Selected Philosophical Works

by Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky

The Selected Philosophical Works of V. G. Belinsky comprise the author's more important articles, reviews, letters and excerpts from essays dealing with philosophical and sociological problems. All these works give a clear idea of Belinsky's philosophical and political evolution to materialism and revolutionary democratism, and reveal his role as the predecessor of Russian Social-Democracy. Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (1811-48) was a Russian writer and critic. He was prominent in the group that believed Russia's hope to lie in following European patterns. Under Hegel's influence he condoned czarism and reaction for a time but returned in the 1840s to his early liberalism and repudiated the doctrine of art for art's sake. As critic for four major reviews he became the principal champion of the realistic and socially responsible new Russian literature. His emphasis on the use of literature to express social and political ideas is the basis of Soviet literary criticism. Among the authors whose talents he recognized and encouraged were Gogol, Lermontov, and Dostoyevsky. This selection of his philosophical and sociological works includes Letter to Gogol (1847), a summation of his beliefs. Belinsky lived in poverty and died at 37 of tuberculosis.

Genres: Philosophy

608 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

(Russian: Виссарион Григорьевич Белинский) was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine Sovremennik. He was the most influential of the Westernizers, especially among the younger generation. He worked primarily as a literary critic, because that area was less heavily censored than political pamphlets. He agreed with Slavophiles that society had precedence over individualism, but he insisted the society had to allow the expression of individual ideas and rights. He strongly opposed Slavophiles on the role of Orthodoxy, which he considered a retrograde force. He emphasized reason and knowledge, and attacked autocracy and theocracy.[

Reviews

[Sinan Öner]

Russian Literature Critic, Philosopher Belinsky's "Selected Philosophical Works" is an important source for understanding Russian intellectual world in the 19. Century. Belinsky's essays are mostly about literature, on the new novels, or about current discussions for the different subjects of literary works in the world. Belinsky's studying on Rousseau, Kant, Hegel - the European enlightenment philosophers- contributes to his writing on literature, history and philosophy. Belinsky suggests a lot of new thoughts for Russians in his works, Belinsky's essays which were published in "Sovremennik" are one of the main sources of 19. Century Russian critical philosophy - Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gorki, others, used Belinsky's "Sovremennik" works. Belinsky's "Selected Philosophical Works" is a useful book for thinking about 19. Century philosophies in the world.