Valentin Asmus (philosopher) explained

Valentin Ferdinandovich Asmus (Russian: Валенти́н Фердина́ндович А́смус; December 30, 1894 – June 4, 1975) was a Soviet philosopher. He was one of the small group who continued the classical European philosophical tradition through the early Soviet times.^[1] He was an independent thinker and unorthodox Marxist,^[2] with interests in the history of philosophy and aesthetics.

He graduated from St. Vladimir University in 1919, then moved to Moscow in 1927.^[3] At this period he attacked the views of William James.^[4] In the mid-1920s, he was a theorist of literary constructivism.^[5]

Through his wife Irina, he became a friend of Boris Pasternak, from about 1931.^[6] His major work Marx and Bourgeois Historicism (1933) was influenced by György Lukács.^[7] At this point an opponent of formal logic, he changed position and wrote a textbook on it. There is a story of his being summoned to see Joseph Stalin, and required to give logic lectures to Red Army generals.^[8]

He was Professor at Moscow State University from 1942 to 1972.^[9] In the 1960s he edited Plato, with Aleksei Losev. Outside the Soviet Union, Asmus was mostly known for his contributions to studying Immanuel Kant.

Notes and References

1. Book: Bakhurst , David . Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov (Modern European Philosophy) . Cambridge University Press . June 1991 . 5 . 0-521-40710-9 .
2. http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/philruss01.htm PostSoviet Russian Philosophy
3. Book: Barnes , Christopher . Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography . Cambridge University Press; New Ed edition . February 2004 . 5 . 0-521-52072-X .
4. Book: Grossman , Joan Delaney . Rischin, Ruth . William James in Russian Culture . Lexington Books . February 2003 . 7 . 0-7391-0527-2 .
5. Book: Makaryk , Irena R. . Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms (Theory / Culture) . University of Toronto Press . April 1993 . 18 . 0-8020-6860-X .
6. Book: Marsh , Rosalind . Women and Russian Culture: Projections and Self-Perceptions (Studies in Slavic Literature, Culture, and Society, V. 2) . Berghahn Books . November 1998 . 168 . 1-57181-913-4 .
7. Book: Delanty , George . Handbook of Contemporary European Social Theory . Routledge . February 2006 . 159 . 0-415-35518-4 .
8. Bazhanov, Logic and Ideologized Science Phenomenon (Case of the URSS), in Book: Sica , Giandomenico . Essays on the Foundations of Mathematics and Logic 1 . Polimetrica . 2005 . 51 . 978-88-7699-014-4 .
9. Book: van der Zweerde , Evert . Soviet Historiography of Philosophy: Istoriko-Filosofskaja Nauka (Sovietica) . Springer . November 1997 . 89–90 . 0-7923-4832-X .