Problem of the essence and immortality of the soul in the Russian spiritual and academic philosophy of the 19th century

The article studies the doctrine of the soul, its origin and immortality, formulated in the framework of the Russian spiritual and academic philosophy of the 19th century. We have considered the logical-rationalistic and ethical-anthropological trends in spiritual and academic interpretations of the problem of essence and origin of the soul. It is noted that the problems of the soul and its immortality in the spiritual and academic tradition were discussed in the context of two multidirectional tendencies: in keeping with psychological idealism, more typical of Kiev and Kazan Theological Academies, and in accordance with the general attitudes of “the believing mind” of Moscow and St. Petersburg Academies. Based on the analysis of the spiritual and academic argumentation of the immortality of the soul, we have concluded that there was no strictly logical, rational justification for the immortality of the soul, like for the existence of God, in spiritual and academic philosophy. Trying to substantiate the immortality of the soul, the representatives of spiritual and academic thought were forced to turn to theological argumentation in order not to go beyond the limits of Orthodox doctrine. Nevertheless, posing the question of the possibility of philosophical interpretation of the immortality of the soul within the framework of Orthodox speculative, rational psychology, as well as an Orthodox interpretation of understanding this problem by Western European philosophical thought testifies that these attempts of the academic professors were not completely fruitless in theoretical terms and played the significant role in the development of epistemological problems of the Russian philosophy of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.