PHIL304: Existentialism

3a. Identify Fyodor Dostoevsky's place in the history of existentialism

• What is the historical context in which Dostoevsky's existentialist thinking emerges?
• How can one understand Dostoevsky's existentialist concerns in terms of Russia's social and political situation?

The Russian writer and philosopher Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) lived just before the Russian Revolution. The social conditions of that time had a big impact on his existential concerns. He worried about the social and political unrest that was causing social inequality, class wars, and the way religious faith was changing. It is against this social backdrop that he wrote his greatest literature.
 
To review, see Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky's Life and Works, and Why You Should Read Crime and Punishment.
 

3b. Describe Dostoevsky's notions of freedom and revolution

• What is Dostoevsky's view of freedom?
• What is Dostoevsky's view of revolution?

Dostoevsky's novels demonstrate that his view of freedom was complicated and best observed through the characters he created. He examined atheism as a means of understanding freedom, as people must take responsibility for their creation, meaning, and actions because they cannot rely upon a religious institution to provide it for them.
 
Freedom provides the context for revolution (the forcible overthrow of existing norms or regimes) in socio-economic and political terms. He was concerned with the existential conditions and components of violent change (nihilism, terrorism, and destruction) and the implacability of the ideas that foment revolutions, the ideas that change revolve around.
 
To review, see The Possessed (The Devils) and Lessons from The Brothers Karamazov.
 

3c. Summarize the idea of Dostoevsky's Underground Man

• What are the main existential themes that can be drawn from the Underground Man?
• What is the alienation the Underground Man experiences?

Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground compiles the fragmented memoirs or "notes" of a 40-year-old Underground Man. He appears spiteful, pitiful, and isolated from humanity. He despises himself and everyone else and complains about how miserable the world is.
 
The Underground Man represented what Dostoevsky thought humanity was producing rather than what he thought humanity should become. The "notes" show his ongoing struggle to connect with the world and himself: to defy, define, and be a part of something bigger than oneself. The reader is exposed to the narrator's various moods throughout the Notes, including his anxiety and despair.
 
To review, see The Underground Man.
 

3d. Analyze Dostoevsky's perspective on morality

• What is the problem of evil?
• How is freedom one possible response to the problem of evil?
• How is the notion of the best of all possible worlds one response to the problem of evil?

Dostoevsky tries to figure out what good and evil are by looking at human behavior and the different existential crises people face. He demonstrates that people can be good and evil and that reducing human complexity to simple dichotomies is inaccurate. Through his different characters, Dostoevsky shows that morality is more of an existential problem than a religious or social one.
 
The notion that humans cannot defeat evil presents a problem for morality. However, Dostoevsky does not want us to sink into despair, nihilism, or suicide; rather, he wants the opposite. He believes that suffering leads to redemption and gives our lives meaning.
 
To review, see Fyodor Dostoevsky on the Problem of Evil and Crime and Punishment.
 

3e. Explain Dostoevsky's critique of reason and notion of truth

• How is Dostoevsky's critique of reason central to his existential concerns?
• How are reason and truth related?
• How does absurdity undermine traditional conceptions of truth?

Reason is either limited or unlimited in scope. If it is limited, the unknown lies on the other side of the human boundary. If it is unlimited, we can progress to the point of divine-like perfection. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky expresses his skepticism about the capabilities of human reason. Dostoevsky believed that overestimating our rational capacity would lead to disappointment, in contrast to the Enlightenment's faith in the power of reason to reveal fundamental truths about the universe and everything in it.
 
Truth typically refers to how we evaluate claims: Today is Wednesday, 2 + 5 = 7, I like coconut ice cream, God exists, and You acted ethically. We often consider truth objective. We make claims about good and evil, freedom and determinism, guilt and salvation as if they are all knowable and completely consistent with our other worldviews.
 
To review, see The Brothers Karamazov and The Grand Inquisitor.
 

3f. Summarize the main themes in Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor"

• What role does story play in Dostoevsky's notion of truth?
• What is Jesus accused of?
• What is the main argument against Jesus, as presented by the Grand Inquisitor?
• Why does Ivan, who is telling us the story of The Grand Inquisitor, reject God's absolute power?

Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov is a Matryoshka nesting doll of stories. Within the story, two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha, engage in a conversation. Ivan tells Alyosha a story set during the Spanish Inquisition about a conversation between the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus, who has returned to earth. The Grand Inquisitor also tells Jesus a story. In all of these stories, Dostoevsky shows how fiction is paradoxical: it tells the truth, but it is not true because the events in it never happened.
 
The Grand Inquisitor accuses Jesus of having misunderstood human nature. He argues that freedom, which God granted humans, is a terrible intolerable burden for man. Humans only want food security: they happily trade freedom for bread and safety. "In the end, they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us'" (p. 6). The Grand Inquisitor maintains that the Church has rectified God's error, "at last they have vanquished freedom and have done so to make men happy". With his return, Jesus threatens all of the Church's good work and, most importantly, human happiness.
 
To review, see The Grand Inquisitor.
 

Unit 3 Vocabulary

Be sure you understand these terms as you study for the final exam. Try to think of the reason why each term is included.

• atheism
• evil
• freedom
• Fyodor Dostoevsky
• good
• Matryoshka nesting doll
• reason
• revolution
• The Grand Inquisitor
• truth
• Underground Man