Justification of the soul: theistic personalism of V. A. Snegirev

The article deals with the philosophical and psychological teaching of V. A. Snegirev, the teacher of another outstanding Russian thinker V. I. Nesmelov. It is shown that at the phenomenological level, Snegirev uses the concept of the soul as a variety of mental phenomena correlated with the self-center, and at the metaphysical level, the concept of the spirit as the substantial basis of these phenomena. Snegirev’s arguments in favor of the principle of the continuity of consciousness, the basic principle of his concept as a whole, are presented and analyzed. The interpretation of consciousness as self-reflection is considered and its cardinal difference from the socalled. “reflection theory”. The transition from consciousness to self-consciousness is connected in Snegirev’s teaching with the formation of a personal ideal in a person, perceived by the “heart” as an organ of continuous moral self-esteem, which speaks of the rise or fall of the human personality and testifies to the absence of adiaphora in the soul - morally indifferent changes. Based on the concept of the soul as a moral organism, the understanding of freedom as a conscious moral (spiritual) necessity comes to the fore. Synchronously with the development of self-consciousness, the development of the God-consciousness of a person goes on, i. e., the formation of the idea of an allperfect divine Personality. In the light of the review, Snegirev’s teaching is characterized as a classic (reference) example of theistic personalism.