Dostoevsky the Thinker - by James P Scanlan (Paperback)

About the Book

This book offers the first comprehensive account of Dostoevsky's philosophical outlook. Drawing on the writer's novels and, more so than other scholars, on his essays, letters, and notebooks, Scanlan examines Dostoevsky's beliefs.

Book Synopsis

For all his distance from formal philosophy, Fyodor Dostoevsky was one of the most philosophical of writers. In works from fictional masterpieces to little-known nonfiction prose, he grappled with the ultimate questions about the nature of humankind. His novels are peopled by characters who dramatize the fierce debates that preoccupied the Russian intelligentsia during the second half of the nineteenth century. What was the philosophy of Dostoevsky? How does reading this literary giant from a new perspective add to our understanding of him and of Russian culture?In this remarkable book, a leading authority on Russian thought presents the first comprehensive account of Dostoevsky's philosophical outlook. Drawing on the writer's novels and, more so than other scholars, on his essays, letters, and notebooks, James P. Scanlan examines Dostoevsky's beliefs. The nonfiction pieces make possible new interpretations of some of the author's most controversial works of fiction, including Notes from Underground. Dostoevsky's thought, Scanlan explains, was shaped above all by its anthropocentrism, its struggle to define the essence of humanity. All of the subjects the writer addressed--including religion, ethics, aesthetics, history, the state, and the Russian nation--provided clues to the mystery of what it means to be human. Scanlan demonstrates conclusively that Dostoevsky's philosophical views were more solidly grounded and systematic than have been imagined and cannot be dismissed as the notions of an irrationalist. Scanlan also discusses the flaws and weaknesses in Dostoevsky's thought, in particular his controversial notion that Russia is the one "God-bearing" nation. This belief--that Russia has a messianic role to play in world history--has gained renewed popularity among its citizens, for whom Dostoevsky has long been regarded as a thinker of supreme importance.

Review Quotes

Scanlan... teases out logical arguments from both the literary and nonliterary works of his subject, the latter of which provide rich and previously little-known source material.... One of the premier scholars of Russian philosophy in the US, Scanlan has a general approach that is sober and urbane; he makes a spirited and convincing defense of Dostoevsky as an innovative thinker. The section of Dostoevsky's arguments for the existence of God is by itself worth the purchase price. Recommended for undergraduates.

This is a thoughtful, clearly written and well-researched study, full of excellent points, and finely wrought arguments. It will be essential reading for all those concerned with Dostoevskii's philosophical, religious views and the history of ideas in Russia.

About the Author

James P. Scanlan is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at The Ohio State University. He is author of Marxism in the USSR: A Critical Survey of Current Soviet Thought and editor most recently of Russian Thought after Communism: The Recovery of a Philosophical Heritage.