Kant’s Project of Practical Anthropology and the Teachings of Vl. Solovyov on the Primary Data of Morality

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to reconstruct Kant’s project of practical anthropology and trace how it is transformed in the teaching of Vladimir Solovyov about the primary data of morality, as well as to try to identify the reasons that prompted the Russian thinker to move away from following Kant’s plan. During the study, standard methods of the history of philosophy were used, primarily analysis of philosophical texts, including direct quotes and indirect borrowings of Vl. Soloviev. The subject of study was Kant’s works “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals”, “Critique of Practical Reason”, “Metaphysics of Morals”, “Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason”, as well as the main ethical work of Vl. Solovyov “Justification of the Good” with the appendix “The formal principle of morality (Kant) - presentation and assessment with critical comments on empirical ethics.” As a result, I established that Vl. Solovyov knew about Kant’s project of practical anthropology and fully shared it in the early period of his work. However, in “The Justification of Good” the intentions of Vl. Solovyov have changed radically. Unlike Kant, who paid more attention to the inclination towards evil in human nature, Vl. Solovyov was interested in her good feelings of shame, pity and reverence, “the primary data of morality.” The desire to supplement Kantian ethics by including irrational feelings as the basis of good grew in the Russian thinker into a desire to improve it in accordance with the philosophy of unity and led to the rejection of the idea of moral autonomy, namely the proclamation of the inextricable unity of Good, God and the immortal soul.

Keywords

• russian philosophy
• russian imperial universities
• university philosophical community
• kantiana
• the first world war