Kant and the “New Brain Line” of Akim Volynsky

Abstract

The article treats the specific reception of I. Kant’s ideas by an eminent Russian philosopher, literary critic and art critic at the turn of the 19th–20th century Akim L. Volynsky. Unlike G. W. F. Hegel and F. W. J. Schelling, I. Kant did not enjoy popularity in Russia until the very end of the 19th century. The appearance of A. L. Volynsky’s work ‘Critical and Dogmatic Elements in Kant’s Philosophy’ (1889) became an important event in Russian cultural life. In this article A. L. Volynsky announced the inevitability of “the power of religious belief over all questions of life.” In so doing, he had set vector of the development of literature, philosophy and social consciousness in Russia and prepared a religious and philosophical renaissance of the turn of the century. I. Kant’s philosophy, which stands against dogmatism in thought and also establishes unbendable moral values, became a worldview ground for A.L.Volynsky in his struggle with Positivism, atheism and Utilitarianism that dominated over the society and literature at the time. However, his enthusiasm was not appreciated by his contemporaries — representatives of the Silver Age of Russian culture, among whom F.Nietzsche began to come into vogue. A. L. Volynsky was not a pioneer of Russian Kantianism. His article on Kant had only an indirect influence on his contemporaries. However, it was the first sign of Russian Kantian studies, ahead of the works by A. I. Vvedensky, V. S. Solovyov, I. I. Lapshin, N. Ya. Grot, F. A. Stepun, and others.