Fyodor Dostoevsky


"Nothing is more seductive for a man than his freedom of conscience. But nothing is a greater cause of suffering"
There is a significant amount of debate which surrounds Fyodor Dostoevsky and his involvement and contribution to existentialism. Dostoevsky was not directly related to the German of school of thought which includes the likes of Nietzsche, Kant, and Hegel, nor was he in any way related to the French existentialists such as Sartre and Camus. In fact, he never in his life even bore the title of existentialist. However it is in the reading of his texts that we determine the underlying existential purpose he aims to express. Condemned to death in 1849 for conspiring to set up a printing press, Dostoevksy developped his judeo-christian rooted philosophy which dealt heavy with the concept of immediate suffering in the journey towards long term bliss. This philosophy is ultimately and most profoundly expressed in his work Crime and Punishment where his main character (Raskolnikov) must endure psychological trials in the dank mist of St. Petersburg before finally achieving his salvation ironcially while serving a sentence for murder in a Siberian labour camp. For a life wrought with such turmoil and suffering, including imprisonment and authoritarian rule, Dostoevsky, like his characters, rose above and at his death in 1881 was proclaimed one of the great literary celebrities in his nation's history.
Selected Readings
Poor Folk (1846)
An Honest Thief (1848)
A Jealous Husband (1848)
The Insulted and the Injured (1861)
Notes from Underground(1864)
Crime and Punishment (1866)
The Gambler (1866)
The Idiot (1868)
The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880)
The Speech of Pushkin (1880)