Abstract
This article considers the history of Soviet Spinoza studies after World War II. V.V. Sokolov, editor of the last Soviet publication of Spinoza’s works, regards him as a metaphysician, at times rising to dialectics, and a pantheist rising to materialism. E.V. Ilyenkov, Ya. A. Milner and B.G. Kuznetsov offer a radically different interpretation of Spinoza, as our advanced contemporary. The article provides a critical analysis of the concept of man as a “thinking body,” which Ilyenkov mistakenly ascribes to Spinoza and then corrects on behalf of Marx. Kuznetsov, in his own words, performs a “neo-Spinozist analysis of science.” He is looking for equivalents of Spinoza’s concepts in modern physics, starting with the “physically meaningful” concept of being. Milner wrote a new Ethics, based on the concept of “free necessity” as a social duty consciously performed by the individual.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
His commentary on the Ethics is less than two pages, including notes.
Minutes № 2 of the closed Party meeting at the Philosophy Faculty on 11–14 April 1955. Central State Archive of Moscow, Fund 478, Inventory 5, File 41. Fragments of the transcript, including Sokolov’s philippic, have recently been published (see Ilyenkov, Korovikov 2016).
“We have said that the human mind is a thinking thing; it follows, accordingly, that, from its own nature alone, considered in itself, it can do something, viz. think, i.e., affirm and deny” (Spinoza 1985a, p. 343). “The mind itself, which we call a thinking thing…” (ibid., p. 345). “The definition of the Mind, that it is a thinking thing” (Spinoza 2016, p. 25).
“By idea I understand a concept of the Mind that the Mind forms because it is a thinking thing” (Spinoza 1985b, p. 447).
Instrumenta intellectualia is the expression from Spinoza’s Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, where cognition is compared to forging of iron, and concept to a hammer.
References
Burkitt, I. (1999). Bodies of thought: embodiment, identity and modernity. London: Sage.
Descartes, R. (2006). Meditations, objections, and replies. Edited and translated by R. Ariew and D. Cress). Indianapolis & Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett Publishing Company.
Ignatow, A. (1989). Mil’ner-Irinin’s metaphysical ethics between God and Nature. Studies in Soviet Thought, 37, 119–131.
Ilyenkov, E. & Korovikov, V. (2016). Strasti po tezisam o predmete filosofii (1954–1955) [Passions around the theses on the subject of philosophy]. Edited by E. Illesh. Moscow: Kanon+.
Ilyenkov, E. V. (1997). Dialektika abstraktnogo i konkretnogo v nauchno-teoreticheskom myshlenii. Rosspen.
Ilyenkov, E. V. (2008). Dialectical Logic. Essays on its history and theory. Aakar Books.
Ilyenkov, E. V. (2018) K dokladu o Spinoze [To the report on Spinoza]. In: Evald Ilyenkov. Ideal’noe. I real’nost’. 1960–1979 [Evald Ilyenkov. Ideal. And reality. 1960–1979] (pp. 202–218). Edited by E. Illesh. Moscow: Kanon+.
Kuznetsov, B. G. (1985). Spinoza (fragmenty rukopisi) [Spinoza (manuscript fragments)]. Priroda, 11, 97–101.
Kuznetsov, B. G. (1987). Reason and Being. Edited by C.R. Fawcett and R.S. Cohen. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Maidansky, A. (2017). The Ilyenkov triangle: Marxism in search of its philosophical roots. Stasis, 2, 136–153.
Maidansky, A. D. (2012). Sovetskiĭ Spinoza: Vera v poiskakh razumeniia [Soviet Spinoza: Faith in search of reasoning]. Svobodnaia Mysl’, 5–6, 124–136.
Milner, Ia., & A. (1940). Benedict Spinoza. Moscow: Sotskgiz.
Milner-Irinin, I. A., & A. (1999). Etika, ili Printsipy istinnoĭ chelovechnosti [Ethics, or Principles of true humanity] (2nd ed.). Moscow: Nauka.
Milner-Irinin, J. A. (1986). Ethik. Hrsg. P. Ehlen. München: Berchmans Verlag.
Roth, W.-M., & Jornet, A. (2018). Understanding educational psychology: A late Vygotskian. Berlin: Springer.
Roth, W.-M. (2017). The Mathematics of Mathematics: Thinking with the Late, Spinozist Vygotsky. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
Sokolov, V. V. (1955). Eticheskie i sotsiologicheskie vozzreniia Spinozy [Spinoza’s ethical and sociological views]. Voprosy Filosofii, 3, 59–72.
Sokolov, V. V. (1957). Mirovozzrenie Benedicta Spinozy [Benedict Spinoza’s worldview]. In B. Spinoza (Ed.), Izbrannye proizvedeniia [Selected works] (2 Volumes (Vol. 1, pp. 5–66). Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
Sokolov, V. V. (1974). Spinoza. In: Istoriia dialektiki XIV–XVIII vv. [History of dialectic in the XIV–XVIII centuries] (pp. 151–175). Moscow: Mysl’.
Sokolov, V. V. (2006). “Chtoby slovam bylo tesno, a mysliam prostorno...” (interv’iu s A.P. Kozyrevym) [“Less words and more thoughts...” (interview with A. P. Kozyrev)]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriia 7: Filosofiia 6, pp. 3–32.
Spinoza, B. (1985a). Appendix containing Metaphysical thoughts. In: The Collected Works of Spinoza (Vol. 1, pp. 299–346). Edited and translated by Edwin Curley. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Spinoza, B. (1985b). Ethics, The Collected Works of Spinoza (Vol. 1, pp. 408–617).
Spinoza, B. (2016). Letter 34, to Johannes Hudde, The Collected Works of Spinoza (Vol. 2, pp. 25–26).
Surmava, A. V. (2010). Ilyenkov and the Revolution in Psychology. Russian Studies in Philosophy, 48(4), 36–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The author has no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Maidansky, A. Spinoza in Late-Soviet philosophy. Stud East Eur Thought 74, 333–344 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-021-09441-2
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-021-09441-2