Suchergebnisse

Aileen Kelly, Empiriocriticism: a Bolshevik philosophy?
In the first decade of this century a group of Bolshevik theorists attempted to construct a new philosophical basis for marxism with the aid of the empiriocriticism of Avenarius and Mach. Their attempt is usually treated by historians as merely a brief episode in Bolshevik party history. This article examines its significance within the wider framework of the collective psychology of the Russian radical intelligentsia, in which voluntarism was uneasily reconciled with a predilection for deterministic philosophies of history. The empiriocriticist movement can be seen as a final attempt on the part of the members of the intelligentsia to achieve a synthesis of these elements in their outlook. Their writings and the ensuing polemics are examined with particular regard to the light which they shed on the social psychology of the Russian radical intelligentsia and on the part played by its subjective aspirations in the formulation of its historical goals.

Aileen Kelly, "What is real is rational" : The political philosophy of B. N. Chicherin.
B. N. Chicherin is generally regarded as one of the foremost theoreticians of Russian liberalism; but there is a wide area of disagreement among historians as to the precise nature of his liberalism and the reasons for his extreme political isolation. The present study attempts to refute the most common view of Chicherin — namely, as a moderate liberal who sought a middle path in a country polarised into extremes of right and left. Through an analysis of Chicherin's doctrine of "liberal conservatism" it is argued that Chicherin cannot be regarded as a liberal at all: the conception of liberty which he developed in the immediate post-reform period on the basis of a doctrinaire right-wing Hegelianism was incompatible with all forms of liberalism, including Hegel's, and ultimately provided an ideological justification for absolute rule.