Nikolai Grot

Born Apr. 18 (30). 1852, in Helsinki; died May 23 (June 4), 1899. Russian idealist philosopher.

Grot was the son of la. K. Grot. From 1886 he was a professor at Moscow University. He was the chairman of the Moscow Psychological Society and the first editor of the journal Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii (from 1889). Grot’s philosophy evolved from a positivist negation of philosophy, expounded in The Relation of Philosophy to Science and Art (1883), to an attempt to create an independent system, using, in particular, elements from the philosphy of G. Bruno, E. Kant. A. Schopenhauer, and E. Hartmann. Grot’s early psychological works, for example, The Psychology of Sensations (1879–80) reveal the influence of I. M. Sechenov’s reflex theory. Subsequently, he endeavored to create a theory of the interaction of psychic and material processes, introducing the concept of psychic energy. This brought his theory close to the energetism of W. Ostwald. Grot endeavored to prove the existence of god, thereby becoming one of the precursors of the Landmarks and Bogoiskatel’stvo movements.