Abstract
Between 1899 and 1906, Alexander Bogdanov developed a scientific philosophy intended to substantiate the basic principle of historical materialism—the idea that existence determines consciousness—in terms of the most advanced science and empiricist epistemology/ontology of his day. At the same time, however, he strove ‘to answer the broad needs of our workers for an overall worldview’, and in the process of doing so he elaborated a complete philosophical system and a holistic worldview. Although his intention was to serve the proletariat and advance socialist revolution, Bogdanov also provided the sort of integral vision of the interconnectedness of the individual, society, and the cosmos that the Russian intelligentsia had traditionally pursued. Bogdanov adopted a number of the principles of nineteenth-century German and Russian idealism, including the concept of the unity of the subject and the object and the ideas that the laws of thought are the same as the laws of being, that there is no qualitative difference between humans and nature, and that humanity is central in the progressive development of the cosmos. Bogdanov, however, provided a materialist mirror image of the idealist worldview. While Russian idealists celebrated spirituality, individual personhood, freedom, and religion, Bogdanov advocated materialism, collectivism, determinism, and naturalism.
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Notes
Soboleva has recently devoted an article to the contrast of Bogdanov’s positivism to Russian idealism (Soboleva 2018).
Bogdanov’s relation to German idealism is discussed by James White in “Sources and Precursors of Bogdanov’s Tektology.” White focuses on how Ludwig Noiré conveyed to Bogdanov the concepts of organization, system, and selection taken from German idealism, but he also remarks that ‘Noiré followed his classical German predecessors in positing an ultimate undifferentiated level of reality at which subject and object were identical’ (White 1998, 31).
Bogdanov reinterprets the nature of the Affectional, but that is not relevant to my discussion. For Bogdanov’s explanation see Empiriomonism pages 67–75 and Chapter Six, ‘Two Theories of the Vital-Differential’ (Bogdanov 2019).
The title, Sobrianie cheloveka, is often translated as ‘The Gathering of Mankind’, but I am following James White in translating ‘sobiranie’ as ‘integration’ (White 2019).
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The author is greatly indebted to the anonymous reviewers and to Evgeni Pavlov and John Biggart for their comments, critique, and invaluable help.
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Rowley, D.G. Alexander Bogdanov’s holistic world picture: a materialist mirror image of idealism. Stud East Eur Thought 73, 1–18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09395-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09395-x