Th century

ФИЛОСОФСКИЙ ФАКУЛЬТЕТ

Составители: Свиридова Е. В., Рассадин А. В., Миронова И. В., Вертугина Е. Э.,

Клемешев Л. А.

Консультанты: Janette Pollock; P.S. John F Maddock-Lyon BD (Lond) AKC

(King’s College London) CTEFLA, Oral examiner UCLES (Cambridge)

Рецензенты: канд. филол. наук Тюнь А. М., Четверикова А. Г.

САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ФИЛОСОФСКИЙ ФАКУЛЬТЕТ

Учебно-методическое пособие

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A Glimpse into the History of the Faculty

th century.

The Faculty of Philosophy was originally one of three faculties conceived by Peter the Great. Actually, in the 18th century none of the faculties were operational, their functions being performed by departments, few in number, and a small group of professors. One of the first departments of the Saint Petersburg Academic University was the Department of Logic, Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy. This educational establishment represented, so to speak, philosophy at the University (as well as in the whole of Russia at that time) both as science and academic discipline. It also played a significant role as a consolidating centre that attracted people interested in the subject.

The first professor to be invited (in Peter I’s life-time) to head the chair was Leibniz’s follower, G. B. Bilfinger, a disciple and friend of C. Wolf, Professor of Tübingen University. But he never delivered any lectures. The reason was that very soon after his arrival Bilfinger had to “exchange” chairs with C. Martini, Head of Department of Physics. Thus Martini became the first lecturer in philosophy at St. Petersburg University. One should not be surprised by such an extraordinary swap. Since philosophy at that time was divided into natural philosophy and moral philosophy, it was possible for professors to expound their views on philosophy through “general physics”. The common mentor for both philosophers and physicists of that age, C. Wolf, was said to lecture on 16 different courses in philosophy as well as natural sciences. The lecturer in logic worth mentioning was L. Euler, an outstanding scholar of his time.

It is noteworthy that guest professors did not deliver lectures regularly both because of their reluctance to do so and the small number of students. It was in the lifetime of M. Lomonosov, the then rector of the University, that the organization of the academic process and curriculum were essentially improved. But after his death, the successors did not support his work and the University at the end of the 18th century, instead of flourishing dragged out a miserable existence.

Reverting to the institution of philosophy one cannot help mentioning the name of the Honoured Member of the Academy G. N. Teplov. He was the first Russian to write on philosophy for Russians. His work “Knowledge Concerning Philosophy, Useful for Those Who Cannot Read Foreign Books on the Subject” won Lomonosov’s recognition (in spite of his strained relations with the author) and was published in 1751. The book was supplied with a concise glossary (27 philosophical terms) compiled by Teplov himself, which was a remarkable innovation. Like all scientific treatises of the time, Teplov’s work was based on absolute devotion to Christian theology and the monarchy. From the point-of-view of the contents the philosophy represented in this book may be characterized as a simplified and pragmatically oriented variation of partly revisited West European (mainly German) philosophy. But this fact by no means diminishes its historic significance.