Abstract
This is a translation from Russian to English of Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky’s “Tpaнcцeндeнтaльнo-фeнoмeнoлoгичecкiй идeaлизмъ Гyccepля” (Husserl’s Transcendental-Phenomenological Idealism), published in the émigré journal Пyть (The Way) in 1939. In this article, Lossky presents and criticizes Husserl’s transcendental idealism. Like many successors of Husserl’s “Göttingen School,” Lossky interprets Husserl’s transcendental idealism as a Neo-Kantian idealism and he criticizes it on the ground that it leads to a form of solipsism. In light of his own epistemology (intuitivism) and his metaphysical system (ideal-realism), he also claims that, although Husserl is more radical than Descartes in his methodological doubt, he is not radical enough, because his abstention from existential judgment with regard to the external world is itself an existential judgment. In this regard, Lossky affirms that his own critically-informed defense of naive realism is in fact more radical than Husserl’s transcendental idealism. (Frédéric Tremblay)
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Notes
Husserl, Méditations cartésiennes, 1931, p. 9.
[Translators’ Note] The word here translated as “epistemology” is гносеология, the literal translation of which is “gnoseology” (from the Greek gnosis and logos, which literally means “theory of cognition”). The English word “epistemology” was coined in the nineteenth century as a means of referring to what the Germans called Wissenschaftslehre. The Russian language already had the word “gnoseology” for that purpose, so they had no need of coining a new word. However, since the word “gnoseology” is not much in use in English philosophical parlance, we opted for “epistemology.” The same comment applies to the words translated as “epistemological.”
[Translators’ Note] For a discussion of what Lossky means by “in the original,” see: Виктор Молчанов, “Позиции и предпосылки Теория знания Н. О. Лосского и феноменологияp,” Логос, vol. 5, n. 78, 2010, pp. 22–42.
[Translators’ Note] The word мнится, which we translate here by “imagined,” has also the sense of “thought” (as opposed to “perceived”).
H. Folwart, Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, p. 66.
[Translators’ Note] We use the apostrophe followed with an “s” to indicate the plural form of “I.”
Husserl, “Nachwort zu meinen Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie,” Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, XI, B., 1930, p. 555.
[Translators’ Note] Moore defends this view in “The Refutation of Idealism,” Mind, 1903.
L. Landgrebe, “Husserls Phänomenologie und die Motive zu ihrer Umbildung,” Revue Internationale de Philosophie, vol. 1, n. 2, 1939, p. 284. [Note from the translators: Lossky refers to page 284, but the quote is in fact from page 280.]
[Translators’ Note] Bityug is a Russian breed of cart-horse that was bred on the order of the tsar Peter the Great.
[Translators’ Note] Lossky is here referring to Karl Krall’s psychological experiments with horses, one of which was named Zarif. Krall was a German pioneer in Tierpsychologie (animal-psychology). On Krall’s account, horses are able to count and read. This hypothesis was verified using cards with numbers and letters on them that horses would move with their mouth to express quantities and spell words. Zarif was apparently particularly talented at spelling words. Krall’s experiment reports were published in: Karl Krall, Denkende Tiere: Beiträge zur Tierseelenkunde auf Grund eigener Versuche. Der kluge Hans und meine Pferde Muhamed und Zarif, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1912.
[Translators’ Note] The word дѣятель should literally be translated as “actor,” in the sense of the source of the “action” — the thing or the person that “acts.” But Lossky adjoins this word to the adjective субстанцiальными to form the expression субстанцiальные дѣятели, which is consistently translated as “substantival agent” in Lossky’s translated works. So, to respect the standard translation, we opt here for the less literal translation of дѣятель by “agent.”
For more on these laws, see my Logic (Логику), §§ 27–36.
[Translators’ Note] The Russian expression that we translate as “substantival agents” is субстанціальными дѣятелями. The adjective субстанцiальные could more straightforwardly be translated as “substantial.” In French субстанцiальные is translated as “substantiel” and in German as “substanziell.” But it is consistently translated as “substantival” in the English translations of Lossky’s works. So, we defer here to what seems to have been Lossky’s preferred English translation and we translate it by “substantival.”
[Translators’ Note] Lossky’s theory of substantival agents is best understood in light of his Neo-Leibnizianism. The idea that substantival agents are supertemporal and eternal derives from the Leibnizian idea that monads are like small divinities (thus eternal) and that they are like mirrors that reflect the universe in all its temporal directions and, being thus, have epistemic access to the past, present, and future (Leibniz, Monadologie, §. 83).
[Translators’ Note] The expression translated as “more perfect,” более совершенное, also has the sense of “more advanced.” Lossky adheres to a form of “evolutionary monadology,” which is a teleological conception of evolution, according to which substantival agents (monads) evolve from a less perfect state to a more perfect one. For a developed evolutionary monadology, see: Николай Васильевич Бугаев, “Основныя начала эволюцiонной монадологiи,” Вопросы философiи и психологiи, vol. 4, n. 2, Книга 17, 1893, pp. 26–44.
[Translators’ Note] The word here translated as “lived-experience” is переживанiе. Formed from пере (conversion) and жизнь (life), it is the equivalent of the German Erlebnis (as opposed to Erfahrung, which corresponds to the Russian опыт and which is commonly translated as “experience” tout court).
For more details see my book Sensual, Intellectual and Mystical Intuition (Чувственная, интеллектуальная и мистическая интуицiя).
[Translators’ Note] The word epoche appears as is here in the original. It is unclear what purpose it is supposed to be serving. It was most likely inserted here by mistake.
This is examined in further details in my Foundations of Intuitivism (Обоснованiе интуитивизма), 3rd edition, 1924; see also my book Sensual, Intellectual and Mystical Intuition (Чувственная, интеллектуальная и мистическая интуицiя), 1938.
[Translators’ Note] The word here translated as “formation,” оформленiя, has also the sense of “projection,” “projecting formation,” and “framing.”
“Über den Grund zur Annahme der Existenz des fremden Ich,” supplement/appendix of his book Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle, 1913.
[Translators’ Note] The saying in Russian is “на всякаго мудреца довольно простоты.” We have translated the saying literally, but its English equivalent would be “Every man has a fool in his sleeve.”
[Translators’ Note] Husserl, “Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft,” Logos, 1911, p. 339.
[Translators’ Note] Thanks are due to Olga Vishnyakova and Burt Hopkins for helpful comments on the translation.
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Hикoлaй Oнyфpиeвич Лoccкий, “Tpaнcцeндeнтaльнo-фeнoмeнoлoгичecкiй идeaлизмъ Гyccepля,” Пyть: Opгaнъ pyccкoй peлигioзнoй мыcли, n. 60, 1939, c. 37–56. The original pagination is inserted in angle brackets. The words in bold characters have been converted to italics.
Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky (1870–1965)
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Lossky, N.O. Husserl’s Transcendental-Phenomenological Idealism. Husserl Stud 32, 167–182 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-015-9183-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-015-9183-3