Prof. Dr. Philosophy
Russian State University for the Humanities at Moscow
Alexei N. Krouglov is Professor at the Department of History of Philosophy, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow.
He studied philosophy and history at Moscow Lomonosov University and Tver University (1990-1997).
PhD at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (1999). Habilitation at the Russian State University of Humanities (2005). Research stays at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Kiel, Trier.
Visiting professor at the Baltic Federal Kant University, Kaliningrad (2012, 2014), at the University of Luxembourg (2007) and at the University of Trier (2015-2016, 2018).
His main research interests are in the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy, with a special focus on Kant, German Enlightenment, German Idealism, and Russian philosophy.
His works include Transtsendentalizm v flosofi (Moscow, 2000), Tetens, Kant i diskussiia o metafzike v Germanii vtoroi poloviny XVIII veka (Moscow, 2008), Filosofia Kanta v Rossii v kontse XVIII— pervoi polovine XIX vekov (Moscow, 2009), and Kant i kantovskaia flosofia v russkoi khudozhestvennoi literature (Moscow, 2012).
He is also the editor and translator of Tolstoj, L. N. Gedanken Immanuel Kants (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 2016) and co-editor (with H.P. Delfosse) of Tetens, J. N. Über die allgemeine speculativische Philosophie, neue kritische Ausgabe (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 2017).
In the fifties of the 18th century, Kant was involved in the debate on optimism. His main opponents were the Crusians D. Weymann and A. F. Reinhard.
Contrary to popular belief, the dispute was not so much a response to the 1755 Lisbon earthquake as it was metaphysical and theological deliberation.
Its main problem was the problem of freedom.
Kant's position had their weaknesses, and it forced him to abandon the use of the very notion of "optimism" for the rest of his life.