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oa De ondergrondse man verslikt zich in de rode pil
Rede, persoonlijkheid en humanisme bij Dostojevski
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte, Volume 113, Issue 4, Dec 2021, p. 479 - 494
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- 01 Jan 2022
Abstract
The Underground Man Chokes on the Red Pill: Dostoevsky on Reason, Personality and Humanism
Both philosophy and literature can be an investigation of human life and human culture: philosophical treatises as well as novels can be reflections on questions about the human and cultural condition. Philosophy and literature may complement each other in this respect: whereas philosophy is concerned with concepts, ideas and abstract reasoning, literature is able to show these as ‘flesh and blood’ in characters who find themselves in concrete existential situations. As an illustration of this view concerning the possible interactions between literature and philosophy, in this article I discuss Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. I interpret this novella as a critique of the philosophy of rational egoism and its perception of man, and as a humanist plea for the all-important significance of human personality. In doing so, I aim to show that Dostoevsky’s Notes is a highly interesting and enduringly relevant example of a literary work that explores philosophical themes.