The Nihilism of Dostoevsky, Vadim Filatov [top reads txt] 📗

out such depth that its expansion can have as a result only the world accident". "The absolute knowledge demands the most radical nihilism", - thus the representative of philosophy of a postmodern Jean-François Lyotard claimed. And the modern Russian philosopher Chanyshev proclaimed the absolute character of Non-Existence, which generated and inevitably destroyed any being. Everything arises for a while, and perishes forever: the person comes from a Non-Existence and falls into it, without having understood anything.


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Dostoevsky has showed a problem of nihilism in such a substantial scale, that only radical ways of the decision became acceptable. Whether Existence was eternal, or it was deceptive, and this meant that it wasn't present and wouldn't be at all.

"The Hostess"

This is Dostoevsky's unfairly forgotten early story. The characters of the story lived on the verge of real and imagined, madness and health, which mutual transitions were so imperceptible that any distinction between life and a Non-Existence was erased. Dostoevsky has debuted before this novel with far-fetched and lifeless imitation of Gogol, the story "Poor Folk" ("new Gogol appears! "), which caused unlimited praises of Belinsky. He hoped that the new author would be able to replace Gogol, who was gradually falling into religious obscurantism. However, Dostoevsky, in his novel "The Hostess", unexpectedly went to the gloomy and mysterious area, having plunged into darkness of soul and opening gallery of mysterious outcasts with the image of Murin. The main hero of "The Hostess", Ordyntsev, and the hostess named Catherine herself, were absolutely ambiguous. So Belinsky has responded about the story "The Hostess" in the spirit of Lenin’s later statements: "nasty thing" and " terrible nonsense ". Many people thought that revolution in Dostoevsky's outlook was connected with his stay on penal servitude however the first sources of his latest philosophical reflections could be founded in his story "The Hostess".

"Notes from Underground"

“The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

This program story of Dostoevsky was conceived by the author as a lampoon, having directed against political nihilists, and turned into apologia of philosophical nihilism. The Underground Man became one of the most spiritually powerful characters of Dostoevsky. He showed his willfulness long before Kirillov. Also he denied any attempts of creation of a rational picture of the world, both bourgeois and utilitarian, and socialist. (In "The Demons" Kirillov has cherished his main idea, lying on a floor at the American slum, and destroying mentally all intolerable and disgusting reality. So Kirillov's thought was also directed both against demons of chaos, and against demons of a petty-bourgeois order). Thus, the main targets of sarcastic criticism of the Underground Man were the banal evidence, and the Nature: "Upon my word, they will shout at you, it is no use protesting: it is a case of twice two makes four! Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions. A wall, you see, is a wall ... and so on, and so on". The Underground Man (according to Dostoevsky) had to destroy rationalism from within, bringing its logical preconditions and opportunities to the consecutive end and coming to absolute denial of reality. He, like the ancient philosopher Diogenes, has rejected society, which at the same time was necessary to him. Thus splitting of consciousness was symptomatic and peculiar to many talented and not so talented people. The petty-bourgeois world didn't accept the philosophizing nihilist and this was the normal order of things, because "a person is silly, is silly phenomenally". The Underground Man, being started "communicating" with the imagined interlocutor, tried to achieve his sympathy and favor, but very quickly made the very unpleasant impression on him. However, this contradiction was the seeming one: he has wanted freedom not so much from the world, but from himself – thus was the basic criterion of a solvency of the person which related the Underground Man with Stavrogin. "I am not present", - such hidden signal was send by Underground Man to nonexistent world, and so his idea sounded even more loudly, than Kirillov's shot. The General Law of the “strengthened consciousness", having opened by the Underground Man, excluded absolutely any possibility of the termination of reflection even if it conducts to denial of the world and general destruction: “I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”

"Crime and punishment"

“Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

The main character of this novel - Rodion Raskolnikov - was in spiritual relationship with the first nihilists of the Russian literature. But Raskolnikov had a serious advantage - both before Bazarov, and before the hero of "Notes from an Underground", because unlike them he has not only talked and swore, but passed directly to practice. According to Dostoevsky's plan, verification of the theory by the direct action had to put Raskolnikov to awareness of insolvency of his own nihilism. Thus the author gave to the hero the chance of repentance with the help of deeply religious prostitute Sonia Marmeladova. By reading the Bible she persuaded Raskolnikov to repent and admit his murder. Vladimir Nabokov pointed fairly to obvious artificiality of the theatrical scene when "murderer and loose woman united during reading the eternal book".
In the ending of the last Russian screen version of the "Crime and Punishment" impressively created by director Dmitry Svetozarov, Rodion Raskolnikov has been repented about his recognition and didn't refuse his idea. He has regretted that he remained a kind of a shivering creature, but not about the murder. This ending didn't correspond to the text of Dostoevsky’s novel, but quite coincides with logic of development of outlook of the main character. Another hero of the novel, Svidrigaylov, appeared much more consecutive nihilist then Raskolnikov. He showed that, being the nihilist, it was optional to kill people by an axe, but it would be more important to realize his own willfulness as fundamental value.

"The Idiot"

“I do not exist now and I know it; God knows what lives in me in place of me.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

This novel narrated why the idea of remaking the world by means of Good is a kind of madness. The world is initially evil, so everything represents various, sometimes rather deceptive and freakish forms of redistribution of the same Evil. Sometimes Evil pretends to be good for the aim to overcome its competitors. If somebody attempts to imagine the world which is building on the basis of the final celebration of Good, it would be real idiocy. Thus is the reason of the name of the novel and the name of the main character, actually, the idiot. Prince Myshkin has tried to create Good, and, for the aim of the purity of experiment, Dostoevsky gave him financial leverages in the form of unexpected receiving inheritance. As a result of altruistic feeble efforts of the idiot, the inevitable process of prompt increase of the cash evil has began, which reached its apogee with Nastasia Filippovna's flight from the kind prince to angry Rogozhin and her death.
The main character of the novel "The Idiot" actually is Hippolyte – the young man, who realized himself as “being who denies everything”, and who "had to die inevitably", especially just as all the people were sentenced to death. So he decided to take execution of the sentence in his own hands. However, when Hippolyte has learned that he was fatally sick, he decided to postpone a suicide. He wanted to look as the self-satisfied and fateful world would painfully suffer, redistributing its Evil. Hippolyte's interest to the world was a curiosity of very metaphysical plan, so "Hippolyte's Confession" became the strongest text created by Dostoevsky, which, due to a misunderstanding, was put into the weak and far-fetched novel "The Idiot".

"The Demons"

“If Stavrogin believes, he does not believe that he believes. And if he does not believe, he does not believe that he does not believe.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons

The main character of the novel "The Demons" Stavrogin has denied the world and, according to the nihilistic principle of willfulness, rejected any obligations and relations with other people. Throughout the novel the fateful world with its stupid puppets danced and wriggled round the lonely thinker, but he kept absolute tranquility, which was similar to the well-known apathy of ancient philosophers. Sometimes Stavrogin showed some easy activity with a great deal of boredom, which reminded the fuss of Bazarov with frogs. In reply the provincial bog started croaking and letting out loudly the putrefactive gases, being pleased that it was noticed and, therefore, it existed. Thus the quantity of the cash Evil increased with the geometrical progression. Then Stavrogin came back to his usual loneliness and apathy, having satisfied his metaphysical curiosity.
"There is only one rather serious philosophical problem - a suicide problem... to solve to live or not to live means to answer a fundamental question of philosophy", - thus Albert Camus wrote in connection with the novel "The Demons". So Dostoevsky, being the ingenious writer, gave the honest answer on this last condemned question. The engineer Kirillov has declared his wish to commit suicide, as "such was his idea". And Kirillov's idea was a kind of overestimated ideas, because for the aim of its realization he was quite ready to die. Kirillov knew that the God didn't exist, but the God had to be. If the God didn't exist, then Kirillov became the God himself. But the God didn't exist all the same, so Kirillov had to kill himself for the aim to become the absent God. And Kirillov (from positions of his potential divinity), indifferently looked at various demons, which were fussing round him: "I defined that night that everything was indifferent for me now".
Kirillov has become convinced that Jesus was deceived, like all ordinary people, "laws of the nature also forced him to live among lie and to die for lie". Therefore the tragedy of each human life was embodied in Jesus. Each of us would be crucified and deceived like the Christ. The shot from the Kirillov's gun has sounded as a signal for the beginning of nihilistic revolution, which would be directed on destruction of lie and deception. As fairly Camus noticed, not despair, but love to the Mankind, has pushed Kirillov to death. Before finishing bloody and unprecedented act of spirit, Kirillov said words so ancient, as all human sufferings were: everything is ok!
While Kirillov committed suicide for the aim to declare his own willfulness as a man who has became a God, Stavrogin realized the God as the Non-Existence and directed himself to his God.
Albert Camus, when has been discussing a problem of suicide, spoke that it was easy to be logical, but would be hard to be logical up to the end. The history of philosophy knew, at least, two examples of honest philosophical suicides:
In 1876 – the philosophical suicide of