Pafnutii Baturin

Baturin, Pafnutii Sergeevich 

Born circa 1740; died Oct. 23, 1803, in Minsk. Russian materialist enlight-ener and adherent of deism.

Baturin is the author of Examination of the Book on Errors and Truth (see Izbr. proizv. russkikh myslitelei vtoroi poloviny XVIII v., vol. 2, 1952, pp. 391–532). In this work Baturin, relying on the achievements of the natural sciences in the 18th century, criticized the French mystic Saint-Martin’s system, which was popular among Russian Masons. Baturin advocated the experimental cognition of nature and the natural origin of the state.

WORKS

“Zapiski (1780–1798).” (Foreword by B. L. Modzalevskii.) Golos minuvshevo, 1918, nos. 1–9.

REFERENCE

Istoriia filosofii ν SSSR, vol. 1. Moscow, 1968. Pages 55–56.

E. G. PLIMAK