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 (знания опытные and знания умозрительные). Neither answers the question. Beside them stand the half-sciences (полунауки).
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 (науки юридические) 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 — 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).
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«Зачем мне жить, зачем чего-нибудь желать, зачем что-нибудь делать?» (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude. ↩
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«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» (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude. ↩
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«обратно пропорционально их приложимости к вопросам жизни» (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude. ↩
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«всё и ничто»; «не знаю» (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude. ↩
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«Полунауки этой области — науки юридические, социальные, исторические — пытаются разрешать вопросы человека тем, что они мнимо, каждая по-своему разрешают вопрос жизни всего человечества» (PSS 23, ch. V). English: Maude, who has “the juridical and the social-historical”. ↩
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«сделки между умозрительными и опытными знаниями, которые составляют весь балласт полунаук, так называемых юридических, политических, исторических» (PSS 23, ch. VI). English: Maude. ↩
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PSS 23, commentary. ↩
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«Это чистая математика»; «Это — опытные, естественные знания»; «это — философия»; «это все умозрительные науки: история, право, филология» (PSS 23, variants, No. 6 to ch. V). Our translation. ↩