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Russian Philosophy :  back 

L. Shestov

Shestov Lev
(Lev Shvartsman, 1866 – 1938, in exile from 1920)

Shestov’s philosophy, arising from a sense of the ‘tragicalness of life’ and the conviction of the crisis nature of European culture, is the most extreme and famous example in our century of anti-rationalism and irrationalism (M. De Unamuno is mentioned in this context). Together with N. Berdyaev he belonged to the most famous Russian representatives in the West of theistic existentialism. He corresponded with the greatest philosophers of the era, including: Berdyaev, M. Buber, E. Husserl. He inspired K. Jaspers, A. Camus, E. Levinas. With the exception of one, relatively short text in which he presented one of the first analyses, startlingly apt, of Bolshevism, he did not examine socio-political problems contrary to the indigenous tradition of Russian philosophy. The basic sources of inspiration for him were: the Bible, F. Dostoevskii, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, although it follows to note that the majority of European thinkers were more often than not the subject of violent attacks on the part of Shestov ‘in as far as during the first stage strictly philosophical problems are dominant in the reflection and specifically, so to say, anti-reflection of the author of The Philosophy of Tragedy, concentrating on the contrast of individual existence and its creative freedom repressive to the strength of philosophical, academic and ethical dogmatism as well as concentrating on the emphatic criticism of all systems interwoven from the abstract spider’s web of ideas ignoring the uniqueness and concreteness of individual existence, then in the second stage a clear advantage is gained by religious questions and motifs, there grows and strengthens the mystical theme, while in the foreground conspicuous is the contrast of the Biblical God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to the God of philosophers and academics. In as far as the first phase is characterized by anti-rationalism then in the second irrationalism holds sway, although both these perspectives, which needs to be emphasized, are prominent in the whole of Shestov’s work with their mutual crisscrossing constituting the specific atmosphere of this philosophy’ [C. Wodziński].
Starting from the statement that ‘genuine philosophy derives from the fact that God exists,’ Shestov’s basic idea is the antinomy of ‘Athens’ and ‘Jerusalem,’ i.e. of Reason and Revelation, of ‘the tree of knowledge’ and ‘the tree of life’ from the Book of Genesis, of eternal truth and revelational truth, of apparent existence suppressed by the dictate of the laws of reason and morality as well as of the authentic existence expressing itself by irrational faith (by faith de profundis) in the almost limitless, and therefore perpetrating miracles, the creative force of God so opening the dimensions of existence unlimited by reason and morality. Only through such a ‘Biblical philosophy,’ i.e. an existential philosophy de profundis – absurd, insane, contradictory from the point of view of the rules of European rationalism and morality, and therefore in breaking with the European cultural paradigm can man be brought from the state of crisis (‘fall’) and be brought into a new dimension of thought – into the dimension of faith. For only a philosophy directed by the ‘logic of the absurd’ can lead, as a result, to the break with the consequence of original sin, and therefore to salvation.
The subject of Shestov’s various philosophical analyses is the attempt to eliminate ‘Athens’ and the restitution of ‘Jerusalem,’ i.e. the resignation from the coercion and dogma of rationality and consistency in various dimensions of thought, for the sake of source experience most obviously contrary to the understanding of faith in God, it being the negation of all rational patencies and the entry into the ultralogical, absurd, paradoxical, rebellious and Biblically true dimension of existence. It needs to be here emphasized that for Shestov – in his own words – ‘the contrast between the Old and the New Testament always appeared superficial,’ he accused philosophy itself of intellectualizing Judeo-Christian Revelation, the replacement of belief in one God with various intellectual constructions of God. It is therefore of no surprise to learn that the Russian thinker counted among his predecessors a broadly understood anti-intellectual-volitionary current in European philosophy. Tertullian: credo quia ineptum, the anti-dialectic P. Damiani, Duns Scotus and Wilhelm Ockham seeing in the unlimited will of God the source of truth and goodness, Nicholas of Cusa: De Docta Ignorantia, Luther: sola fide, Pascal as well as those mentioned above. The opponents of the Russian thinker were all the great creators of European intellectualism from Plato and Aristotle through Spinoza and Kant up to Husserl with whom otherwise he was friendly.
The vigour of Shestov’s attack on the European idea of ratio and its usurpatory claim allows it to be reduced to several motifs. The most important of which is that the principles of reason lay claim to apodictic truth and at the same time to necessity. The truths of reason are not simply our analytical abilities (it follows here to note that Shestov was himself a philosopher of exceptional analytical ability), yet claims to be ‘eternal truths’ of being. So one cannot throw out these truths of philosophical rationalism when they are identical with the Truth tout court in the dimension of thought and morality. With the same they are eternal, universally compulsory, and therefore necessary. The first comparison which the Russian philosopher revolts against is: truth = eternity = necessity. Therefore ‘turning points,’ or ‘revolutions’ change nothing at all in philosophy, for always the matter is the same, concerning truth, and this assumption represents both eternity and necessity. Which is contrary to truth – which does not exist when nothing at all exists which is contrary to the standards of reason. Panlogism – according to Shestov – is a constant feature of ‘the fall’ of man.
Secondly, the European idea of ratio eliminates the individual uniqueness of the existence of ‘I’. Originating from its universal schemes of reasoning this idea is based on the total elimination of the individual being. As L. Kolakowski writes, ‘the natural mechanism of Reason is the subsumption of everything which is individual and sole in its class under abstract concepts, yet ‘I’ cannot undergo such a subsumption [...]. The relentless objectivity of Reason prohibits me in effect from even calling it, as I consider – like everybody else – the indestructible area of my ultimate selfishness: my existence, my redemption, God, moral choice.’ Reason, in other words, in its constructions lays claim to the all-embracing entirety, totality as to real existence. Whereas what is partial, either local, or existentially fortuitous, and through which in fact does not exist really, as if non-autonomous, must become eliminated in the chain of mediations of the whole. Totality – according to Shestov – eliminates unique concrete existence.
A subsequent accusation is the postulate expressed by European thought of erudition and cohesion. Only that which submits to correctness, systematic research, regularity and verification is considered to be existing and is formulated in the coherent system of truths. With the same everything that is shocking, exceptional, unexpected, singular, slipping away from the stratified order of the laws of science is eliminated from knowledge. Shestov – writes Berdyaev – ‘does not come out, in actual fact, against scientific knowledge, against reason in everyday life [...] He comes out against science’s and reason’s claims to settle the problem of the existence of God, the problem of the liberation of man from the tragic nightmare of human fate, when reason and knowledge rationally strive to a limitation of possibilities.’ Science – according to Shestov – is the enemy of freedom.
The way out from the total rule of reason and morality is the replacement of Hegel and Socrates by Job and Abraham, is the unconditional return to belief in God, to belief ‘beyond good and evil.’ Because God, for whom there is nothing impossible, is freedom from the tyranny of necessity. Only He has the power of creation from nothing, or the power to do the impossible, and therefore, for example, that Socrates was not poisoned. Faith – similar to madness – enables an escape from the world of necessity, from the world of ‘the fall’ to another, it creates the dimension of existence. It makes salvation possible. ‘In this very way is fulfilled the great parable of human fate told in the Book of Genesis and designating the course of human history. The state of innocence – redemption – salvation as a return to the lost Eden. The achievement of the impossible becomes possible. At least as the revealing of the horizon of possibility. Thanks to religious philosophy, which with the subject of reflection sinned and enriched thought about a new dimension – faith returns to man the freedom of ignorance lost during the moment of the fall. Shestov is far from the belief that the Biblical parable can be realized in the historical plane.’ [C. Wodziński]

Marek Styczyński (Guy Russell Torr)

Шекспир и его критик Брандес, С.-Петербург 1898
Добро в учении графа Толстого и Ф. Нитше. Философия и nроповедь, С.-Петербург 1900
Достоевский и Нитшe. Философия трагедии, С.-Петербург 1903.
Апофеоз беспочвенности (Опыт адогматического мышления), С.-Петербург 1905.
Начала и концы (Сборник статей), С.-Петербург 1908.
Великие кануны, С.-Петербург 1910.
Что такое русский большевизм?, Berlin 1920.
Potestas clavium. (Власть ключей), Berlin 1923.
На весах Иова. (Странствования по душам), Paris 1929.
Скованный Парменид, Paris 1932
Athenes et Jerusalem. Un essai de philosophie religieuse, Paris 1938.
Киргегард и экзистенциальная философия (Глас вопиющего в пустыне), Paris 1939.
Умозрение и откровение. (Религиозная философия Владимира Соловьева и другие статьи), Paris 1964.
Sola fide. Только верою (Греческая и средневековая философия. Лютер и церковь, Paris 1966.
Тургенев, Ann Arbor 1982.


A. de Lazari (ed.), Idee w Rosji. Leksykon rosyjsko-polsko-angielski, t. IV., Łódź 2001

 
Books
  Баранова-Шестова Н. - Жизнь Льва Шестова. По переписке и воспоминаниям современников , т. 1-2 , Paris 1983 - ( P.P., M.St., )
  Бердяев Н. - Русская идея. Основные проблемы русской мысли ХIХ века и начала ХХ века , Paris 1971 - ( A.A., )
  Замалеев А. - Лекции по истории русской философии , С.-Петербург 1995 - ( K.Sz., )
  Зеньковский В. В. - История русской философии , т. 1-2 , Ленинград 1991 - ( J.J., )
  Зернов Н. - Русское религиозное возрождение ХХ века , Paris 1991 - ( A.A., )
  Иванова А. - Русская классическая философия. От Ф. М. Достоевско-го к И. А. Ильину , Москва 1999 - ( K.Sz., )
  Иванов–Разумник - О смысле жизни. Ф. Сологуб, Л. Андреев, Л. Шестов , С.-Петербург 1910 - ( K.Sz., )
  Левицкий С. - Очерки по истории русской философской и общественной мысли , т. 1-2 , Frankfurt/Main 1968– - ( K.Sz., )
  Лосский Н. - История русской философии , Москва 1991 - ( K.Sz., )
  Полторацкий Н. [ред.] - Русская религиозно-философская мысль XX века , Pittsburgh 1975 - ( K.Sz., )
  Раев М. - Россия за рубежом. История русской эмиграции 1919–1939 , Москва 1994 - ( K.Sz., )
  Хоружий С. - После перерыва. Пути русской философии , Санкт-Петербург 1994 - ( J.J., )
  Хоружий С. - Шестов Лев , [w:] Русская философия. Словарь , Москва 1995 - ( K.Sz., )
  Baranoff N. - Bibliographie des oeuvres de Léon Chestov , Paris 1975 - ( K.Sz., M.St., )
  Baranoff N. - Bibliographie des études sur Léon Chestov , Paris 1978 - ( K.Sz., M.St., )
  Baranoff N. - Vie de Léon Chestov , Paris 1991 - ( K.Sz., M.St., )
  Buber M. - Über Leo Schestov , [w:] Nachlese , Heidelberg 1965 - ( K.Sz., M.St., )
  Copleston F. - Russian Religious Philosophy: Selected Aspects , Notre Dame 1988 - ( K.Sz., M.St., )
  Copleston F.C. - Philosophy in Russia from Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev , University of Notre Dame 1986 - ( M.St., J.D., )
  Dahm H. - Grundzüge russischen Denkens. Persönlichkeiten und Zeugnisse des 19. und 20 Jahrhunders , München 1979 - ( J.O., M.St., )
  Fondane B. - Recontres avec Léon Chestov , Paris 1982 - ( J.B., R.S.-L., M.St., )
  Hill K. - The Early Life and Thought of Lev Shestov , Washington 1976 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Hill K. - An Intelectual Biography of Lev Shestov , Washington 1980 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Kline G. - Religious and Anti-religious Thought in Russia , Chicago 1968 - ( J.D., M.St., )
  Liu X. - Kierkegaard’s Influence on Lev Shestov and Karl Barth in Towards the Crossed Truth. Contemporary Western Theology in Chinese Context , Hong Kong 1980 - ( J.J., M.St., )
  Maia Neto J. - The Christianization of Pyrrhonism: Scepticism and Faith in Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Shestov , Dordrecht–London 1995 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Martin B. - The Life and Thought of Lev Shestov , [w:] Shestov L., Athens and Jerusalem , Ohio 1966 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Martin B. - A Shestov Anthology , Athens, Ohio 1970 - ( J.B., M.M., M.St., )
  Martin B. - Great Twentieth Century Jewish Philosophers: Shestov, Rosenzweig, Buber , New York 1970 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Mirsky D. - A History of Russian Literature , New York 1955 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Philonenko A. - La philosophie du malheur , vol. 1: Shestov et les problemes de la philosophie existentielle , Paris 1998 - ( J.B., M.M., M.St., )
  Raeff M. - Russian Intellectual History , New York 1966 - ( J.B., M.St., )
  Roberts S. - Essays in Russian Literature. The Conservative View: Leontiev, Rozanov, Shestov , Ohio 1968 - ( An., M.St., )
  Rosenthal B. [ed.] - Nietzsche in Russia , Princeton 1986 - ( An., M.St., )
  Shein L. - Readings in Russian Philosophical Thought , vol. 1-2 , The Hague – Paris 1968 -1973 - ( An., M.St., )
  Valevicius A. - Lev Shestov and His Times: Encounters with Brandes, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Ibsen, Nietzsche and Husserl , New York 1993 - ( An., M.St., )
  Walicki A. - A History of Russian Thought from the Enlightenment to Marxism , Oxford 1980 - ( M.St., )
  Wernham J. - Two Russian Thinkers. An Essay in Berdyaev and Shestov , Toronto 1968
Artickles
  Shein L. - The Philosophy of Infinite Possibility: An Examination of Leo Shestov’s Weltanschauung , „Ultimate Reality and Meaning” vol. 2, № 1 1979 - ( An., M.St., )
 
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