Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Central Predicaments of Our Time  God or Atheism?  Good or Evil?  Freedom or Tyranny?  Stagnation?  Progress?  Revolution?  Utopia?

The Human Paradox  The enormous contradictions of which our human nature is capable and by which it is torn.

Turning Point in His Life  Saved at the last moment from a firing squad.  Served in Siberian prison for four years.  Exiled to Mongolia  Converted from liberalism to conservatism  Compulsive gambler  Epileptic  Sexual profligate

Novelist’s Technique  Delineation of “…the most shocking crimes and most horrible disasters and scandals— because only in such fictional situations could he exalt his characters to their highest pitch, bringing out the clash of ideas and temperaments, revealing the deepest layers of their souls.” (2365)

His Legacy  Religious philosopher  Political commentator  Psychologist  Novelist  Autobiographer

His Religious Philosophy and Conception of Human Nature  Personalized Christian mysticism  Humanity is fallen, but is free to choose between evil and Christ  And choosing Christ means taking on oneself the burden of humanity in love and pity, since “everybody is guilty for all and above all.”

Man and God  Personal freedom of choice  Affirmation of the worth of every individual  Insistence on the absolute identity of all human beings  Their equality before God  The bond of love that unites them

His Philosophy of History  The West is in complete decay  Only Russia has preserved Christianity in its original form  The West is either Catholic or bourgeois  The West is either socialist and atheistic  The last hope for Western History is Russian nationalism and Russian Christianity

His Psychology  His focus is on traditional concepts of the unconscious, dreams, and ambivalence  In the novels, sudden scenes of revelation by split personalities corrupted by lust, isloation, humiliation, and resentment.  He earns the title of “Father of the Psychological Novel.”

The Structure of His Novels  Dramatic and episodic  Scenes of scandal and violence  Characters swayed by great passions and great ideas  Settings in slums, towns, monastaries, country houses

Common Themes: Myth of Humanity  Humility and pride  Good and evil  The search for God

Notes from Underground  Part I: Explains his isolation  The Underground Man’s monologue  Addressed to an imaginary hostile reader  Autobiographical reminiscence  Part II: The Narrative Behind the Confession  His humiliation by his former schoolmates  The conversion of a prostitute  The humiliation of the prostiute  His eventual self-degradation

The Underground Man Decoded  Modern humanity confessing its sins  The hyperconscious man examining himself in the mirror with pitiless candor  Acknowledging his separation from others  Intentionally courts humiliation  Enjoys evil and destruction

Modern Scientific Civilization Critiqued  Attacks  The view that human nature is good  That we seek our enlightened self-interest  That science propounds immutable truths  That utopia is near

Political Philosophy Critiqued  “The freedom of choice, even at the expense of chaos and destruction, is what makes us human.” (2367)  Man is more bloodthirsty than ever.  Man is purposely irrational

What We Really Want: Freedom  Humanity cannot achieve freedom and happiness at the same time.  Happiness can only be bought at the expense of freedom.  Utopianism is a scheme to lure us into the yoke of slavery.  What we really want is the freedom to choose.

The Solution: Voluntary Christianity  However, paradoxically, it is only through the full recognition of—and action upon—our freedom to choose the irrational that we are prepared to choose the ultimate irrational idea: the Idea of the Trinity.