Vladimir Soloviev

Abstract

Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) is generally viewed as Russia’s greatest religious philosopher. Although he was not a jurist, Soloviev helped to inspire the religious-idealist philosophy of law that emerged in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century. He elaborated a vision of the good society as a community that orders its economic activity, law, government, and religious life in such a way as to respect the integrity of each of the spheres while promoting their symphonic interaction. Assigning a central place to juridical values in his philosophy, Soloviev criticized Slavophiles, Tolstoyans, and other Russian antilegalists of his day. This chapter describes Soloviev’s first sketch of a philosophy of law in The Critique of Abstract Principles (1880) and goes on to explicate the more mature formulation in The Justification of the Good (1897, 2nd ed. 1899). The chapter places Soloviev’s understanding of law in the context of his overarching religious vision. Soloviev did not view the rule-of-law state as the highest form of community. He believed that human beings also need a fellowship of free spiritual love—the church.