Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and the Moscow School of the Ecclesiastical-Academic Philosophy of the XIX Century Part II. Jacobi and Viktor D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov

Abstract

The article analyzes the attitude of the philosophy professor of the Moscow
Theological Academy in the second half of the 19th century. Viktor D. Kudryav­tsev-Platonov to the philosophy of Fr. Jacobi, the continuity of the philosophical views of Kudryavtsev and his teacher Feodor Golubinsky is traced, which is re­flected in the attention to Jacobi’s apology for theism and the high appreciation of his teachings. Kudryavtsev joins the Jacobi’s criticism of philosophical ratio­nalism and supports his doctrine of reason as an organ of direct perception of God and the properties of spiritual reality. At the same time, in his doctoral dis­sertation on the essence and origin of religion, Kudryavtsev points out a number of shortcomings of Jacobi’s philosophy, which is discussed in detail in the arti­cle. By presenting criticism of Kudryavtsev, the article, in particular, discusses Jacobi's concept of nature, his relation to religious tradition, the reasons for the differences between Kudryavtsev and Jacobi on the question of the possibility of rational knowledge of God and in assessing the evidence for the existence of God, Kant’s influence on Jacobi. It is concluded that Kudryavtsev-Platonov’s new differentiated assessment of Jacobi's teaching is conditioned by the new tasks of ecclesiastical-academic philosophy of the second half of the 19th century.