Dostoyevsky’s Critique of the West: The Quest for the Earthly Paradise

by Bruce K. Ward

Not much attention has been given to Dostoyevsky's concern with the crisis of the modern West, although allusions to almost every aspect of Western civilization--including the political, economic, and social dimensions--are present in his literary works and abound in his secondary writings.

This book points the way to a better understanding of the apparent contradiction between Dostoyevsky's concern with the highest reaches of human spirituality and at the same time with the most detailed developments in domestic and international politics. Ward argues that the apparent polarization of "religious" thought and "political" analysis of the West are held together for Dostoyevsky in his search for the best human order. He demonstrates not only that Dostoyevsky's observations about the West constitute a coherent critique intimately related to the deepest aspects of his though, but also that these can be rendered more systematic and explicit.

What results is an incisve account of both the religious and the political thought of Dostoyevsky, which helps clarify what Dostoyevsky, which helps clarify what Dostoyevsky can teach us about the modern situation of the Western world and about the problem of human order in general, for, as the author states, "it was Dostoyevsky's great virtue as a thinker always to see the pressing issues of his particular time and place in the light of the 'everlasting problems.'"

216 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1982

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review in English • en Français • en Español
This book does a good survey of Dostoyevsky’s life, works and belief system. It situates him as a renewed slavophile, religious, populist thinker within the historical context a Russia of the 1800s where the intellectuals were mostly enamoured with western European science and atheism. Great resource.
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Ce livre offre un bon aperçu de la vie, de l'œuvre et des croyances de Dostoïevski. Il le situe comme un penseur slavophile, religieux et populiste renouvelé, dans le contexte historique de la Russie du XIXe siècle, où les intellectuels étaient majoritairement fascinés par la science et l'athéisme de l'Europe occidentale. Une excellente ressource.
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Este libro ofrece un buen panorama de la vida, la obra y el sistema de creencias de Dostoievski. Lo sitúa como un pensador eslavófilo, religioso y populista renovado en el contexto histórico de la Rusia del siglo XIX, donde los intelectuales estaban mayoritariamente fascinados por la ciencia y el ateísmo de Europa occidental. Una excelente fuente de información.