Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche: power/weakness

ABSTRACT

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.​

KEYWORDS:

• Dostoevsky
• Nietzsche
• power
• Christian love

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Letter to Mme. Natalia D. Fonvisin (20.02.1854), in: Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky, 71. See also Dostoevsky, Demons, 249.

2. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, 120 (GM, II, 28, KSA 5, 411).

3. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (JGB 60), KSA 5, 79.

4. For literature on the subject see: Poljakova, Differente Plausibilitäten, 465–499.

5. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Za I), KSA 4, 77–79.

6. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (JGB 257), KSA 5, 204.

7. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Za III), KSA 4, 248.

8. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Za I), KSA 4, 78.

9. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 259.

10. Ibid.

11. One must not forget, however, that this Diary which Dostoevsky himself was publishing from 1873 until his death in 1881, must not be considered a direct presentation of his own views. This is a common misconception which obscures the fact that the ideas expressed here sometimes stand in contrast to the depth and complexity of related thoughts pronounced by the characters in his novels. For more details, see: Poljakova, Differente Plausibilitäten, 332–333.

12. Достоевский, Полное собрание сочинений, Vol. 24, 49, my translation.

13. Dostoevsky, A Writer’s Diary, 654–655.

14. Ibid., 655.

15. Достоевский (Dostoevsky), Полное собрание сочинений, в 30 томах (Complete Works, in 30 volumes), Vol. 24, 49, my translation.

16. See above 9.

17. See the letter to Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev, May 19th, 1879 in: Достоевский, Полное собрание сочинений, в 30 томах, Vol. 30, Part 1, 66.

18. See above 9.

19. Ibid.

20. Dostoevsky, A Writer’s Diary, 655.

21. See above 9.

22. Za, IV, KSA 4, 34, cf. also GM III, 24, KSA 5, 399.

23. See above 9.

24. Ibid., 735.

25. Letter to S.A. Ivanova on 13 January 1868, in: Достоевский, Полное собрание сочинений, в 30 томах, Vol. 28, Book 2, 251.

26. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Za I) KSA 4, 88.

27. Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, 361.

28. Ibid., 197.

29. Ibid., 424–425.

30. See above 28.

31. Ibid., 507.

32. ‘We deny God, we deny the responsibility in God: only thereby do we redeem the world’. (Nietzsche, Twilight of Idols, 500–501).

33. Cf. Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, 42. KSA 6, 215–217.

34. Dostoevsky, Devils, 637.

35. Compare Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, 363.

36. Ibid., 160. Aglaya suspects that he believes that he is able to ‘live more wisely than anyone else’. And he does not deny it (ibid., 73).

37. Throughout the novel, the notion of fate is hinted at in the form of several prophecies, all of which are fulfilled. For this, see Poljakova, Поэтика драмы и эстетика театра в романе, 101.

38. See above 28.

39. Ibid., 679.

40. Ibid., 680.

41. See above 9.

42. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 356. This wording is, among other things, a clear allusion to the words of the apostle Paul (‘Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst’. (1 Tim. 1:15))

43. See above 9.

44. Ibid., 287.

45. Ibid., 276.

46. Ibid., 281.

47. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 282–283.

48. See above 9.

49. Ibid., 285.

50. Булгаков, ‘Простота и опрощение’, 294.

51. See above 9.

52. Ibid., 280.

53. Confessional differences play a relatively big role for Dostoevsky, insofar as he wanted to suggest Orthodoxy as an alternative to ‘Western’ Christianity. Nonetheless, he refers to the ‘Church of the West’ as one undifferentiated whole. As was customary in Russia, Dostoevsky viewed Protestantism as a strand within Catholicism.

54. In contrast to Dostoevsky, Nietzsche sees no particular confessional difference here. In his opinion, the Protestant movement was a self-misunderstanding, not a discovery of ‘true’ Christianity. Of Orthodoxy, Nietzsche makes no mention at all.

55. Nietzsche’s allusion to Jesus as an idiot suggests his possible familiarity with Dostoevsky’s novel. Yet, it is to be clarified whether Nietzsche, in his typical fashion, simply develops general ideas with which he was vaguely familiar, or whether he is directly drawing on the novel. According to Sommer, ‘the features characteristic of count Myshkin would at least seem to have been conveyed [to Nietzsche] through secondary sources’ (Sommer, Kommentar zu Nietzsches „Der Antichrist“, 162). See also: Stellino, ‘Jesus als ‚Idiot‘,’ 203–210.

56. See: Stegmaier, ‘Nietzsches Kritik der Vernunft seines Lebens’, 165, 172–173.

57. See above 9.

58. Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 251.

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Notes on contributors

Ekaterina Poljakova

Ekaterina Poljakova Dr. hab., 1989–1994 studied at the University of Tartu (Estonia), 1998 got her PhD in the Theory of Literature with the thesis on Dostoevsky and Tolstoy at Russian State University for Humanities (Moscow, Russia), 2011 Habilitation in Philosophy at the University of Greifswald (Germany); at the moment is a Priv-Doz. at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Greifswald, also affiliated to the Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences.