A History of Russian Philosophy 1830–1930: Faith, Reason, and the Defense of Human Dignity

The great age of Russian philosophy spans the century between 1830 and 1930 - from the famous Slavophile-Westernizer controversy of the 1830s and 1840s, through the 'Silver Age' of Russian culture at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the formation of a Russian 'philosophical emigration' in the wake of the Russian Revolution. This volume is a major new history and interpretation of Russian philosophy in this period. Eighteen chapters (plus a substantial introduction and afterword) discuss Russian philosophy's main figures, schools, and controversies, while simultaneously pursuing a common central theme: the development of a distinctive Russian tradition of philosophical humanism focused on the defence of human dignity. As this volume shows, the century-long debate over the meaning and grounds of human dignity, freedom, and the just society involved thinkers of all backgrounds and positions, transcending easy classification as 'religious' or 'secular'. The debate still resonates strongly today.

G. M. HAMBURG is the Otho M. Behr Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College. He has written, translated, and edited many books on Russian history, including Politics of the Russian Nobility, 1881-1905 (1984), Boris Chicherin and Early Russian Liberalism, 1828-1866 (1992), Liberty, Equality, and the Market: Selected Essays of Boris Chicherin (1998), and Russian-Muslim Confrontation in the Caucasus: Alternative Visions of the Conflict between Shamil and the Russians, 1830-1859 (2004) (with J. Thomas Sanders and Ernest Tucker).
Randall A. Poole is Associate Professor of History at the College of St. Scholastica. He has translated and edited Problems of Idealism: Essays in Russian Social Philosophy (2003) and written numerous articles and book chapters on Russian intellectual history and philosophy.