‘Nothing but a Man...’ (On the 100th anniversary of N. A. Berdyaev’s work ‘Dostoevsky’s World View’)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of N. A. Berdyaev's reflections on the work of F. M. Dostoevsky and his special anthropology, revealing the problems of human freedom, ultimate meanings and situations of existence, faith and spiritual purpose of man. The writer's ideas are reconstructed through the prism of well-known philosophical and literary interpretations of his heritage (in particular, the works of L. P. Grossman, M. M. Bakhtin, L. I. Shestov, V. V. Nabokov, B. M. Engelhardt). The article discusses the method of intuitive insight in relation to Dostoevsky's worldview, chosen by Berdyaev and implying creative empathy and kinship of spirit. The paper traces this appealing to the philosopher's texts of different years, as well as to his philosophical autobiography. Freedom as a space of spiritual self-determination, as the destiny of man, is the main ideological foundation of the unity of thinkers. “Nothing but man...” — this metaphorical expression of Berdyaev about Dostoevsky is intended to emphasize the idea of the spiritual independence of the individual in the world of natural and social conditioning, the priority of the humanistic pathos of his works of art and their philosophical content. The phenomenon of tragic humanism brings to the fore the problems of the formation of man, the complexity of his existential choice, the role of his sufferings, boundary situations and the burden of his duality, which is resolved in the “amazing theodicy” built by the writer. The peculiarities of Dostoevsky's style are considered through the prism of his “vortex” anthropology (the dominant idea, impulse or passion of the characters) and the vortex structure of his novels, where the narrative unfolds from the central character or towards him. Berdyaev gave an understanding of Dostoevsky as a “great phenomenon of the spirit”, “a great spiritualist”, a brilliant dialectician and Russian metaphysician, and revealed the possibilities of an integral philosophical worldview as an element of his heritage.