‘“The Аuthor’s Book”: Reflections of Ya.E. Golosovker on Dostoevsky and Kant

Abstract

The author of the article appeals to the book written by Ya. E. Golosovker “Dostoevsky and Kant”. Answering the question “how did Dostoevsky read Kant”, Golosovker undertakes a number of original and debatable intellectual moves based on the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Critique of Pure Reason”. He develops a personalized philosophy and offers a special understanding of antinomianism. Solving the “secret of the author” (Dostoevsky), Golosovker creates his own “author’s book”. In the book he encrypts his own philosophical project, never directly referring to it. The task of the article is to decipher the “author’s book”, such work has not yet been undertaken in the research literature. The central theme in the interpretation is the confrontation between imaginatio and ratio, which received its conceptualization in the project of imaginative philosophy. The attitude to the schematized, abstract image of Kant is considered separately. The theme of the confrontation between philosophy-as-art and philosophy-as-science leads to the problem of the philosophy’s fate and sounds relevant in the modern intellectual space. The article stresses that the legacy of Golosovker has not yet found its place in the history of Russian philosophy. The author shows not only the inclusion of Golosovker in the Russian intellectual tradition, but also his difference from “Russian religious metaphysics”. The article is prepared as a part of the ongoing study on the reconstruction and conceptualization of the philosophical heritage of Golosovker.