RT Article
T1 Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche: power/weakness
JF International journal of philosophy and theology
VO 78
IS 1/2
SP 121
OP 138
A1 Poljakova, Ekaterina 1972-
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1638284814
AB This article deals with Dostoevsky’s (1821-1881) controversial concept of love and its relation to that of Nietzsche (1844-1900). Despite many parallels, Dostoevsky’s thought on love can be viewed as a criticism, avant la letter, of Nietzsche’s claim to having unmasked the Christian idea of neighbour-love "for God’s sake" as an illusion. Yet, in addition to neighbour-love, Dostoevsky also entertains the idea of "furthest love" (a phrase used both by Dostoevsky and by Nietzsche’s Zarathustra), love for the Übermensch of the future. The article examines Dostoevsky’s experiments with love’s different forms and argues that the question underlying these explorations is whether Christian love can positively impact the world or whether it is doomed to be ineffectual, even destructive. It is argued that, while Dostoevsky’s novels often expose love’s fallibility and even its impotence, they nonetheless manifest the quest for a love capable of redeeming the world. It is shown how Dostoevsky considered one’s understanding of love to hinge on anthropological views, such as belief in the immortality of the soul or the degree of human freedom and responsibility; and how the reality and practice of love, in turn, influences both who we are and understand ourselves to be.​
DO 10.1080/21692327.2016.1249015