Psychological proofs of God’s existence in the 19th century: key arguments
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2025-4-29-50
Abstract
This paper deals with the strategies of apologetic justification of divine existence in post-Kantian philosophy. These ways differ from the classical proofs of rational theology, since Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason discredited and made it extremely difficult to use the latter. Since the way to the transcendent was closed in the rational sphere, and the Protestant dogmatics had lost its cogency during the Enlightenment, apologetics was left with only the psychological way. The proofs of the existence of God underwent changes of form, while retaining the essence. Psychological arguments were especially actively used in the period of German Idealism. The article shows the key moves to which it can be referred: the argument of F.H. Jacobi from the theistic feeling, the argument of J.G. Fichte from the ethical feeling, the argument of F.W.J. Schelling’s from intellectual contemplation, J.F. Fries’s argument from premonition, sentimentalist arguments of F.D. Schleiermacher and the later (ca. 1900) argumentative move of the Russian philosopher V.I. Nesmelov from the reflected character of the human personality. The latter seems to be the most successful of all mentioned, as it bypasses a number of weaknesses of its predecessors, both the appeal to ineffable personal experience and the use of speculative anachronisms.
About the Author
V. V. Zolotukhin
HSE University; Russian State University of Humanities;Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Vsevolod V. Zolotukhin, Dr. of Sci. (Theology)
21/4, Staraya Basmannaya St., Moscow, 105066;
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047;
32, Nakhimovskiy Av., Moscow, 117997
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Review
For citations:
Zolotukhin V.V. Psychological proofs of God’s existence in the 19th century: key arguments. Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion. 2025;(4):29-50. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2025-4-29-50
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