Dostoevsky, Confession, and the Evolutionary Origins of Conscience

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Tom Dolack
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

Abstract Fyodor Dostoevsky is renowned as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature, but what we know about the origins and the workings of the human mind has changed drastically since the late nineteenth century. If Dostoevsky was such a sensitive reader of the human condition, do his insights hold up to modern research? To judge just by the issue of the psychology of confession, the answer appears to be: yes. The work of Michael Tomasello indicates that the human conscience evolved in order to make people obey group norms. From this I draw the proposition that confession should be best directed to the group as a whole, and not to an individual. Judging by Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and an assortment of characters in The Brothers Karamazov, this appears to be exactly how confession works in Dostoevsky's novels: sin is against all, so forgiveness must be from all.

scholarly journals Intertekstualiteit en die Bose in Kroniek van Perdepoort (Anna M. Louw)

Literator ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
E. Linde ◽  
D. H. Steenberg
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Sound And The Fury ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Constituent Element ◽  
Similar Theme ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Devil

In Anna M. Louw’s novel Kroniek van Perdepoort the primal conflict between good and evil is an important constituent element. Well-known authors in world literature have been fascinated by this problem, and it is an enriching experience to bring together allusions and to investigate points of contact with authors such as Feodor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann. William Faulkner and Patrick White. In Kroniek van Perdepoort there is a meeting between Klaas Kamer and the devil. Similarities between this meeting and similar meetings in Dr Faustus (Thomas Mann) and The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky) are pointed out.Subsequently the portrayal of sin in Kroniek van Perdepoort is compared with Faulkner’s novels The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, in which a similar theme is represented.Patrick White is also an author of religious literature to whom Anna M. Louw is attracted by her own admission. His novels. The solid Mandala and Riders in the Chariot are studied, and similarities with Kroniek van Perdepoort indicated.

Between Nihilism and Transcendence: Camus's Dialogue with Dostoevsky

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-242
Author(s):  
Sean Illing
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Practical Implications

AbstractThis article examines the influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky on Albert Camus's political philosophy of revolt. The aim is to clarify Camus's reactions to the problems of absurdity, nihilism, and transcendence through an analysis of his literary and philosophical engagement with Dostoevsky. I make three related claims. First, I claim that Camus's philosophy of revolt is informed in crucial ways by Dostoevsky's accounts of religious transcendence and political nihilism. Second, that Camus's conceptualization of the tension between nihilism and transcendence corresponds to and is personified by the dialogue between Ivan Karamazov and Father Zossima in Dostoevsky'sThe Brothers Karamazov. Finally, that Camus uses his novelThe Plagueto bridge the moral and metaphysical divide between these two characters. In particular, I argue that Camus offers a distinct vision of revolt inThe Plague, which clarifies both the practical implications of revolt and his philosophical rejoinder to Dostoevsky.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov

1994 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curt Whitcomb ◽  
W.J. Leatherbarrow
Keyword(s):  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

Philosophical Anthropology and Dostoevsky's “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”

1964 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis Sandoz
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Grand Inquisitor ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

The political thought of Fyodor Dostoevsky grows out of his opposition to nihilism, atheistic humanism, and socialism in much the same way as the philosophy of Plato grew out of his opposition to the sophists. Indeed, the parallel of Dostoevsky's thought with that of Plato is to be seen in some further aspects of this fundamental opposition. Both the Russian master of the novel and the Hellenic founder of political science confronted adversaries for whom “Man is the measure of all things” and each based his opposition on the principle “God is the Measure,” to use Plato's formulation. This declaration, echoing like a thunderclap across more than twenty centuries of history, found consummate expression in the last great work of each writer: the Laws and The Brothers Karamazov.

scholarly journals To Be or Not to Be God—The Issue of Authorial Power in Dostoevsky

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 506
Author(s):  
Alexander Zholkovsky
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Playing God ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Grand Inquisitor ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

This paper problematizes the now widely accepted concept of Dostoevsky’s dialogism, which alleges the ‘Author’s’ equal empowerment of all his characters. Using examples from Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Zholkovsky focuses on instances of ‘scene-staging’ based on the ‘scripts’ devised and enacted by some characters, that are ‘read,’ with varying success, by their targets. He documents the resulting ‘discursive combat’ among the characters, with special attention paid to those ‘playing god’ and thus, the more ‘authorial’ among them. In several cases, the would-be ‘divine’ manipulation is shown to be consistently subverted by the Dostoevskian narrative. However, in one instance, where Aliosha Karamazov charitably scripts Captain Snegirev’s behavior, the ensuing discussion of this episode, in Aliosha’s conversations with Lise Khokhlakova, upholds Aliosha’s right to play god with the Other—“for the Other’s own good”, of course (not unlike the Grand Inquisitor).

scholarly journals The important semiotic indicators of Dostoyevsky's emotional image

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z.Z. Iskhakova ◽  
L.K. Gyulbyakova ◽  
M.V. Zhuravleva
Keyword(s):  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Key Characters

This article is devoted to finding the emotional semiotic character of F. Dostoevsky that is expressed by the key characters' behaviour in 'The Gambler', 'Idiot', 'The Brothers Karamazov'. The object of the study is emotionally painted speeches of characters in his works. The subject of the study is emotive signs indices in emotional texts of Fyodor Dostoevsky

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