Abstract

In this chapter, we look at the position of various representatives of Russian Orthodoxy on the traditional philosophical issue of free will versus determinism and the rise of interest in it among psychologists and physiologists. Russia’s small but growing number of professional philosophers formed an officially sanctioned society and took up as their first focus of attention the issue of free will though they largely did so independently of previous efforts in their country. Arguably the most notable of these treatments was that of Lopatin, whose concept of creative causality aroused a harsh assessment from Solov’ëv. His written comments on free will and Lopatin’s understanding of it appeared in print only posthumously and reveal his attempt at outlining a soft determinism that avoids a metaphysical stance.