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(also Sergej Gessen), prominent Russian philosopher. Studied in Heidelberg and Freiburg with Windelband and Rickert, whose work he also translated into Russian. Tought at the University of Tomsk (Siberia) until 1921, then he emigrated to Czechslovakia. Rector of the Russian pedagogical high school teacher in Prague, visiting professor at a number of Western European universities, foreign member of King's College in London, member of the journal Logos. From the early 30s he worked at the German University in Prague where, as a vigorous opponent of neo-positivism, he led extensive discussions with Rudolf Carnap. Moved to Poland in 1936, first becoming professor at the Free University in Warsaw and later, in 1945, professor at the University of Lodz. His philosophy can be broadly described as uniting (neo-kantian) transcendentalism with dialetics.