Preface to the Publication of I. I. Lapshin's Article 'The Mystical Rationalism of Prof. S. L. Frank'

Abstract

The preface presents a historiographical analysis of Lapshin's critique, reexamined through the interpretive lens provided by preface in Frank's Complete Collected Works (2023). The research juxtaposes Lapshin's criticism of metaphysics with approaches taken by Soviet philosophers (I. K. Luppol, G. K. Bammel), challenging the view that Lapshin's article remains on the periphery of research interest due to its supposed similarity to official Marxist criticism. A detailed examination is offered of Lapshin's principal objections to Frank's philosophical system, as highlighted in the Frank's Complete Collected Works (2023): accusations in “intellectual arrogance” toward empiricism, accusations in affection of consciousness by the thing in itself (Ding an sich), the alleged “conflation of transsubjective and transcendent realms,” and charges of “philosophical particularism.” The study makes a crucial distinction between the philosophical debate and the circumstances of Frank's exile, demonstrating that his deportation resulted from being deemed “politically unreliable” by Soviet authorities, unrelated to either his philosophical views or Lapshin's critique of metaphisics. This confirms the ideological neutrality of Lapshin's work. In conclusion of the preface argues for Lapshin's article's continued relevance in contemporary studies of Frank's philosophy. Such intellectual debates, it maintains, prove essential for understanding the dynamics of early 20^th century Russian thought, where criticism often served as a constructive force in shaping ideas. The results will interest both historians of 1920s Russian philosophy and scholars of Russian intellectual culture.