyrev (1885–1920)
- Sergey Alexandrovich Levitsky
- Vladimir Alexandrovich Kozhevnikov (1850–1917)
Intuitivist-Realists
Existentialists
- Lev Shestov (1866–1938)
- Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948)
Aestheticians
- Alexei Losev (1893–1988)
- Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975)
See also
- Philosophy in the Soviet Union
- Philosophers' ship
- Russian literature
- Valentin A. Bazhanov
- Lev Gumilev
- Mikhail Epstein
- Dmitry Likhachev
- Vasily Nalimov
- Victor Ovcharenko
- Karen A. Swassjan
- Nicolai A. Vasiliev