Volume 71, 2018
Russian Philosophy
Aleksey Gromov
Pages 11-15
The Way to the Theory of Causality
L. Lopatin’s and V. Zenkovsky’s Approaches
An understanding of the approaches to the problem of causality, as they are represented in Leo Lopatin’s and Vassilii Zenkovsky’s works, is important for the history of philosophy and methodology of science. As we think, L. Lopatin discovered the creative nature of causality (“The positive tasks of philosophy”, Vol. 2, 1891) and came to a new philosophical outlook based on a variable quantity (the creative causality), whereas traditional philosophical doctrines were based on some different constant quantities. L. Lopatin states that his theory of causality is necessary to prove that both metaphysics and a non-positivist world view are possible. As V. Zenkovsky proves, psychical causality is always the causality of some active “substance” (a human soul). This “live substance” expands its inner creative forces autonomously and teleologically, implementing its pre-laid individuality. The psychical causality is creative by its nature (“The problem of the psychical causality”, 1914). V. Zenkovsky’s analysis of causality is his first methodological step to his further philosophical and pedagogical studies. The two theories of causality have some common ontological premises and represent a tendency in the Russian philosophy that might result in a new theory of causality.