Tag: Dostoevsky
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Android Existence
In his classic, prophetic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, American science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick depicted a future dystopia where the only way to determine the difference between humans and rogue, bio-engineered androids was empathy: the latter were incapable of experiencing and thus demonstrating it. In our own particular time, however, merely a few…
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High-Tech Paganism
In this interview with Russian journalist Konstantin Kachalin, international award-winning Serbian film director Emir Kusturica shares his thoughts on man’s spiritual trajectory, the kinship between the Serbian and Russian peoples, Western materialism, and international capital’s lifeblood – war. Kusturica, born into a Bosnian Muslim family, was baptized into Orthodoxy in 2005, thereby returning his lineage to its…
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Plato & Dostoevsky (Pt. II)
We continue Russian academic Vladislav Bachinin’s analysis of Fyodor Dostoevsky as metaphysician and his kinship to Plato, the pagan philosopher who illuminated classical man’s vision toward a higher world of immortal essences. What ultimately unites Plato and Dostoevsky is the former’s anticipation and the latter’s glorification, even through a crucible of darkness and suffering, of…
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Plato & Dostoevsky (Pt. I)
Fyodor Dostoevsky was more than just a writer; he was a penetrating philosopher and metaphysician who passed through the abysses of the spirit in search of divine perfection. In his work Dostoevsky: The Metaphysics of Crime, Russian scholar Vladislav Bachinin examines Dostoevsky’s kinship with Plato, the pagan philosopher honored in Orthodox civilization and thought for his quest…
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Interview With Jay’s Analysis
On Sunday I interviewed with my friend and Soul of the East guest writer Jay Dyer of Jay’s Analysis. We discussed everything from the highly suspicious Malaysian Airlines shoot-down over Ukraine and the ongoing geopolitical contest between Russia and the West to the bankruptcy of modern ideologies and the spiritual dimensions of subversion. A big thank you…
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Dostoevsky on Socialism (Pt. II)
Philosopher Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky (1870-1965) continues his analysis of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s views on socialism. Dostoevsky sought to build a more just society rooted in love for Christ and one’s neighbor, a vision sadly quite remote from the regnant Mammonism that relentlessly destroys national identity and traffics in men’s souls. Translated by Mark Hackard. Dostoevsky was by…
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Dostoevsky on Socialism (Pt. I)
Philosopher Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky (1870-1965) gives us a fine analysis of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s complex views on socialism. While Dostoevsky supported just economic arrangements for workers and the peasantry, he also vehemently rejected the atheism and materialism that underpinned so many socialist ideals. Russia’s great writer was truly a prophet, right down to foreseeing famine, cannibalism and the…
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Desolation & Redemption
In the course of what is now titled Continental Philosophy, three figures stand out as preeminent thinkers able to probe the innermost depths of the human psyche in a way previously unknown since perhaps Shakespeare: Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoevsky. These three were more or less contemporaries, and all shared a similar fascinating…
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Dostoevsky and the State
As the author of a notable work on Fyodor Dostoevsky, philosopher Nikolai Onufriyevich Lossky contributed an excellent analysis of Dostoevsky’s worldview. Here he examines Dostoevsky’s relation to the state in the context of Russian culture and Orthodox faith. While Dostoevsky highly valued the democratic ethos of the Russian people and wished to see their communal principles enacted…
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Dostoevsky’s Secret War
The following is a chapter from Russian author Eduard Makarevich’s book on espionage and subversion, Sekretnaya Agentura. Translation by Mark Hackard. The great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky couldn’t avoid the temptation of revolution. He was already famous as the author of the short story “Poor Folk” when he had a meeting with a certain…
The Soul of the East 