ПРЕПОДАВАНИЕ ЛОГИКИ В ИМПЕРАТОРСКОМ МОСКОВСКОМ УНИВЕРСИТЕТЕ XVIII ВЕКА

Abstract

Basing on the announcements of lectures and other historical documents, I reconstruct the process of logic teaching at Moscow University during its first half-century (from 1755 till 1800). Its most significant characteristics are the combination of logic and metaphysics teaching, tuition based on a textbook approved by the university’s conference, and the lack of competition among the professors. For the second half of the 18th century, there were four logic professors at Moscow University: J. H. Frommann, J. M. Schaden, D. S. Anichkov and A. M. Bryantsev. Anichkov was the first professor who taught logic in Russian. Despite there being many logic textbooks in Latin or German and their Russian translations, only three texts were used: those by J. H. Winckler, F. Chr. Baumeister and J. G. H. Feder. At university gymnasiums, logic was taught by Schaden, Ch. A. Chebotarev, E. B. Syreyshchikov, D. N. Sinkovskiy, M. I. Snegirev and M. G. Gavrilov. They exploited textbooks by Baumeister and especially by J. G. Heineccius. Except for Anichkov (“Annotationes inlogicam et metaphysicam”, 1782), nobody among the mentioned lectures left behind proper logic papers. For most of the 18th century, logic teaching at Moscow University did not rely on the best textbooks. In fact, the teaching process was at the level of gymnasiums. The situation began to improve only by the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. The current paper identifies the most likely reasons for choosing the mentioned books. In addition, it includes an annex detailing the list of logic classes at Moscow University and university gymnasiums from 1756 till 1800 with respect to lectures and textbooks. The annex is based on the available lecture announcements and the contents of logic textbooks used at Moscow University and university gymnasiums in the 18th century.