Nikolay G. Chernyshevsky: contribution to the philosophy of history in 19th-century Russia

Abstract

This article aims to systematize and analyze the contributions of the Russian revolutionary writer and journalist Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) to the philosophy of history. For this purpose, three philosophical works of the author will serve as references: “The anthropological principle in philosophy”, “The character of human knowledge” and “The aesthetic relations between art and reality”. The first of these works leads to an analysis of the discussion on the tenets of the so-called exact sciences and moral sciences, which were current at the time (1860) and are still the subject of philosophical controversies to the present day. On its turn, “The character of human knowledge” brings the discussion on the role attributed by the author to history and on his conception of historical development. And his third essay under analysis leads to the discussion on history as representation. At the end, the remarkable influence of Feuerbach’s philosophy on his work is highlighted, and a sketch of a possible Chernyshevskyan philosophy of history is presented.