‘To Read Another Man’s Soul’: Excerpts from an Unpublished Work of Nikolai I. Kareev, Historian, Sociologist, and Methodologist

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УДК 930.2

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2017-4-236-247

Evgeniya A. Dolgova

Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russian Federation

Alexey V. Malinov

St. Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation

‘To Read Another Man’s Soul’: Excerpts from an Unpublished Work of Nikolai I. Kareev, Historian, Sociologist, and Methodologist

Abstract

The article studies an unpublished methodological and scientific work of Russian historian Nikolai I. Kareev ‘General methodology of the humanities’ (1922). Few historians worked with the manuscript (some in 1970s, some in 1990s and some in 2010s), but thanks to their articles it is known to scholars. Nikolai I. Kareev wrote this book in 1922, summarizing his legacy, and particularly his methodological research, but censorship restrictions prevented its publication. It studies various issues of the humanities through the lens of positivism. Historiographically, it partly continues Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky’s course ‘The Methodology of History’, read at the University of Petrograd; after Lappo-Danilevsky’s death in 1919 the course was to pass on to Nikolai Kareev. But ‘General metodology’ is an original course, and one written from a different standpoint. The article introduces the publication of an excerpt from ‘General methodology.’ The excerpt includes four paragraphs from chapter 4, ‘Direct observation and statement of facts in the humanities,’ describing the notion of historical fact and its working principles. The published excerpt assesses the role of psychology in historical research, which is significant, as Kareev considered society a result of mental interaction of personalities; it puts Kareev's reasoning in context with the notion of ‘alien animations,’ which necessarily follows from his psychologization of history. The text is reconstructed according to an autograph by Nikolai Kareev stored in the Research Division of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library (NIOR RGB). The autograph bears Kareev’s marks: strikethroughs, underlines, inserts on the fields. The document is published in accordance with archaeographical rules.

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Keywords

Historical source, Nikolay I. Kareev, methodological heritage, ‘General methodology of the humanities,’ fragments, psychologization in history, early Soviet period.

References

DOLGOVA, E. A. Iz istorii izdaniya raboty N. I. Kareeva “Obshhaya metodologiya gumanitarnykh nauk” (1922-1924) [From the history of publication of Nikolai I. Kareev’s work ‘General methodology of the humanities’ (1922-1924). In Russ.] IN: Vestnik arhivista – Herald of an Archivist, 2012, no. 1, pp. 239-245.

KAREEV, N. I. Dva novykh truda po sotsiologii [chast' 1]: Sistema sotsiologii P. A. Sorokina. Podgot. teksta, vstup. st. i komment. E. A. Dolgovoi [DOLGOVA, E.A. (ed.). Two new sociological works: System of sociology by Pitirim A. Sorokin. In Russ.] Sotsiologicheskii zhurnal, 2014, no. 4, pp. 95-120.

KAREEV, N. I. Obshhaya metodologiya gumanitarnykh nauk. Podgot. teksta, vstupit. stat'ja i komment. A. V. Malinova [MALINOV, A.V. (ed.). General methodology of the humanities. In Russ.]. IN: Veche: zhurnal russkoi filosofii i kul'tury, 2011, issue 22, pp. 147-174.

KAREEV, N. I. Ponjatie nauki i klassifikacija nauk. Podgotovka teksta i kommentarii A. V. Malinova [MALINOV, A.V. (ed.). Notion of science and classification of sciences. In Russ.]. IN: Klio, 2013, no. 2, pp. 28-35.

About author

Dolgova Evgeniya Andreevna, PhD in History, associate professor, Russian State University for the Humanities, assistant professor, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-905-69556-08, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Malinov Alexey Valerievich, PhD in Philosophy, professor, St. Petersburg State University, professor, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

This article has been prepared with financial support of the Russian State Science Fund (science project no. 15-03-00488).

Submitted 21.05.2017, published:

DOLGOVA, E. A., MALINOV, A. V. “Ponyat' chuzhuyu dushu”: Fragmenty iz neopublikovannogo truda istorika, sotsiologa, metodologa nauki N. I. Kareeva [‘To read another man’s soul’: Excerpts from an unpublished work of Nikolai I. Kareev, historian, sociologist, and methodologist. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2017, no. 4, pp. 236-247.

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