Trubetskoi, Sergei Nikolaevich (1862–1905)

Prince Sergei N. Trubetskoi came from one of the most enlightened and distinguished noble families in Russia. By 1890 he had emerged as one of the country’s major idealist philosophers. He was close, both personally and intellectually, to the Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Solov’ëv, whose ideas he developed in a liberal direction, in contrast to Russian thinkers such as the symbolists who engaged Solov’ëv’s utopian dimension. In broadest terms, he aspired towards a universalistic philosophical theism. ‘Like Solov’ëv, Trubetskoi combined Christianity with Platonism in his philosophy and considered the Logos to be the central idea of Christianity. And like Solov’ëv, Trubetskoi was a convinced Westernizer and liberal’ – so wrote Solov’ëv’s nephew. Inspired by a firm conviction in the absolute value and dignity of the human person, which he believed was created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God, Trubetskoi took an active part in the Russian constitutional reform movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. His conception of an ontological ‘concrete idealism’ had great influence in the development of Russian neo-idealism during this period.