scholarly journals God, Evil, Freedom. Reception and Interpretation of Dostoevsky in Luigi Pareyson and his Heirs

Labyrinth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71
Author(s):  
Alessandro Carrieri

The essay aims to focus on reception and interpretation of Dostoevsky in the thought of Luigi Pareyson (1918-1991) and his heirs, who have developed a deep and original theoretical reading of Dostoevsky's work, able to bring out not only its ethical stance, but most of the essential aspects of his thought, and to investigate its current relevance. The reflection of Pareyson – who promoted the introduction of Dostoevsky's thought into the academic circles of Turin, being convinced that philosophy cannot avoid confronting the issues it explores – consists of three main moments: the experience of good and evil, the experience of freedom and the experience of God. Starting from consideration of Dostoevsky's characters as ideas, Pareyson proposes a new and coherent philosophical interpretation of his work, which can undoubtedly be compared to those of Ivanov, Berdjaev, Evdomikov, Šestov. His observations around the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor and the "refutation of Ivan" – which, according to him, constitute the most significant and theoretically prolific moments of Dostoevsky's production – seem unaffected by the flow of time and could still represent a valuable and indispensable contribution to the understanding not only of the great Russian author, but of human nature itself.

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
R Lawal

The human voice is a natural instrument with a natural capability. Thus, speech with the aid of performance and music has been combined since earliest times to communicate valuable insights into human nature and universal themes of life. Such themes include life, death, good and evil. This paper examined performance as a signalling system in communication and how it is deployed by a creative artist. Furthermore, the paper also examined Hausa performance arts. It was discovered that just like in any other nation or community, Hausa performances reflect the socio-geographical experiences of the Hausa people, their natural environment and how they express their world view and artistic aspirations.


Author(s):  
Анастасия Николаевна Кошечко ◽  
Алина Сергеевна Шилова

Введение. Предпринята попытка исследования рецепции антропологического идеала в романе Ф. М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы» русскими религиозными философами порубежной эпохи XIX–XX вв. Аутентичное понимание и интерпретация ключевых идей писателя о человеческом идеале, его ценностях и смысле жизни возможны только в контексте православной антропологии. Важность этого материала не ограничивается осмыслением проблемы антропологического идеала и его влияния на дальнейшее развитие русской религиозно-философской мысли, позволяет исследовать особенности художественного мира романа, в том числе специфику репрезентации в идейном поле произведения авторского начала, мировоззрения писателя. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили работы В. С. Соловьева «Три речи в память Достоевского», В. В. Розанова «Легенда о Великом инквизиторе», Н. А. Бердяева «Миросозерцание Достоевского», Н. О. Лосского «Достоевский и его христианское миропонимание», канонический текст романа Ф. М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы». Используются культурно-исторический, сравнительно-сопоставительный, структурно-типологический методы. Результаты и обсуждение. Наука о Достоевском начинается именно с трудов русских религиозных философов и мыслителей конца XIX – начала XX в., которые идеи о сущности человека, его предназначении, идеале делают содержательным ядром своих размышлений. Итоговый роман Великого Пятикнижия «Братья Карамазовы» как квинтэссенция жизненного и творческого пути Достоевского, неразрывно связанный с духовными и аксиологическими императивами православной антропологии, наиболее часто привлекается религиозными философами для рефлексии ключевых доминант собственных философских концепций, анализа и аргументации идей. Этот материал позволяет исследовать особенности художественного мира романа, специфику репрезентации в идейном поле произведения мировоззрения писателя и авторского начала, антропологического идеала, неразрывно связанного для Достоевского с такими духовными и ценностными доминантами, как Христос, Православие, святость, народность, добро и зло, и выявить его влияние на дальнейшее развитие русской религиозно-философской мысли. Заключение. Антропологический идеал Достоевского, по мысли религиозных философов, опирается на православное учение о человеке, раскрывающее как антиномичность человеческой природы (pro et contra в терминологии писателя), так и бытийную ее устремленность к Богу, Истине, потребность в добре, вне которых личность осознает свое не-бытие. Доминантами антропологического идеала писателя, которые находят отражение в трудах религиозных философов, становятся святость, красота как этическая доминанта личности, укорененность в ценностях и смыслах христоцентричной в своих основаниях русской культуры. Introduction. This article attempts to study the reception of the anthropological ideal in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov” by Russian religious philosophers of the late 19th–20th centuries. Authentic understanding and interpretation of the writer’s key ideas about the human ideal, its values and the meaning of life is possible only in the context of Orthodox anthropology. The importance of this material is not limited to comprehending the problem of the anthropological ideal and its influence on the further development of Russian religious and philosophical thought; moreover, it allows one to explore the peculiarities of the artistic world of the novel, including the specifics of the representation of the author’s principle in the ideological field of the work, the peculiarities of the writer’s worldview. Material and methods. The research material was the work of V. S. Solovyov “Three Speeches in memory of Dostoevsky”, V. V. Rozanov “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”, N. А. Berdyaeva “Dostoevsky’s worldview”, N. O. Lossky “Dostoevsky and his Christian worldview”, the canonical text of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”. The work uses cultural and historical, comparative, structural and typological methods. Results and discussion. The science of Dostoevsky begins precisely with the works of Russian religious philosophers and thinkers of the late XIX – early XX centuries, which ideas about the essence of man, his purpose, ideally make him a meaningful core of his thoughts. The final novel of the Great Pentateuch “The Brothers Karamazov” as a quintessence of Dostoevsky’s life and creative path, inextricably connected with the spiritual and axiological imperatives of Orthodox anthropology, is most often attracted by religious philosophers to reflect key dominants of their own philosophical concepts, analyze and argue ideas. This material allows us to explore the features of the artistic world of the novel, the specifics of representation in the ideological field of the work of the writer’s worldview and author’s beginning, the features of the anthropological ideal, inextricably linked for Dostoevsky with such spiritual and value dominants as Christ, Orthodoxy, holiness, nationality, good and evil, and to identify its influence on the further development of Russian religious and philosophical thought. Conclusion. Dostoevsky’s anthropological ideal, according to religious philosophers, is based on the Orthodox doctrine of man, revealing both the antinomy of human nature («pro et contra» in the writer’s terminology) and its previous striving for God, Truth, the need for good, outside of which the person is aware of his non-existence. The dominants of the anthropological ideal of the writer, which are reflected in the works of religious philosophers, are holiness, beauty as the ethical dominant of the person, and reproach in the values and meanings of Christ-centered Russian culture in their foundations.


Author(s):  
G. A. Cohen

This chapter examines Friedrich Nietzsche's moral philosophy, first by explaining what makes him different from most of the other moral philosophers such as David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, the Greeks, and Baruch Spinoza. It then considers Nietzsche's notion of good and evil by addressing three questions: How do we find out what sort of creatures men are? How do we decide what sort of creature man ought to be? Is it possible for man to transform himself into that sort of creature. It also discusses the problem faced by Nietzsche in his attempts to assess human nature, namely: what is to count as health in the spiritual dimension, when is a soul diseased, what is mens sana. Finally, it analyzes the main arguments put forward by Nietzsche in his two books Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-173
Author(s):  
Chaoqun Xie

Abstract In the internet age, memes are at once products and driving forces of social practices. A meme contains a memetic message and a meme output, and boasts, if guided by a pragmatic way of thinking, several features, including but not limited to salience, frequency, adaptability, argumentativity, sociality, embeddedness, embodiedness, locality, relativity, emotionality and dynamicity. The current global COVID-19 pandemic serves as a fitting and timely touchstone to testify how human beings are surrounded by numerous good and evil memes in the online world, and how internet memes, as can be seen from the illustration of two specific memes, namely, the ‘stay home, stay safe’ meme and the ‘wear a mask’ meme, are impacting human life-worlds, online and offline, with their transformative power, be it constructive or destructive. Moreover, researching how memes plays a decisive part in internet-mediated interaction provides a lens of insight through which ‘deep states’ of human nature of both self and others can be uncovered and through which what Nietzsche called “a revaluation of values” is possible.


2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
C. Athanasopoulos ◽  
Keyword(s):  

1957 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-398
Author(s):  
Gösta Hök

There are many idealists who have no conviction of sin. They are not immoral; indeed they are quite aware of the difference between good and evil, and in certain cases they are anxious to do what is good in their own lives, and in national and community life. They are conscious also of faults both in themselves and in their surroundings, and certainly do not think that everything is perfect. They lack, however, conviction of sin. They interpret the faults which they see as imperfections which are to be explained by the fact that the ideal or the good can be only partly achieved because of circumstances. They have no sense of guilt. Rather than speak of human sin, they speak of human frailty and of the recalcitrance which exists in human nature and which prevents more than the partial realisation of the ideal.


Author(s):  
Vitaliy Yu. Darenskiy

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Double symbolism as the source of personality metaphysics in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. “The Double” novel is considered by the author as the paradigmatic text in which the principles of key images construction in the late novels of F.M. Dostoevsky were formed. The paper uses the ideas of A.A. Ukhtomsky and E.Ya. Golosovker, who proposed philosophical interpretation of the phenomenon of “duality”. “The Double” is viewed as the source of theology of personality in F.M. Dostoevsky’s works, since it was the first time that the figurative model of the struggle of personality and personality in a man, which most directly revealed the duality of his nature as the created image of God, was developed. The hero’s search for his inner “place” (topos of authenticity) and inner support in the confrontation between the “mask” and then the Double as its ultimate expression, is the main theme of the story. The duality of the “nature” of man, who is both the image and likeness of God, and carries the Original sin, is the traditional theological theme and the theme of Christian anthropology. However, no one developed this theme in fiction with such depth and completeness before F.M. Dostoevsky. “Duality” acts as a special mode of negative self-disclosure of personality by means of elimination of his external false identities. The struggle against the Double is the struggle of the true human nature against its damages by the Original sin. The corrupted nature stands out in the form of the masks of the Doubles, and the genuine nature is fighting them, searching in the soul the highest prototype. The masks are defeated only by positively overcoming them in the inner experience of man. The text of “The Double” is for the first time interpreted as “genre of dreams” and as special “initiation” text aimed at the internal transformation of the reader’s personality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (118) ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
B.M. Sýltanova ◽  

The article deals with the play by D. Isabekov «Zhauzhurek», on the example of which the development of Kazakh drama, the creation of images, ways of transmitting conflicts are analyzed. The main character of the play «Zhauzhurek» is Baluan Sholak, whose artistic image was created by the playwright on the basis of historical data about his personality. As a result of the analysis, the playwright revealed a deep knowledge of genre conditions. Analyzed the play by D. Isabekov and its artistic features. This work thematically and artistically reveals human nature. The play «Zhauzhurek» with historical accuracy and special artistic power depicts the tragic fate of our people through the image of the artist of the word of the XIX century Baluan Sholak. The life of a great figure who is a national pride is connected with historical events. The fate of Baluan Sholak is displayed in the flow of time, there is a mixture of historical and artistic realities. The playwright took the fate of the country and the fate of the hero as the basis of the plot. In fact, we see that the issues that concerned the Kazakhs a century ago are still relevant for modern society. Therefore, the play makes the viewer think, immerses in the meaning of life. This work is a spiritual heritage of our country, a measure of culture.


Locke Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237-240
Author(s):  
Hannah Dawson

The foundations of morality have preoccupied philosophers since antiquity. Flickering insistently at the sidelines has been the threat of relativism, troubling in its suggestion that norms are the contingent constructions of men, mercurial through time and space, and each as real as the next. Daunted by this sceptical prospect, theorists have cast about for ways in which they might demonstrate that right and wrong are absolutes, true for ever and for everyone. One particularly fraught response has been to gird morality to the pristine depths of human nature, to claim that our knowledge of good and evil is innate. At this, the sceptic has merely laughed, asking how it could possibly be the case that one universal and immutable morality is etched into our souls, when moral beliefs and practices are palpably different at different times and places. Daniel Carey’s brilliant and scholarly book explores the ways in which the challenge of diversity, and the related debate about innateness, was treated by Locke, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson. He thereby makes an innovative and important contribution to enlightenment histori- ography; resisting the trend to ‘totalise’ the movement, he reveals that alongside and interwoven with the well-known commitment ‘to establishing uniformity in mankind’, were a complex set of negoti- ations with the nagging fact of human multiplicity (2).


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