From groundlessness—to freedom: The theme of ‘awakening’ in the thought of Lev Shestov

The philosopher Lev Shestov aimed to establish a new free way of thinking, which manifested itself as a struggle against the delusion that we have a rational grasp of the necessary truths on matters that are of the greatest importance to us, such as the questions of life and death. Philosophy, as the Russian philosopher understood it, is not pure thinking, but ‘some kind of inner doing, inner regeneration, or second birth’ (Shestov in Lektsii po Istorii Grecheskoi Filosofii [Lectures on the history of Greek philosophy], YMCA-PRESS, Moscow, 2001, p. 53). Having adopted the notion of the ‘regeneration of one’s convictions’ from Dostoevsky’s vocabulary in his earlier works, Shestov developed the idea of ‘awakening’ further in his mature thought, in which the motif of ‘awakening’ comprised one of the main ideas of his philosophy: the fight for the individual’s right to freedom and to creative transformation at a time when she is in despair or on the brink of death. In this article, I analyse Shestov’s idea of ‘awakening’ as one of the key tropes and developmental characteristics of his philosophical vision. In particular, I argue that, having stemmed from Shestov’s earlier interpretations of Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and Plotinus, in his later writings, the notion of ‘awakening’—the possibility of a fundamental, inner transformation of one’s worldview (probuzhdenie, pererozhdenie)—marked the beginning of a new salvific mode in his writing.

LEV SHESTOV - ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TRUTH AND GOODNESS

The article tells of one of the best researches of the creative career and the intellectual evolution of the most important Russian existentialist philosopher Leo Shestov. This book written by Italian scholar Andrea Oppo was published in 2020 in US. It depicts all the details of the growing up of Shestov as a thinker, examines closely all his works, including short pieces, analyses practically all the aspects of his biography. It stresses the thesis that the book «Lev Shestov: The Philosophy and Works of a Tragic Thinker» can be called as probably the best of all that have been published in English about this thinker in the terms of objectivity and all-compassing of all contexts of his world-view. But at the same time the review states that the author uses his own conception of the evolution of his hero that seems to be not so evident. The author proves that later Shestov came apart from Nietzscheanism and adopted the standpoint of existentially reconsidered Neo-Platonism, that the struggle against one-sided Western rationalism displaced for him the conflict with moral, Plotinus displaced Kant. The review proves that this point of view keeps out of consideration a whole range of very important aspects in the works of later Shestov particularly of his interest to the ideas of Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard.

Lev Shestov in France: Reception of the Russian Philosopher’s Ideas (First Half of the 20th Century)

The article is devoted to the acquaintance of French critics with the philosophy of Lev Shestov, who emigrated from Russia in 1919. Shestov’s ideas almost im­mediately resonate with French readers and over the course of several years the philosopher gains some fame; he is perceived as one of the most important fig­ures of modern original Russian thought, comparable in importance to M. de Un­amuno in Spain and J. de Gaultier in France. Shestov makes acquaintances with French and European intellectuals (J. Rivière, J. de Gaultier, L. Levy-Bruhl and others), collaborates with reputable French magazines “Mercure de France”, “La Nouvelle Revue française”, “La Revue philosophique de la France et de l’étranger”. Shestov has disciples and followers: B. de Schloezer, G. Bataille, B. Fondane, R. Bespaloff, A. Lazarev etc. The most important for his followers is the philosopher’s appeal to the personalities of thinkers and writers, and not to their ideas; “peregrination through the souls” as a philosophical method; the inextricable link between philosophy and life; criticism to reason and mora­lity; religious orientation and others. Shestov’s ideas become one of the sources of existentialism of A. Camus, works of A. Malraux and G. Marcel. Shestov and Fondane separate the philosophy of tragedy, identified with religious existential philosophy in the spirit of S. Kierkegaard, B. Pascal, F.M. Dostoevsky and M. Luther, from the existentialism of M. Heidegger, K. Jaspers and others.

Reading, writing, research in the works of N. F. Fedorov

The paper deals with the concept of reading developed by N. F. Fedorov. Reading is a part of the life-creating process aimed at resurrection — “sacred work of restoring” the lives of ancestors in the new world to come. Many Fedorov’s views on culture anticipate the ideas expressed in the first third of the 20th century, in particular, the arguments of M. O. Gershenzon in a famous dispute with Viach. Ivanov in “Correspondence from Two Angles” (1921), as well as directly anticipate the concepts of reading expressed in the works of M. O. Gershenzon and Lev Shestov. Fedorov speaks of the process of thinking as separating, not uniting. The separating is the price that humanity pays for the usefulness of such mechanisms of thinking as abstraction and analysis (breaking down, separation). At the same time, in Fedorov’s concept of reading (and the activities that continue it — writing and research) a synthesis of research work is shown through the achievement of a perfect state of the universe. The similar way of thinking was expressed later by M. O. Gershenzon in his theory of slow reading. Truth can be expressed only through the personal empathy of the reader, and the main goal of the process is creating the new world.