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Kantian Journal

2025 Vol. 44. №4

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Rozhin D. O.

Transcendental Synthetism of W. T. Krug and its Reception by V. D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov

DOI
10.5922/0207-6918-2025-4-2
Pages
31-64
Krug Kudryavtsev-Platonov Kant transcendental synthetism transcendental monism a priori forms of cognition being thinking

Abstract

The Russian philosopher Victor D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov was introduced to Kant’s ideas through the works of his older contemporaries, one of whom was Wilhelm Traugott Krug, the author of the concept of transcendental synthetism. However, the degree and character of the influence of his philosophical ideas on Kudryavtsev-Platonov’s epistemology remain unexplored to this day. To fill this gap I have examine the main features of transcendental synthetism and the basic tenets of Krug’s theory of cognition as well as their specific relation to Kant’s transcendentalism. I then describe the character of Kudryavtsev-Platonov’s acquaintance with the works of Krug and compare the views of these two philosophers. I demonstrate that Krug’s theoretical philosophy is a mix of Kantian transcendentalism and common sense convictions. I establish that Kudryavtsev-Platonov became acquainted with Krug’s Fundamental Philosophy and The System of Theoretical Philosophy quite early on. He was an opponent of the philosophy of common sense although, like Krug, he derived the being of the real and ideal world from the fact of self-consciousness. Unlike Krug, Kudryavtsev-Platonov ascribes to a priori forms of cognition not only subjective but also objective meaning. I conclude that Kudryavtsev-Platonov’s transcendental monism is genetically connected with Krug’s transcendental synthetism, i.e. its modification with a metaphysical slant. Krug’s ideas show themselves in a peculiar way in the Russian philosopher’s epistemological ideas: in the methodology of deriving the main principles of philosophy, in the structure of cognition and in the place the latter assigns to it in the system of philosophical knowledge.

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