Статья посвящена проблемам философии науки и критике мировоззренческих и методологических оснований спиритизма в творчестве русского мыслителя второй половины XIX века Н. Н. Страхова. Несмотря на то что в последние годы появилось довольно много статей и три монографии, посвященных творчеству русского философа, тем не менее, продолжают существовать различные оценки его философских воззрений. С 90-х годов превалирует оценка мыслителя как религиозного философа. Однако его философские взгляды непоследовательны, и их невозможно определить однозначно. В частности, философия науки занимает важное место в творчестве Страхова. Эти идеи разрабатывались мыслителем с научных, философских, а не религиозных позиций, что показано в данной статье на примере его анализа и критики спиритизма. Увлечения мистицизмом, спиритуализмом характерны и для нашего времени, поэтому тема критики спиритизма является весьма актуальной.

The article discusses the problems of the philosophy of science and the criticism of the philosophical and methodological foundations of spiritualism in the works of the Russian thinker N. N. Strakhov in the second half of the 19th century. Fascinations with mysticism and spiritualism are characteristic of our time, so the topic of the article is very relevant. Despite the fact that there have been quite a few articles and three monographs published on the work of this Russian philosopher in recent years, various assessments of his philosophical views still exist. Since the 90s, there has been a predominance of an assessment of the thinker as a religious philosopher. However, his philosophical views are inconsistent, and theirs it is impossible to determine unambiguously. In particular, the philosophy of science occupies an important place in Strakhov's work. These ideas were developed from a scientific, philosophical, and not religious standpoint. The critic of spiritualism analyzes the justification of spiritualism in the articles of famous scientists, A. M. Butlerov and N. P. Wagner. Their authority in science contributed to the strengthening of spiritualism in Russia. The author highlights that Strakhov accurately identified the foundations of spiritualism, which were put forward by the naturalists, and convincingly showed their inconsistency from a scientific point of view. Both famous scientists sought to prove that mediumistic phenomena are a scientific fact. In their opinion, this indicated that the spiritual force can act independently of material bodies, and therefore there is a special spiritual world. However, Strakhov convincingly demonstrated that these phenomena contradict the laws of science. The article emphasizes that the Russian philosopher raised criticism of spiritualism to a scientific level and precisely defined it as a pseudoscientific teaching.