Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821-1881 · Russian · Existentialism, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Russian Religious Thought, Literature

The mystery of man's being is not only in living, but in what one lives for.

In December 1849, Dostoevsky was tied to a post before a firing squad in Semyonovsky Square. The execution was a Tsarist hoax, but the terror remade him. Four years of Siberian labor among convicts whose faith moved him ended his belief in Western rationalism. What returned from Siberia was a writer with a different philosophy.

Topics Fyodor Dostoevsky addresses

• the Underground Man
• rational egoism and its refusal
• spite and self-laceration
• the man of heightened consciousness
• 2 x 2 = 5
• determinism and the stone wall
• the extraordinary man
• the Grand Inquisitor
• the return of the ticket
• children's tears and the price of harmony
• theodicy and the problem of evil
• the rebellion of Ivan
• Father Zosima and active love
• the holy elder
• eschatological imagination
• the ideological novel
• the idea as idea-force
• polyphony
• Kirillov and suicide as proof of freedom
• Stavrogin and demonic possession
• the god-bearing people
• pochvennichestvo
• the Russian Idea
• vsechelovechnost

Questions to put to Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Underground Man and the Refusal of Reason

• What do you mean by 2 x 2 = 5?
• Why does the Underground Man act against his own rational interest?
• How is your attack on the crystal palace an attack on socialism?
• What's wrong with Chernyshevsky's idea that people naturally pursue their own benefit?
• Why do you think heightened consciousness leads to suffering rather than wisdom?

Crime, Conscience, and the Extraordinary Man

• Why does Raskolnikov commit the murder?
• What's the difference between Napoleon and Raskolnikov?
• How does Sonya bring Raskolnikov to confession?
• Does the novel prove that no one has the right to kill for a greater good?
• What role does Siberia play in Raskolnikov's resurrection?
• How do you answer Pisarev's theory of the superior individual?

The Positively Beautiful Man and Failed Ideals

• What did you mean by trying to create a positively beautiful man?
• Why does Prince Myshkin fail in the world?
• Is Myshkin's failure a failure of Christianity or a failure of the world?
• How is Myshkin a Christ-figure?
• What's at stake for you in Nastasya Filippovna's wounded pride?

Revolutionary Nihilism and Spiritual Possession

• How did the Nechaev affair shape your writing of Demons?
• What does Pyotr Verkhovensky want?
• Why is Stavrogin the center of the novel if he does so little?
• What's the connection between atheism and revolutionary violence in your view?
• How do you see Kirillov's plan to prove his freedom through suicide?
• Why do you call the revolutionaries demons rather than just criminals or fanatics?

Ivan's Rebellion and the Grand Inquisitor

• Why does Ivan want to return his ticket?
• How do you answer Ivan's argument about the tears of children?
• What is the Grand Inquisitor actually saying to Christ?
• Is the Grand Inquisitor's critique of Christianity unanswerable on rational grounds?
• What's the difference between Ivan's rebellion and atheism?
• How does Father Zosima's teaching respond to Ivan?

Russia, Orthodoxy, and the God-Bearing People

• What do you mean by calling the Russian people a God-bearing people?
• How do you see Russia's mission in relation to Western Europe?
• Why do you think Roman Catholicism abandoned Christ for worldly power?
• What's at stake for you in the union of the Tsar with the Russian people?
• How do you defend your position on Poland and the Catholic Slavs?
• What did you mean in the Pushkin Speech about Russia reconciling Europe's contradictions?

Converse with Fyodor Dostoevsky on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Fyodor Dostoevsky's own writing, cited to the page.