Trubetskoy, Evgeniy

TRUBETSKOY, EVGENIY. - Russian philosopher and nationalist politician, younger brother of Prince Serghej, b. 23 January (5 February) 1863 in Moscow, d. 23 September (5 October) 1919 at Novorossiysk. He was a professor at the University of Kiev, then at that of Moscow. After the collapse of the old regime he was attached to the White Army and assisted, as a layman, at the All-Russian Council of Moscow in 1917-18.

Like his elder brother, he passed in his youth through positivism and atheism and returned to the faith through the study of the history of modern philosophy and the reading of Schopenhauer. In his professional activity he occupied himself first with the philosophy of law. He wrote dissertations on historical themes, namely on St. Augustine and The Religious-Social Ideal of Western Christianity in the 11th Century, Kiev 1897. In 1904 he published in Moscow The Philosophy of Nietzsche. In his less independent thought he felt strongly the influence of Soloviev, to whom he devoted his most voluminous work, The World-View of Vladimir Soloviev, 2 vols., Moscow 1913. For the overcoming of Kant and Kantianism he wrote: The Metaphysical Presuppositions of Knowledge, Moscow 1917. His most mature work, published only after his death, is The Meaning of Life (Berlin 1922), written in Moscow in 1918, in which he sketched out, drawing inspiration especially from Soloviev's doctrine of the Divine Wisdom, without however accepting certain excessively advanced conceptions of the sophiologists dependent on Soloviev, his own universal and Christian philosophy.

T. was a good stylist and aesthete. Noteworthy are some of his essays on art, especially on the ancient Russian icons; valuable are his Recollections, published posthumously, Sofia 1921, and From the Past, Vienna 1920.

Bernardo Schultze

SERGHEJ, brother of the preceding, Russian philosopher, publicist and nationalist politician. B. 23 July (4 o.s.) 1862 in the district of Moscow, d. 29 September (12 October) 1905 in St. Petersburg.

Of an ancient princely family, he underwent in his youth a religious crisis and stood for a short time under the influence of the positivists; then, reading the Slavophiles, Dostoevsky and especially Soloviev (of whom he was a close friend), he returned to Christianity and to a religious metaphysics. He studied at the University of Moscow, occupying himself especially with Kant and the German idealists and mystics. Then he taught there the history of ancient philosophy. He was the first elected rector of the University of Moscow. During a journey abroad he drew close to Harnack.

Especially in his doctoral thesis, The Doctrine of the Logos in Its History, he gave an excellent exposition of Greek and Christian philosophy. He sketched out his own system of concrete idealism, drawing inspiration however, with a critical attitude, from Kant (and Hegel). Noteworthy is his long article on the nature of human consciousness, which he conceived, drawing inspiration from the Slavophile idea of "sobornost" and from Soloviev's idea of "theandrism," as a communal idea.

Bernardo Schultze