VL. Solovyov and N.I. Kareev: the question of the creative history of the “Justification of the Moral Good”

The following essay analyzes the context in which Vl. Solovyov wrote his philosophical treatise “Justification of the Moral Good”. Such an analysis is a necessary condition for a conscientious reconstruction of the treatise’s creative history and thus for a proper analysis of the concepts and ideas expressed therein. The aim of this study is a detailed restoration of the intellectual atmosphere in which Solovyov's work was created. Such a project requires a turn to the philosophical activities of less eminent contemporaries of Solovyov, including N.I. Kareev, whose work Solovyov closely followed, responding to him not just critically, but also with a certain amount of sympathy. We also take up here a well-known discussion between the two concerning the philosophy of history and the theory of the historical process. Solovyov's position in this discussion is shown as containing the kernel of a plan embodied in the parts of the “Justification” dealing with social philosophy and philosophy of history. In addition, a textual, conceptual, and comparative analysis of Solovyov’s treatise shows that Kareev’s scholarly activity was an important factor in the intellectual context in which the plan of the treatise arose, was realized, and corrected. The essay also examines the notes in the text of the Justification that are complementary to N. Kareev (and to N. Mikhailovsky) and that were deleted by the author in preparing the 1899 edition. As we know, this later edition became the basis of all subsequent editions and reprintings. We see that Solovyov was sympathetic and to a certain degree close not only to Kareev's attempts to create an integral philosophical and historical standpoint, but also to his ideas about the high historical vocation of the individual. However, he was also sympathetic to the general pathos of Kareev’s theory, which consists in understanding moral activity as a key factor in historical change, taking the historical process as a sphere of the objectification of moral ideals.