Юшкевич Павел¶

Yushkevich Pavel Solomonovich (1873–1945)¶

Russian journalist, translator of philosophical literature, Social-Democrat and Menshevik, who retired from political activity in the 1920s. In the book Materialism i kritichesky realism (Materialism and Critical Realism), 1908, he criticised the philosophy of Marxism from the standpoint of Machism and subjective idealism. He preached empirio-symbolism.

His work Mirovozzreniye i mirovozzreniya (World Outlook and World Outlooks), 1912, attempted to justify idealistic myths by employing the specific character of philosophical creativity. According to him, philosophy is not a science but a result of semi-artistic, intellectually emotional vision, "a form of collective thought and sensation". This brings him close to James, Dilthey, Nietzsche. Lenin criticised Yushkevich's views in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.