Soren wrote on May 7
th, 2009 at 10:29pm:
Sounds like he sprang from Gogol's overcoat (like all of us) and has read Aristotle with a sympathetic eye.
Soren it’s very complex and depends on personal preferences.
Due to their culture, training and preference for strictly rational way of thinking English ( Anglo-Saxons ) have lots of difficulties to understand Dostoyevski and Eastern way of thinking.
Generally speaking Reason is important but not universal solution to satisfy all our existential and spiritual needs.
The problem with Western humanism is that entirely relies on reason, which is quite normal considering that as a “religion” places Human in the centre of universe instead God which naturally leads to another “religion” called Atheism.
One think we know for sure that we humans are all imperfect and live in the world of relativity.
Absolute perfection can not be relative, but can be used as a moral reference point for our actions.
Eastern and Western way of thinking are very much different.
The western philosophy is primarily based on logic and reason ( manly Aristotles syllogism), as result of this could be very scholastic, framed and even boring.
On the other hand Eastern philosophy equally recognises intuition and inspiration as well as logic and reason.
To simplify this we may say that there is “Knowledge of the west and wisdom of the east”. It is very good to know both for our own benefit.
Western civilised world and knowledge is much younger then eastern wisdom.
For example reason is definitely superior in mathematics or physics but when we come to moral issues it can be very week and immoral.
So what Dostoyevsky did in “Crime and punishment” and “Brother Karamazovs” ( Grand inquisitor),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RPJ-OHmEI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMSjj...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaIA0...eature=related
he actually disclosed weakness of reason as universal answer for everything.
Raskolnikov using reason perfectly justified his act of killing old lady.
Grand Inquisitor used reason to perfectly justify his moral stand in sentencing Christ. Using the reason Madeleine Albright justified killing 1 000 000 Iraqi children
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2568431/7676319 and so on.
That’s why Dostoyevski simply said:
“If God is dead then everything is permitted”.
So Dostoyevski represents Eastern way of thinking that assumes: Reason, intuition and inspiration.
For example Shakespeare (Hamlet) is great but in comparison with Dostoyevski sounds like just another great Mathematician.