---
id: experimental-and-speculative-knowledge
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: concept
title: Experimental and speculative knowledge
titleEn: Experimental and speculative knowledge
titleRu: Знания опытные и умозрительные
description: "The two rows of knowledge in A Confession (1879–82), ch. V–VI: experimental knowledge («знаний опытных»), with mathematics at the extreme, and speculative knowledge («знаний умозрительных»), with metaphysics at the extreme, and the half-sciences («полунауки») beside them; none answers the question of life."
relatedArticles:
  - leo-tolstoy
relatedWorks:
  -
    id: confession
    relationshipType: source
themes:
  - knowledge and the question of life
  - science and the meaning of life
identifiers:
  wikidata: ""
fieldSources: {}
---

In chapter V of [[A Confession]] (Исповедь, 1879–82) knowledge is divided into two rows, measured against one question: "Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?"[^1] The rows are experimental knowledge and speculative knowledge (<span lang="ru">знания опытные</span> and <span lang="ru">знания умозрительные</span>). Neither answers the question. Beside them stand the half-sciences (<span lang="ru">полунауки</span>).

## The two rows

"The one series of sciences seems not to recognize the question, but replies clearly and exactly to its own independent questions: that is the series of experimental sciences, and at the extreme end of it stands mathematics. The other series of sciences recognizes the question, but does not answer it; that is the series of abstract sciences, and at the extreme end of it stands metaphysics."[^2]

The translators differ on the second term: Wiener (1904) has "speculative", Maude (1921) "abstract". Both have "experimental".

Experimental knowledge is "exact and clear in inverse proportion to [its] applicability to the question of life".[^3] Speculative knowledge, asked "What am I, and what is the universe?", answers "All and nothing"; asked "Why?", "I do not know".[^4]

## The half-sciences

The half-sciences are found on both sides. On the experimental side: physiology, psychology, biology, sociology. On the speculative side: the legal, social and historical sciences, which "endeavour to solve the questions of a man's life by pretending to decide each in its own way, the question of the life of all humanity".[^5] Chapter VI calls them "compromises between abstract and experimental sciences", and lists them as "juridical, political, and historical".[^6]

The legal sciences (<span lang="ru">науки юридические</span>) are the sciences of law. Wiener translates them "jurisprudence", Maude "juridical". The PSS commentary records Kazan University from 1844 to 1847: one year in the oriental department, then two in the law faculty.[^7]

## A draft image

An earlier draft of chapter V pictures the search as looking for a house in a forest. A hilltop with everything in view is pure mathematics; clearings where some things are visible are the experimental, natural sciences; the deepest dark is philosophy; and the places where the more one sees the less one hopes are the speculative sciences: history, law, philology.[^8] The final text keeps the forest in chapter VI in shorter form.

## Open questions

- PSS page numbers within 23:1–59 are not pinned; citations give the chapter.
- The final text names a negative and a positive pole without saying which is which; the draft makes the experimental side negative.

## Dive provenance

- [1879-1882-a-confession](../works/non-fiction/personal-papers/1879-1882-a-confession/index.md) — from Johan's reader annotations (V.7/V.8, VI.9), 2026-10-02; PSS 23 final text, variants and commentary; Maude (1921) and Wiener (1904).

[^1]: <span lang="ru">«Зачем мне жить, зачем чего-нибудь желать, зачем что-нибудь делать?»</span> (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude.

[^2]: <span lang="ru">«Один ряд знаний как бы и не признает вопроса, но зато ясно и точно отвечает на свои независимо поставленные вопросы: это — ряд знаний опытных, и на крайней точке их стоит математика; другой ряд знаний признает вопрос, но не отвечает на него: это — ряд знаний умозрительных, и на крайней их точке — метафизика»</span> (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude.

[^3]: <span lang="ru">«обратно пропорционально их приложимости к вопросам жизни»</span> (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude.

[^4]: <span lang="ru">«всё и ничто»</span>; <span lang="ru">«не знаю»</span> (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude.

[^5]: <span lang="ru">«Полунауки этой области — науки юридические, социальные, исторические — пытаются разрешать вопросы человека тем, что они мнимо, каждая по-своему разрешают вопрос жизни всего человечества»</span> (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude, who has "the juridical and the social-historical".

[^6]: <span lang="ru">«сделки между умозрительными и опытными знаниями, которые составляют весь балласт полунаук, так называемых юридических, политических, исторических»</span> (PSS 23, ch. VI). English: Maude.

[^7]: PSS 23, commentary.

[^8]: <span lang="ru">«Это чистая математика»</span>; <span lang="ru">«Это — опытные, естественные знания»</span>; <span lang="ru">«это — философия»</span>; <span lang="ru">«это все умозрительные науки: история, право, филология»</span> (PSS 23, variants, No. 6 to ch. V). Our translation.