The History of Philosophical Psychology in Russia: From Metaphysics of Soul to Freedom Reflex

• Applicant: Privatdozent Maksim Demin, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512536833

The project relies on the hypothesis that the development of psychology in Russia from the beginning of 19th century to revolutionary changes of the Soviet regime was deeply embedded into a discussion with German philosophical tradition and even has a similar dynamic of psychological studies that took place in German-speaking countries in a period in question. The focus of the project is the German-Russian relationship in a realm of studies of human mind that took place in the Russian Empire. The project’s aim is to reconstruct how debates on psychology have affected the philosophical discussion in Russia from the beginning of the 19th century, the time of the adaptation of Christian Wolff’s approach to psychology, through the dispute on the status of the mental phenomenon to the revolution of 1917, the year when Ivan Pavlov attempted to explain human freedom in terms of physiological reflexes. I assume psychology is placed at the center of debates among professional philosophers. Discovering this polemic allows us to see the history of Russian philosophy from a new perspective and gives a better understanding of the effect that different cultural and institutional settings might have on the emergence of psychology. The emergence of scientific psychology in Germany, from philosophy and physiology, is often presented as a two-act process. First, the hybridization of the professional roles and methods of philosophy and physiology, and second, the purification of psychology from philosophy. Preliminary studies allow supposing that both roles are widespread among leading university philosophers in Russia, even if hybridization seems to be more prevalent. For instance, Georgy Chelpanov (1862-1936) a pioneer of using statistical methods in psychological surveys advocated a metaphysical conception of conciseness and proclaimed introspection as a reliable method of psychological studies. Traditional philosophical problems such as free will, agency self, and character, as well as causality, necessity, and determinism, were the focus of many Russian philosophers of the given period. For example, Nikolaj Grot (1852-1899) is the author of the theory of mental causality, Aleksandr Vvedenskij (1856-1925) offered a solution to the issue of access to the mental activity of other (human) beings. Russian philosophy of the 19th century is often presented as a philosophy concerned primarily with religious questions, focusing on a psychological study made by the Russian philosophers might give a novel and more accurate picture.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Nikolaj Plotnikov