Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 19 No. 2 (2011)

Psychology and philosophy

The absurdity as a basic interpretative category in Lev Shestov’s existential irrationalism

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34839/wpt.2011.19.2.165-183  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2020-03-19

Abstract

Russian Lev Isaakovich Shestov (Jew by origin, born Yehuda Leyb Schwarzmann) is one of the most controversial minds in the 20th century. His anti-system and anti-rationalistic thought is defined as “The philosophy of absurdity” and is an extraordinary intellectual phenomenon on the philosophical map not only in Europe, but all over the world. This whole article is an attempt to show how the basic categories of Shestov’s thinking (which was glorified by Russian philosophers) such as: “chaos”, “paradox”, “nonsense” and “chance”, became “keys” for interpreting all of reality. They also became the way to discover the antinomian truth about the world. ”Absurdity in everything God.” God created absurdity, chaos and the place devoid of any principles, the “world”. There is the only one truth, which we understand at the very bottom of epistemic despair. We can achieve this knowledge by blind and irrational faith which is devoid of any justification; therefore there is real Tertullian’s credo quia absurdum. In this antinomian world which is devoid of any sense, the most noticeable things are creation and total freedom which causes man to come closer to God.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>