Philosophy through Russian Literature

Embark on a journey through the white nights and frozen vastness of Russian literature, armed only with the warning of Nietzsche: "When you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you."

Teacher: Jonathan Gerkin

Description

Socrates’ famous claim that the "unexamined life is not a life worth living" has justified the ancient and proud field of philosophy for millennia. As we all hurtle towards inevitable death, is not some thought of both the value and the purpose of our time on this rock worthwhile? While no one man can answer this question (though many have tried), philosophy and literature help to build our individual understandings of our relation to the world around us.

Join us on a walk through the streets of Saint Petersburg as we consider crucial philosophical questions, as well as past answers that have been proposed for them. Readings drawn from the Golden Age of Russian literature, including authors such as Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Tolstoy will be used to study various philosophies and to bring new understanding to the literature. We will explore the metaphysical debate in modern period philosophy through Gogol's Diary of a Madman, the relevance of Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals to Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor, Plato's influence on Tolstoy’s fiction, and how Dostoevsky inspired Bakhtinian notions of the non-linear truth. Students will be expected to complete assigned readings, engage in abstract philosophical reasoning, and participate in class discussions.

Tentative list of topics covered

Don't worry if you do not recognize certain words. Philosophers have a tendency towards creating their own words and all will be explained!

• General: Bakhtin's philosophy of language, consideration on problems of translation, Schopenhauer's aesthetics and its application to literature
• Dostoevsky: Nietzsche's views on the creation of morality, Bakhtin's theory of polyphonic (multi-faceted) truth, Existentialism, Camus on suicide, Machiavelli's benevolent dictator, Kant's notions of mental freedom
• Pushkin: Hegel's philosophy of history
• Tolstoy: Camus and the absurd life, Plato's tripartite soul and development of the reason, Augustine and the false lure of sense perception, Bataille on religious ceremony and transgression
• Gogol: Berkeley's "immaterialism" (denial of material existence), Hume on causality, Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy and the philosophical mindset

For the application...

Prerequisites

None.

Relevant experience

Please list any literature- or philosophy-related courses and activities in which you have participated.

Core-specific application question

In Notes from the Underground, Dostoevsky writes,

"I would now like to tell you, gentlemen, whether you do or do not wish to hear it, why I never managed to become an insect. I'll tell you solemnly that I wanted many times to become an insect. But I was not deemed worthy even of that. I swear to you, gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness. For man's everyday use, ordinary human consciousness would be more than enough, that is, a half, a quarter of the portion that falls to the lot of a developed man in our unfortunate nineteenth century, who on top of that, has the added misfortune of residing in Petersburg, the most abstract and intentional city on the entire globe. (Cities can be intentional or unintentional.) As much consciousness, for example, as that by which all so-called ingenuous people and active figures live would be quite enough. I'll bet you think I'm writing all this out to swagger, to be witty at the expense of active figures, and swagger of a bad tone besides, rattling my sabre like my officer. But, gentlemen, who can take pride in his sickness and swagger about them besides?"

In 300 to 500 words, argue whether or not there is a philosophical purpose behind the narrator's wish to become an insect. Although you may cite outside sources in your response, you should focus mainly on your own thoughts and ideas.