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- Title
Skepticism and faith in Shestov's early critique of rationalism.
- Authors
Kline, George
- Abstract
Shestov's work can be summed up under six headings. Three are sharp contrasts, three are paradoxes. (1) First there is the contrast between Shestov the person, who was moderate, competent, and calm, and Shestov the thinker, who was extreme, incandescent, and impassioned. (2) Then there is the contrast between his critique of reason, his acceptance of irrationalism, and the means by which he attacks the former and defends the latter: namely, careful rational argument. Sometimes he argues like a lawyer (after all, he had a law degree from Moscow University). (3) Shestov speaks repeatedly of the 'horrors and atrocities of human existence.' But his examples are always drawn from history or literature, never from his own life, although we know that he experienced much horror. (4) Nietzsche is the thinker whom he invokes most frequently, and most warmly. Yet, paradoxically, Shestov completely ignores most of Nietzsche's central themes. (5) Shestov's skeptical doubts are mostly directed at rationalism; he is not skeptical about the existence or benevolence of God. Yet he is explicitly skeptical about divine omniscience and implicitly skeptical about divine omnipotence in a metaphysical sense, though not in its ethical application. (6) Shestov has a deep faith that God can undo all the horrors of life, putting an end to all suffering. At the same time he knows that this will not, and cannot, happen, since the very idea of undoing the past, erasing its horrors, is conceptually incoherent.
- Subjects
RUSSIA; SHESTOV, Lev; MODERN philosophers; IRRATIONALISM (Philosophy); OMNIPOTENCE of God; OMNISCIENCE of God; FAITH &; reason; SKEPTICISM; NIETZSCHE, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900
- Publication
Studies in East European Thought, 2011, Vol 63, Issue 1, p15
- ISSN
0925-9392
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11212-010-9135-6