Fyodor Dostoevsky - Timeless Philosophy of a Tormented Genius - Written by Eternalised

this after school presentation was  written and recorded by internalized   the one essential condition of human existence is  that man should always be able to bow down before   something infinitely great if men are deprived of  the infinitely great they will not go on living   and will die of despair the 19th century Russian  novelist fyodo Dostoyevsky is considered as one   of the greatest writers in the world his work  explores existential and psychological issues   with theology this interplay between the human  and the Divine allows us to get to the depth of   the human condition it is a testament to his  genius that his work is still widely read and   discussed today for it expresses fundamental  and Timeless concerns of the human being   Dostoevsky had studied engineering but his passion  for literature made him resign from the career   he was trained for and devoted himself to writing  despite remaining in great financial difficulty he   became part of a group of revolutionaries and was  eventually arrested finding himself incarcerated   and in solitary confinement this was however the  true beginning of his inner life from the deepest   Darkness he found the light with which he later  wrote his greatest works he was led to be shot   by a firing squad but at the very last minute a  messenger arrived waving a white flag it had been   a mock execution a twisted form of psychological  torture afterwards he was sensory prison labor   camp in Siberia in extremely harsh conditions in  his book The Idiot Dostoyevsky sets himself to   depict a good soul in a cruel world and describes  the thoughts of a person before execution   mirroring his own experience it seemed that he had  only five more minutes to live and said that those   minutes were like an eternity he calculated  the exact time he needed to take leave of his   companions and decided that he could do that in  two minutes then he spent another two minutes   thinking over his life and another minute for a  last look around there was a church not far off   its gilded Spire shown in the bright Sunshine  he remembered staring with awful intensity   at it and the Rays of light sparkling from it  he could not tear his eyes from those rays of   light they seemed to him to be his new nature  and he felt he had somehow merged with them   feeling of disgust with what must ensue almost  immediately and the uncertainty were Dreadful but   he said that the thing that was most horrible to  him was the constant thought what if I had not to   die what if I were to return to life again oh what  an eternity of days and all mine I should count   every minute separately and waste none he said  that this reflection finally filled him with such   bitterness that he wished to be shot as quickly  as possible to understand dostoyevsky's works we   should know that he wrote in a time of increasing  atheism nihilism utilitarianism materialism and   what would later become communism man's ego became  the center of the world and the goal was the   maximization of Happiness through a calculated  and rational approach moreover technological   progress would guide man to attain a Utopia  and finally be happy however the exact opposite   happened these ideas were partly the result of  the Bloodshed of the 20th century the totalitarian   States took over people's freedom and Justified  murdering all dissenters in the name of progress   man is a strange animal he wants to be happy but  ends up being miserable he likes to count his   troubles but does not count his happiness  happiness cannot be pursued it must ensue   seeking happiness solely through money material  acquisition power or fame only gives us a   temporary sense of Happiness after covering  our basic needs we must proceed to the task of   self-realization and self-transcendence or else we  will feel stagnated and empty there's no satiation   point for a spiritual longing by physical means  by losing touch with our soul the essence of our   being and to our spiritual relationship with a  higher self we become neurotic and split in crime   and punishment Dostoyevsky portrays the results of  this inner split through the character raskolnikov   whose name literally means split or Schism  Dostoyevsky uses this character as a mouthpiece   for the ideals espoused by the Society of his  time for raskolnikov God is dead and in order   to fill the void he must become God himself one  cannot help but to notice the similarities between   resconikov and Nietzsche's tragic Declaration  of the death of God a historical event that   inevitably would lead to nihilism and God had to  be replaced by the man God or ubermench who would   conquer nihilism through sheer willpower whereas  kolikov writes a paper on how extraordinary men   can trespass the accepted moral standards for  the common good with a clean conscience while   ordinary men blindly follow societal norms  and conventions like sheep raskolnikov sees   an opportunity to put his ideals into practice  after overhearing people talk in a Tavern about   a wicked and greedy old woman who works as a pawn  broker and takes advantage of everyone he decides   to murder her because in the utilitarian approach  society would be better off without her as she is   a Laos and her money could be used to help his  family and to pay for his studies in order to   become a lawyer and perform Good Deeds for society  raskolnikov carefully plans the murder and kills   her with an ax but while looking for her money  and goods her half-sister unexpectedly walks   in so he quickly kills her too here Dostoyevsky  brilliantly portrays the psychology of a murderer   raskolikov as planned kills the wicked old woman  but also a totally innocent human being who was in   the wrong place at the wrong time at the very  moment of committing the murder prescholikov   also killed a part of himself he was not the  extraordinary man he believed himself to be   instead he is tormented by his own conscience  and his Guild overwhelms him to the point of   psychosomatic illness the book does not so much  explore the legal consequences of crime but   rather what happens to a person after trespassing  the moral boundary in fact the original Russian   title of the book cannotes a stepping across as  is the religious implication of transgression   sometimes one lacks knowledge and thus cannot make  the right choices other times however one knows   the right thing but still doesn't make the right  choices this is an age-old problem and as the   result of a conflict between intellect and will  what we know and what we choose it is likely that   we have all experienced something that appeared  to be good but was in fact bad therefore we must   learn to use the intellect as a basis for making  good choices and to discipline our will we want   to be healthy but are unhealthy we are addicted to  something destructive but cannot get ourselves out   of it we believe in love but rarely express it  to others Etc this cognitive dissonance further   results in an inner split raskolnikov knows what  he did was wicked but does his best to avoid the   consequences of his crime which results in him  slowly descending into madness suggesting that   if we find ourselves in such a situation it is  better to confess and face whatever one has to   face eventually raskolnikov confesses to his  crimes and is sent to prison interestingly this   is when he goes through a spiritual journey the  only way he can deal with his mental anguish and   be redeemed but it is not clear that he ultimately  attains spiritual freedom for his ego is still at   play and considers what he did not as a sin but  simply an error the word religion comes from   religare which literally means to put things  back together again in order to reunite our   fragmented inner self we must undergo a complete  transformation of our entire being which can only   be attained with a relationship to a higher self  with God this is the job of the religious life   paradoxically we can only become ourselves  by surrendering to a higher self ecstasy is   to stand outside oneself without ceasing to be  oneself after his serious illness Ras konikov   has a dream of a virus that causes its victims  to think that they are the sole possessors of   Truth there is no objectivity everything becomes  subjective however this does not lead to Freedom   instead people try to impose their views on others  and no one gets along so they tear themselves   apart without religion to provide an objective  view of morality and rival authoritarianism it   is the strongest who finally impose their view  on everyone without God everything is permitted   this is an allegory of the dangerous ideas  that Dostoevsky witnessed in his time that   caused millions of deaths which he brilliantly  prophesized a note from underground Dostoyevsky   portrays one of the darkest and least sympathetic  of all his characters the nameless protagonist   simply known as the underground man and though it  is a fictitious character Dostoyevsky states that   he not only may but must exist as a product of the  ideologies of his time the underground man is a   bitter spiteful and self-hating retired 40 year  old civil servant who was rude and intimidating   towards his customers though it was all part of  a game as he admits he could never be genuinely   Wicked he describes listening to others through  the cracks under the floor as if he were a mouse   his inability to interact with other people causes  his attempts to form relationships and participate   in life to end in disaster driving him deeper  underground until he is completely locked away   from the world the underground man distracts  himself by reading novels but is disappointed   by the real world representing his profound  alienation from society I am a sick man I am a   spiteful man I am an unattractive man I believe  my liver is deceased no I refuse to consult   a doctor from spite that you probably will not  understand my liver is bad well let it get worse   these are the words of the underground man which  introduces us to his psychological distress right   from the beginning he is unable to properly Define  himself and constantly revises what he says as   he's nothing more than a chaos of conflicting  emotional impulses just like raskolnikov he   experiences an inner split the underground man  is very envious of the so-called man of action   for whom ignorance is bliss and simply goes  about his day living without ruminating too   much in life but the underground man finds solos  in his intellectual superiority nevertheless he is   constantly Paralyzed by his thoughts and cannot  Act he is a man of acute Consciousness stuck in   his own reflective hyper-consciousness thinking  too much is a disease and since he cannot choose   he is characterless and has no identity he  writes I did not know how to become anything   neither spiteful nor kind neither Rascal nor  an honest man neither a hero nor an insect   out of pure boredom the underground man has  given birth to his self-created hell out of   his own internal ruminations which led him to  write his notes man is by no means a rational   animal but innately irrational and destructive and  it is not reason that saves him from his impulses   and desires but rather Faith the underground  man says that the best definition of man is   the ungrateful biped he would sacrifice all his  advantages just to choose for himself even if   it were happiness wealth health or Security in  order to preserve his individuality shower upon   man every Earthly blessing crown him in a sea of  Happiness so that nothing but bubbles of bliss   can be seen on the surface give him economic  Prosperity such that he should have nothing   else to do but sleep eat cakes and busy himself  with a continuation of his species and even out   of share in gratitude sheer spite man would play  you some nasty trick simply in order to prove to   himself as though that were so necessary that  men still are men and not the keys of a piano   life is not a mathematical formula or problem  to be solved but a reality to be experienced if   we could access the perfect formula for happiness  so that everything would be so clearly calculated   and explained that choices would cease to  exist we would act against reason in order to   prove our free will this is how deep craving for  self-expression men love to create and build but   also loves chaos and destruction Perhaps it is  because he is instinctively afraid of attaining   his goal and only loves looking at it from a  distance he loves building it but does not want to   live in it we will never renounce to destruction  nor suffering thinking about a world without   suffering will only sink us further into suffering  for happiness cannot exist without suffering it is   our capacity to endure suffering that makes us  truly great for years the underground man would   desire revenge over any small injury and remember  it down to the smallest details and every time   would add even more details teasing and tormenting  himself with his own imagination he admits that   he invents Adventures for himself for he really  has nothing else to do with his life many times   he even takes offense simply on purpose though he  knows that he's offended at nothing but convinces   himself at last to the point of being really  offended he continuously lies to himself so   that he cannot even distinguish it from truth  and loses all respect for himself and others   and having no respect he ceases to love in the  end he destroys and betrays himself for nothing   nothing in the world is harder than speaking  the truth and nothing easier than flattery   the underground man ends his notes by stating  as far as I myself am concerned I have merely   carried to an extreme in my life what you have  not dared to carry even halfway and what's more   you have taken your cowardice for Good Sense and  found comfort in thus deceiving yourselves so   that perhaps after all a small life in me than in  you it is interesting that Dostoyevsky though an   Orthodox Christian usually has his main characters  espousing the opposite of his own views of life   he does not criticize his opponents but gives  strong and reasonable Arguments for them to the   point that we can even relate to them and develop  sympathy with them rather than telling us what to   do Dostoyevsky pains the psychological hell that  we sometimes send ourselves into his work allows   us to explore ourselves through the characters  portrayed where we may see a reflection of our   own life experiences we learn from Dostoyevsky  that we should always put our own existential   condition first and not the ideas others tell  us to believe in to adjust our life views as we   ourselves experience life to be aware of Utopias  that seduce us and leads us astray to see Life as   a polarity and suffering as a necessary compliment  to happiness and to focus on what truly matters in   in the end our relationship with our deepest self  and God without which there's no salvation at all   I hope you found this collaboration  valuable if you're interested in   learning more about the works of Dostoyevsky and  other prominent thinkers head over to my channel   eternalized thank you for watching foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: After Skool

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Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023