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Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804)

German philosopher and scientist, founder of German classical idealism. Was born, studied, and worked in Königsberg where he was docent (1755-70) and professor (1770-96) of the University. Founder of "critical" or "transcendental" idealism.

In the so-called "pre-critical" period (prior to 1770) Kant formulated his "nebular" cosmogonic hypothesis, according to which the planetary system arose and developed out of a prime "nebula". At the same time Kant advanced the hypothesis about the existence of a Great Universe of galaxies outside our Galaxy, developed the theories of the retardation of the Earth's rotation by tidal friction and the relativity of motion and rest. These studies, united by the materialist idea of natural development of the Universe and the Earth, played an important part in the shaping of dialectics.

In the philosophical works of the "pre-critical" period Kant designated, under the influence of the empiricism and scepticism of Hume, the difference between real grounds and logical grounds, introduced in philosophy the concept of negative magnitudes and ridiculed the predilection of his contemporaries for mysticism and "spiritualism". In all these works the role of the formal deductive methods of thinking is restricted in favour of experience.

In 1770, Kant went over to the view of the "critical" period. His Kritik der reinen Vernunft appeared in 1781 and was followed by Kritik der praktischen Vernunft in 1788 and Kritik der Urteilskraft in 1790. In them Kant consistently expounded: the "critical" theory of knowledge, ethics, aesthetics, and the doctrine of the expediency of nature.

In his works of the "critical" period Kant proved the impossibility of constructing a system of speculative philosophy ("metaphysics" in the terminology of those days), without a preliminary study of the forms of cognition and the boundaries of man's cognitive abilities. Their study led Kant to agnosticism, to the assertion that the nature of things as they exist of themselves ("things-in-themselves") in principle is inaccessible to human knowledge. Knowledge is possible only of "phenomena", i.e., the way through which things reveal themselves in our experience.

True theoretical knowledge is available only in mathematics and natural science. This is determined, according to Kant, by the fact that in man's mind there are a priori forms of sensuous contemplation, like the a priori forms, or concepts, of reason and the a priori forms of the connection, or synthesis, between the sensuous multiformity and the concepts of reason. These, for example, are the basis for the law of constancy of substances, the law of causality, and the law of interaction of substances.

According to Kant an irrepressible striving for absolute knowledge stemming from higher ethical requirements is inherent in reason. Under the pressure of this striving, man's reason seeks to solve the problem of the finiteness or infinity of the world in time and space, the possibility of the existence of indivisible elements of the world, the nature of the processes taking place in the world, and of God as an absolutely essential being. Kant held that opposite solutions are equally demonstrable: the world is finite and is infinite; indivisible particles (atoms) exist and there are no such particles, all processes are causally conditioned, and there are processes (actions) that occur freely; an absolutely essential being exists and does not exist.

Thus, reason is by its nature antinomic, i.e., is divided by contradictions. But these contradictions are merely seeming. A solution of the enigma is furnished by limiting knowledge in favour of faith, by differentiating between "things-in-themselves" and "phenomena", recognising that "things-in-themselves" are unknowable. Thus, man is simultaneously not free (as a being in a world of phenomena) and free (as a subject of the unknowable supersensual world); the existence of God is undemonstrable (for knowledge), and at the same time there is the necessary postulate of faith, on which our conviction of the existence of moral order in the world rests, etc.

This teaching on the antinomic nature of reason, which served Kant as the basis for the dualism of the "things-in-themselves" and "phenomena" and for agnosticism, gave an impetus to the development of positive dialectics in German classical idealism. On the other hand, in the understanding of knowledge, behaviour, and creative effort this teaching remained a captive of dualism, agnosticism, and formalism.

For example, Kant proclaimed as the basic law the categorical imperative which demands that man be guided by a rule which, being absolutely independent of the moral content of an action, could become a universal rule of behaviour. In aesthetics he reduced beauty to a "disinterested" pleasure which does not depend on whether the object depicted in a work of art exists or not and is determined solely by form.

But Kant was unable to apply his formalism consistently: in ethics, contrary to the formal nature of the categorical imperative, he put forward the principle of the self-value of each individual, which must not be sacrificed even for the good of society as a whole; in aesthetics, contrary to the formalism in understanding the beautiful, he declared poetry the highest form of art because it is able to portray the ideal, etc.

Kant's doctrine of the role of antagonisms in the historical process of social life and the need for eternal peace were progressive. Kant considered international trade and contacts with their mutual benefit for different states as a means for establishing and maintaining peace.

Though abounding in contradictions, Kantianism considerably influenced the subsequent development of scientific and philosophical thought. In their criticism of Kant the founders of Marxism-Leninism demonstrated that the social causes of his delusions, contradictions, and inconsistency were rooted in the backwardness and weakness of the German bourgeoisie of that period. Idealist philosophers of the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, discarding the materialist element in Kant's philosophy and his "thing-in-itself", exploited his inconsistencies and borrowed his erroneous theories to justify their own reactionary doctrines (see Neo-Kantianism; Socialism, Ethical; Marburg School; Baden School).

Karinsky, Mikhail Ivanovich (1840–1917)

Russian logician and philosopher. In 1869-94 taught philosophy at the Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy and other educational establishments.

In his Kritichesky obzor poslednego perioda nemetskoi filosofii (Critical Review of Recent German Philosophy), 1873, Karinsky attacked German idealism. Gravitated in his views towards materialism: Yavleniye i deistvitelnost (Phenomenon and Reality), 1878; Raznoglasiye v shkole novogo empirizma po voprosu ob istinakh samoochevidnykh (Differences in the School of New Empiricism on the Question of Self-Evident Truths), 1914; Logika (Logic), 1884-85; and others.

In his Doctor's thesis Klassifikatsiya vyvodov (Classification of Inferences), 1880, Karinsky analysed syllogistic and inductive trends in logic and expressed original views on this question. In his Ob istinakh samoochevidnykh (Self-Evident Truths), 1893, criticised the dogmatism and apriorism of Kant's theory of knowledge. Karinsky repeatedly attacked Neo-Kantians including Vvedensky and also subjective idealists of the Berkeley type.

Karinsky is the author of original works on the history of ancient philosophy: Tyomnoye svidetelstvo Ippolita o filosofe Anaksimerte (Obscure Testimony of Hippolyte about the Philosopher Anaximenes), 1881; Lektsii po istorii drevnei filosofii (Lectures on the History of Ancient Philosophy), 1885; Lektsii po istorii novoi filosofii (Lectures on the History of New Philosophy), 1884, etc.

Kautsky, Karl (1854–1938)

German historian and economist; Social-Democratic theoretician of the Second International, opportunist. Born in Prague, after 1880 lived in Germany. In 1881, met Marx and Engels. Actively contributed to the Social-Democratic press after the 1870s. In the 1890s became the recognised theoretician of German Social-Democracy.

Kautsky wrote a number of works—Karl Marx ökonomische Lehren, 1887; Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus, 1895; Die Agrarfrage, 1899, Der Ursprung des Christentums, 1885; and others, which played a big part in spreading the ideas of Marxism. But in these works, Kautsky made crass errors and distorted Marxism, for which he was criticised by Engels.

Kautsky's pamphlet Der Weg zur Macht, published in 1909, was described by Lenin as Kautsky's best work. That pamphlet examined questions of a political revolution but did not say "a word about the revolutionary use of any and every revolutionary situation" (Lenin). Speaking about the proletarian revolution Kautsky avoids the question of demolishing the bourgeois state machine and putting in its place organs of proletarian power.

In 1910, Kautsky formed a "central group" in the German Social-Democratic Party and after that openly came out against revolutionary Marxism. His work Die Diktatur des Proletariats, published in 1918, was called by Lenin a model of philistine distortion of Marxism and foul betrayal of it in deeds, while hypocritically recognising it in words. Kautsky did not understand the tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In his philosophical views he was an eclectic, combining elements of materialism and idealism. In his Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung in two volumes, 1927-29, Kautsky completely distorts the theory of dialectical and historical materialism. Thus, starting with deviations from some major propositions of Marxism and ignoring its creative application, Kautsky lapsed into opportunism and renegacy.

Kavelin, Konstantin Dmitriyevich (1818–1885)

Russian idealist philosopher, historian, and political leader, professor at Petersburg and Moscow universities. In his youth was a Westerner and an admirer of Belinsky and Herzen. In the 1850s became a liberal, which led to his break with the Sovremennik (Contemporary) and Herzen.

Turned to philosophy in the 1860s to substantiate his political and ethical views. In his Zadacha Psikhologii (Aim of Psychology), 1872, and Zadachi Etiki (Aims of Ethics), 1885, tried to adapt psychology in order to justify Christian ethics. Philosophy, in his opinion, should become the science of the individual human soul, the psychology which explains the moral, spiritual world regardless of the material substratum.

To the "abstractness" of materialism and idealism, which study the general, Kavelin counterposed the "concrete" knowledge of the individual soul. This supposedly eliminates the one-sidedness of philosophical systems. Kavelin supported the idea of freedom of will. The insolvency of Kavelin's theory was demonstrated by Sechenov in his remarks on Kavelin's Aim of Psychology.

Khomyakov, Alexei Stepanovich (1804–1860)

Russian writer and idealist philosopher, one of the founders of Slavophilism; graduated from Moscow University in 1820. In his works Khomyakov opposed materialism and criticised German classical idealism. He adhered to objective-idealist views which assumed the form of religious mystical voluntarism.

He regarded the ideal, rational, and free element as the first principle of all that exists. This element could not be cognised with man's usual means of knowledge, sensations and reason, but through some "inner knowledge", "rational vision", i.e., with the help of religion. As regards society, Khomyakov adhered to the doctrine of providence.

An ideologist of the Russian nobility, Khomyakov, though criticising to some extent the Russian social order, proposed economic and political reforms to enable the Russian nobility to preserve its privileges in the period of historically inevitable changes—Russia's transition to the road of capitalist development.

Kierkegaard, Søren (1813–1855)

Danish mystic thinker and precursor of existentialism. Principal works are Either/Or (1843), The Concept of Fear (1844), The Sickness Unto Death (1849). The subject of the first are "musical-erotic" problems, that of the other two—the concept of "original sin" and a description of the various kinds of doubt and despair.

Kierkegaard criticised the philosophy of Hegel from the standpoint of extreme subjectivism. Truth, for Kierkegaard, is always subjective. In ethics Kierkegaard supported individualism and moral relativism, and preached despondency, fear, and hatred of the masses. Of the three types of human "existence" (aesthetic, ethical, and religious) he held religious existence to be the highest.

Kierkegaard originated the concept of existence as a "synthesis of the finite and infinite, the temporary and the eternal". In the late years of his life Kierkegaard criticised the official church for "insufficient piety".

Kinship with the People in Art

An aesthetic category which expresses and summarises the totality of diverse relationships between art and the people, manifested above all in the fact that true art directly or indirectly embodies the aesthetical ideals of the people, their understanding of justice and beauty and the fervour of the people's revolutionary struggle for freedom and happiness.

It is a historical concept and its content is determined by the specific conditions and stages of social development, the place and role of art in society. The people, as Gorky put it, are the first artists in point of time, beauty and genius, the true creators of world culture. Artistic endeavour is an important sphere of the people's activity. The collective creative endeavour of the people is the basis and steady source of professional art, from which the subjects, ideas, and images of the finest works of art are drawn.

In contrast to formalist and naturalist trends, realistic art is marked by kinship with the people, which is its main distinctive feature. This stems from the wisdom of the people and reflects their struggle for emancipation. All the great artists are part and parcel of the people, because by their creative work they help the people in their struggle often without being aware of it.

"Art belongs to the people, it must extend its roots into the very depth of the working masses, it must be understandable by ... the masses and be loved by them." This statement by Lenin is one of the fundamental principles of socialist art.

Kireyevsky, Ivan Vasilyevich (1806–1856)

Russian publicist and idealist philosopher, one of the founders of Slavophilism (see Slavophiles). Edited the journals Yevropeyets (European), 1832, and Moskvityanin (Muscovite), 1845.

According to Kireyevsky, who adhered to an anti-rationalist, religious, and intuitive theory of knowledge, the life of individuals, nations, and groups of nations, for example, the Slavs, West Europeans, etc., is founded on religion, which determines the education and the entire life of a nation. Since the Orthodox religion professed by the Slavs, chiefly the Russians, is the true religion, the future belongs only to the Slavs. The other peoples could make progress only if they accepted the Orthodox Christian civilisation. Otherwise civilisation will disintegrate (in Kireyevsky's opinion, this is what happened in Western Europe).

Kireyevsky regarded non-resistance to evil, the absence of class stratification, and communal life in the village (which he idealised) as distinctive features of the Russian people. Though he expressed some correct ideas about the fallacies of metaphysical thinking and the negative sides of bourgeois society, on the whole Kireyevsky's views were reactionary both in sociology and politics.

Knowledge

A product of the social labour and thinking of men, an ideal reproduction, in language form of objective, law-governed relations in the objective world that undergoes changes. The essence of knowledge cannot be understood without revealing the social nature of man's practical activity. Man's social power is concentrated and crystallised in knowledge.

In the history of philosophy, this furnished the basis for the ideas of objective idealist systems about the self-sufficient and self-determining significance of ideal products of man's social activity (Plato, Hegel). In the epistemology of pre-Marxist materialism knowledge was understood, contrariwise, as a product of the individual cognitive effort, of individual experience. But such a view, upholding the sensualistic principle, could not explain the fact that man begins the process of cognition possessing a "ready-made" apparatus of concepts and categories elaborated by society.

It is a direct function of knowledge to convert scattered concept into a universal form, retaining in them that which may be passed on to others as a stable basis for practical action. From this angle knowledge is contrasted to opinion, the vulgar notions expressing empirical, changeable properties of things.

Komensky, Jan Amos, or Comenius (1592–1670)

Czech pedagogue, humanist, and philosopher, opponent of the scholastic system of education, leader of a group of the Moravian Brothers, a sect formed in the course of the anti-feudal movement and national struggle against the German feudal lords and the Catholic Church. He was a Protestant close to pantheism. There were considerable materialist tendencies in his sensualist theory of knowledge and didactics.

Cognition, according to Komensky, is an active process closely connected with rational education. All people, he asserted, are capable of knowledge and education. The ordinary people should be given access to knowledge. For the first time in the history of pedagogics Komensky created a system of didactics as a special science. His didactic principles (visual presentation, gradation, imitation, exercise) demanded deep knowledge of the laws of nature and a rationally organised assimilation of knowledge.

Komensky's progressive views exerted great influence on the subsequent development of pedagogics. His main works are Janua linguarum reserata, 1631, and Didactica Magna, 1657.

Kovalevsky, Maxim Maximovich (1851–1916)

Russian sociologist, historian, jurist, and political leader, academician (since 1914). Taught law at Moscow University (was dismissed for progressive ideas) and Petersburg University and also at a number of universities in Europe and America.

Kovalevsky was a supporter of classical positivism and one of the organisers of the Moscow Psychological Society (1884). Kovalevsky was familiar with the ideas of Marx and Engels, as shown by his interest in the history of landownership and the economic development of Europe: Obshchinnoye zemlevladeniye. Prichiny, khod i posledstviya yego razlozheniya (Communal Landownership. Causes, Course and Consequences of Its Disintegration), 1879; Ekonomichesky rost Yevropy do vozniknoveniya kapitalisticheskogo khozyaistva (Economic Growth of Europe up to the Rise of the Capitalist Economy), 1898-1903. Engels positively assessed Kovalevsky's studies on the history of the family.

In his historical works which contained extensive factual material, Kovalevsky elaborated the comparative historical method. He analysed sociological doctrines in his books: Sovremenniye sotsiologi (Contemporary Sociologists), 1905; Sotsiologiya (Sociology), 2 volumes, 1910.

Kovalevsky was a proponent of the theory of social progress, which he perceived in the development of solidarity between peoples, classes and groups. This solidarity, according to Kovalevsky, arises by virtue of numerous causes (economic, social, political), among which it is impossible to single out the main and determining factor. A historian should limit himself to registering the interaction and co-relationship in the development of social phenomena.

Kovalevsky was influenced by theories which biologised social progress and also by bourgeois economism and Socialism of the Chair. Denial of revolutionary methods of reconstructing society was their common feature. In his sociological writings Kovalevsky sought to justify Russian liberalism and reconciliation of democracy with the monarchy. His political activities were criticised by Lenin.

Kozelsky, Yakov Pavlovich (1728–1794)

Russian enlightener and philosopher. Taught mathematics and mechanics in the Artillery and Engineering schools. Later served in the Senate.

Kozelsky is the author of Filosoficheskiye predlozheniya (Philosophical Propositions), 1768; Rassuzhdeniya o chelovecheskom poznanii (Discourse on Human Knowledge), 1788; Arifmeticheskiye predlozheniya (Arithmetical Propositions), 1764; Mekhanicheskiye predlozheniya (Mechanical Propositions), 1764. He advocated materialist ideas and criticised medieval scholasticism and mysticism, separated philosophy from theology and considered that philosophy should give "general knowledge of things and human deeds", i.e., is the "science of testing causes by truths".

In his views of nature developed the ideas of 18th century mechanistic materialism. Declaring nature the "universal mother of all things", Kozelsky proved that nature consists of four material elements and that matter and motion are indestructible. The influence of C. Wolff and his followers is felt in some of Kozelsky's logical categories. He considered sensory perceptions the initial element in the theory of knowledge, assigning a big role to experience and the activity of reason. He divided all knowledge into historical, philosophical, and mathematical, and the truths obtained by people into natural, ethical, and logical.

Kozelsky criticised the religious mystical aspects of the Wolffian theory of monads, predestined harmony, and non-resistance to evil. He criticised the feudal system, idleness, and parasitism and extolled labour, a modest mode of life, and a humane attitude to people.

Kropotkin, Pyotr Alexeyevich (1842–1921)

Russian theoretician of anarchism and geographer, member of a princely family. Took part in explorations (mainly in Siberia) and collected interesting material on physical geography. Kropotkin rationalised the theory of continental glaciation: Issledovaniye o lednikovom periodye (The Ice Age, an Enquiry), 1876.

In the 1870s, Kropotkin joined the Narodnik movement (see Narodism), was imprisoned in 1874, and escaped abroad two years later. In 1917, Kropotkin returned to Russia. In his works Khleb i Volya (Bread and Freedom), 1892; Sovremennaya nauka i anarkhism (Modern Science and Anarchism), 1913; etc., he developed the theory of so-called communist anarchism. For Kropotkin, the society of the future was to be a federation of free productive communities, formed as a result of a social revolution.

Kropotkin's philosophic views were a blending of positivism and mechanistic materialism. Contrary to the Marxist concept of history, Kropotkin proclaimed the concept of abstract mutual aid, which he considered to be the corner-stone of social development. Repudiating dialectics, Kropotkin considered the inducto-deductive method of natural science to be the only scientific method of thinking. He was considerably influenced by the positivism of Comte and Spencer.