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Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821–1881

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

For Dostoevsky, the question is whether, without God, everything is permitted – and his novels show freedom as a burden people are tempted to give away.

Placement

Life & Existential Philosophy · Eastern Europe · Existence & Self, Religion, Ethics

Novelist as philosopher: freedom, guilt and the question of whether, without God, everything is permitted.

Key ideas

  • The Grand Inquisitor
  • The underground man
  • Suffering and freedom

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Influence

Influenced 6

  • Friedrich Nietzsche

    influenced ✓

    Nietzsche discovered Dostoevsky in 1887 in a French translation (L’Esprit souterrain) and in Twilight of the Idols (1889) called him a psychologist he had learned from. F. Nietzsche, letter to F. Overbeck, Feb. 1887; Götzen-Dämmerung (1889), “Streifzüge eines Unzeitgemässen”; SEP “Friedrich Nietzsche”

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO

    Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900

  • Vladimir Solovyov

    influenced

    Solovyov travelled with Dostoevsky to Optina Pustyn in 1878 and in Three Speeches in Memory of Dostoevsky (1881–83) honoured him as a religious thinker of universal Christian unity. V. Solovyov, Tri rechi v pamiat Dostoevskogo (1881–83); SEP “Vladimir Solov’ëv”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Vladimir Solovyov › 1853–1900

  • Lev Shestov

    influenced ✓

    In Dostoevsky and Nietzsche: The Philosophy of Tragedy (1903) Shestov read Notes from Underground as Dostoevsky’s break with idealism, the start of a ‘philosophy of tragedy’. L. Shestov, Dostoevskij i Nitshe. Filosofija tragedii (1903)

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata

    Lev Shestov › 1866–1938

  • Nikolai Berdyaev

    influenced ✓

    In Dostoevsky’s Worldview (1923) Berdyaev read Dostoevsky as a thinker of human freedom, for whom evil is the tragic consequence of freedom. N. Berdyaev, Mirosozertsanie Dostoevskogo (1923), tr. D. Attwater, Dostoevsky: An Interpretation (1934)

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata

    Nikolai Berdyaev › 1874–1948

  • Mikhail Bakhtin

    influenced ✓

    In his Dostoevsky book (1929; revised 1963) Bakhtin argued that the novelist lets independent voices meet without subordinating them to one authorial truth, and called this polyphony. M. M. Bakhtin, Problemy tvorčestva Dostoevskogo (1929); Problemy poėtiki Dostoevskogo (1963)

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata

    Mikhail Bakhtin › 1895–1975

  • Albert Camus

    influenced ✓

    In The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) Camus read Dostoevsky’s Kirillov as a figure of absurd logic, and he adapted Demons for the stage (Les Possédés, 1959). A. Camus, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942), “Kirilov”; Les Possédés (1959); SEP “Albert Camus”

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO

    Albert Camus › 1913–1960

Criticism

Criticizes 1

  • Nikolai Chernyshevsky

    criticised

    Dostoevsky’s underground man (Notes from Underground, 1864) mocks the rational egoism and ‘crystal palace’ of Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done?, valuing free will above advantage. F. Dostoevsky, Zapiski iz podpol’ya (1864), Part I, chs. 7–10; N. Chernyshevsky, Chto delat’? (1863); J. Frank, Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860–1865 (1986)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Nikolai Chernyshevsky › 1828–1889

Works

Position

Dostoevsky was a novelist, not a systematic philosopher, yet his novels became a point of reference for modern thought. His Underground Man rebels against the dream of a society organised by reason and self-interest: humans would rather act against their advantage than be a piano key in a rational plan. His novels test what happens when people cast off God – Raskolnikov’s murder “on principle”, Ivan Karamazov’s question whether everything is then permitted, and the Grand Inquisitor who offers bread and security in exchange for freedom. Against this he set suffering, humility and active love. Nietzsche, the existentialists and twentieth-century theology all learned from him.

Life & context

Dostoevsky, a doctor’s son from Moscow, joined a socialist discussion circle and was sentenced to death in 1849; at the last moment the execution was revealed as staged, and he served four years of hard labour in Siberia. Returning with a deepened Orthodox faith, he wrote his great novels amid epilepsy, debt and gambling. He died in St Petersburg shortly after completing The Brothers Karamazov.

Further main works

  • Crime and Punishment (1866)
  • The Idiot (1869)
  • Demons (1872)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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