Editor's Introduction

Abstract

The historical turn in nineteenth-century philosophy, the recognition of the history of philosophy as an integral part of philosophy itself, gave rise to the study of ancient philosophy as a special philosophical discipline. The interest of Russian philosophers in ancient thought is attributable not only to the influence of German idealism but also to their rootedness in Orthodox theological thought, which is Platonic at its core. The earliest systematic studies of the ancient philosophers were written by professors at Kiev University or the Kiev Theological Academy, all of whom were graduates of the academy: M. Novytskyi (1860-61), P.I. Linytskyi (1870-72 and 1902), and S. Gogotskyi (1871). A new educational policy, introduced by the imperial government in the 1880s, provided a strong stimulus to studies of ancient philosophy. The policy placed classical philology at the core of higher education and made ancient philosophy a mandatory subject. The authorities hoped that this reform would sever the link between higher education and political radicalism and divert the attention of students from current social issues. At the turn of the century, studies of ancient philosophy in Russia were enriched not only with translations of well-established names in the field (E. Zeller, W. Windelband, T. Gomperz, G. Grote, and J. Burnet), but also with original contributions from Russian scholars such as A.N. Giliarov (1888), M.I. Karinskii (1889), S.N. Trubetskoi (1890), F. Zelenogorskii (1908), and A.I. Vvedenskii (1912).1