Russian Panpsychism: Kozlov, Lopatin, Losskii
James P. Scanlan
Cambridge University Press eBooks April 22, 2010 DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511712227.008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Kozlov, Lopatin, and Losskii advanced academic philosophy in tsarist Russia through their panpsychist systems, with Lopatin explicitly acknowledging the role of analogical reasoning and Losskii positing the elimination of matter as the goal of cosmic process. |
Abstract
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Kozlov, who taught at Kiev University, sought to build panpsychism into a comprehensive philosophical system, as did other Russian philosophers who subscribed to it. Two of them who, like Kozlov, deserve credit for the advancement of academic philosophy in tsarist Russia were Lev Mikailovich Lopatin at Moscow University and Nikolai Onufrievich Losskii at St. Petersburg University. Kozlov's philosophical anthropology draws on his panpsychist metaphysics, with its emphasis on each individual substance as, to use his expression, "a whole individual world in itself". A distinctive feature of Lopatin's panpsychism is that he makes clear, in a way Kozlov did not, that the panpsychist metaphysician is typically relying on reasoning by analogy in his efforts to describe other beings and reality in general. The ultimate goal of the teleological cosmic process for Losskii is victory over evil, which means nothing less than the complete elimination of matter.