Lev Isaakovich Shestov (Russian: Лев Исаа́кович
Шесто́в, 1866 – 1938), born Yeguda
Leib Shvartsman (Russian: Иегуда Лейб
Шварцман), was a Russian existentialist
philosopher, known for his "philosophy of
despair". Born in Kyiv (Russian Empire) on
February 12 [O.S. January 31] 1866, he emigrated
to France in 1921, fleeing from the aftermath
of the October Revolution. He lived in Paris
until his death on November 19, 1938.
== Life ==
Shestov was born Lev Isaakovich Schwarzmann
in Kiev into a Jewish family. He obtained
an education at various places, due to fractious
clashes with authority. He went on to study
law and mathematics at the Moscow State University
but after a clash with the Inspector of Students
he was told to return to Kiev, where he completed
his studies.
Shestov's dissertation prevented him from
becoming a doctor of law, as it was dismissed
on account of its revolutionary tendencies.
In 1898 he entered a circle of prominent Russian
intellectuals and artists which included Nikolai
Berdyaev, Sergei Diaghilev, Dmitri Merezhkovsky
and Vasily Rozanov. Shestov contributed articles
to a journal the circle had established. During
this time he completed his first major philosophical
work, Good in the Teaching of Tolstoy and
Nietzsche: Philosophy and Preaching; two authors
profoundly impacting Shestov's thought.
He developed his thinking in a second book
on Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Frederich Nietzsche,
which increased Shestov's reputation as an
original and incisive thinker. In All Things
Are Possible (published in 1905) Shestov adopted
the aphoristic style of Friedrich Nietzsche
to investigate the difference between Russian
and European Literature. Although on the surface
it is an exploration of numerous intellectual
topics, at its base it is a sardonic work
of Existentialist philosophy which both criticizes
and satirizes our fundamental attitudes towards
life situations. D.H. Lawrence, who wrote
the Foreword to S.S. Koteliansky's literary
translation of the work, summarized Shestov's
philosophy with the words: " 'Everything is
possible' - this is his really central cry.
It is not nihilism. It is only a shaking free
of the human psyche from old bonds. The positive
central idea is that the human psyche, or
soul, really believes in itself, and in nothing
else". Shestov deals with key issues such
as religion, rationalism, and science in this
highly approachable work, topics he would
also examine in later writings such as In
Job's Balances. Shestov's own key quote from
this work is probably the following: "...we
need to think that only one assertion has
or can have any objective reality: that nothing
on earth is impossible. Every time someone
wants to force us to admit that there are
other, more limited and limiting truths, we
must resist with every means we can lay hands
on".
Shestov's works were not met with approval
even by some of his closest Russian friends.
Many saw in Shestov's work a renunciation
of reason and metaphysics, and even an espousal
of nihilism. Nevertheless, he would find admirers
in such writers as D. H. Lawrence and his
friend Georges Bataille.
In 1908 Shestov moved to Freiburg, Germany,
and he stayed there until 1910, when he moved
to a small Swiss village named Coppet. During
this time the author worked prolifically.
One of the fruits of these labours was the
publication of Great Vigils and Penultimate
Words. He returned to Moscow in 1915, and
in this year his son Sergei died in combat
against the Germans. During the Moscow period,
his work became more influenced by matters
of religion and theology. The seizure of government
by the Bolsheviks in 1917 made life difficult
for Shestov, and the Marxists pressured him
to write a defence of Marxist doctrine as
an introduction to his new work, Potestas
Clavium; otherwise it would not be published.
Shestov refused this, yet with the permission
of the authorities he lectured at the University
of Kiev on Greek philosophy.
Shestov's dislike of the Soviet regime led
him to undertake a long journey out of Russia,
and he eventually ended up in France. The
author was a popular figure in France, where
his originality was quickly recognized. In
Paris, he soon befriended, and much influenced,
the young Georges Bataille. That this Russian
was newly appreciated is attested by his having
been asked to contribute to a prestigious
French philosophy journal. In the interwar
years, Shestov continued to develop into a
thinker of great prominence. During this time
he had become totally immersed in the study
of such great theologians as Blaise Pascal
and Plotinus, whilst at the same time lecturing
at the Sorbonne in 1925. In 1926 he was introduced
to Edmund Husserl, with whom he maintained
a cordial relationship despite radical differences
in their philosophical outlook. In 1929, during
a return to Freiburg he met with Edmund Husserl,
and was urged to study Danish philosopher
Søren Kierkegaard.The discovery of Kierkegaard
prompted Shestov to realise that his philosophy
shared great similarities, such as his rejection
of idealism, and his belief that man can gain
ultimate knowledge through ungrounded subjective
thought rather than objective reason and verifiability.
However, Shestov maintained that Kierkegaard
did not pursue this line of thought far enough,
and proceeded to continue where he thought
the Dane left off. The results of this tendency
are seen in his work Kierkegaard and Existential
Philosophy: Vox Clamantis in Deserto, published
in 1936, a fundamental work of Christian existentialism.
Despite his weakening condition Shestov continued
to write at a quick pace, and finally completed
his magnum opus, Athens and Jerusalem. This
work examines the dichotomy between freedom
and reason, and argues that reason be rejected
in the discipline of philosophy. Furthermore,
it adumbrates the means by which the scientific
method has made philosophy and science irreconcilable,
since science concerns itself with empirical
observation, whereas (so Shestov argues) philosophy
must be concerned with freedom, God and immortality,
issues that cannot be solved by science.
In 1938, Shestov contracted a serious illness
whilst at his vacation home. During this final
period, he continued his studies, concentrating
in particular on Indian philosophy as well
as the works of his contemporary Edmund Husserl,
who had died recently. Shestov himself died
at a clinic in Paris.
== Philosophy ==
=== The philosophy of despair ===
Shestov's philosophy is, at first sight, not
a philosophy at all: it offers no systematic
unity, no coherent set of propositions, no
theoretical explanation of philosophical problems.
Most of Shestov's work is fragmentary. With
regard to the form (he often used aphorisms)
the style may be deemed more web-like than
linear, and more explosive than argumentative.
The author seems to contradict himself on
every page, and even seeks out paradoxes.
This is because he believes that life itself
is, in the last analysis, deeply paradoxical,
and not comprehensible through logical or
rational inquiry. Shestov maintains that no
theory can solve the mysteries of life. Fundamentally,
his philosophy is not 'problem-solving', but
problem-generating, with a pronounced emphasis
on life's enigmatic qualities.
His point of departure is not a theory, or
an idea, but an experience, the experience
of despair, which Shestov describes as the
loss of certainties, the loss of freedom,
the loss of the meaning of life. The root
of this despair is what he frequently calls
'Necessity', but also 'Reason', 'Idealism'
or 'Fate': a certain way of thinking (but
at the same time also a very real aspect of
the world) that subordinates life to ideas,
abstractions, generalisations and thereby
kills it, through an ignoring of the uniqueness
and livingness of reality.
'Reason' is the obedience to and the acceptance
of Certainties that tell us that certain things
are eternal and unchangeable and other things
are impossible and can never be attained.
This accounts for Shestov's philosophy being
a form of irrationalism, though it is important
to note that the thinker does not oppose reason,
or science in general, but only rationalism
and scientism: the tendency to consider reason
as a sort of omniscient, omnipotent God that
is good for its own sake. It may also be considered
a form of personalism: people cannot be reduced
to ideas, social structures, or mystical oneness.
Shestov rejects any mention of "omnitudes",
"collective", "all-unity." As he explains
in his masterpiece Athens and Jerusalem:
"But why attribute to God, the God whom neither
time nor space limits, the same respect and
love for order? Why forever speak of "total
unity"? If God loves men, what need has He
to subordinate men to His divine will and
to deprive them of their own will, the most
precious of the things He has bestowed upon
them? There is no need at all. Consequently,
the idea of total unity is an absolutely false
idea....It is not forbidden for reason to
speak of unity and even of unities, but it
must renounce total unity - and other things
besides. And what a sigh of relief men will
breathe when they suddenly discover that the
living God, the true God, in no way resembles
Him whom reason has shown them until now!"
Through this attack on the "self-evident",
Shestov implies that we are all seemingly
alone with our suffering, and can be helped
neither by others, nor by philosophy. This
explains his lack of a systematic philosophical
framework.
=== Penultimate words: surrender versus struggle
===
But despair is not the last word, it is only
the 'penultimate word'. The last word cannot
be said in human language, can't be captured
in theory. His philosophy begins with despair,
his whole thinking is desperate, but Shestov
tries to point to something beyond despair
- and beyond philosophy.
This is what he calls 'faith': not a belief,
not a certainty, but another way of thinking
that arises in the midst of the deepest doubt
and insecurity. It is the experience that
"everything is possible" (Dostoevsky), that
the opposite of Necessity is not chance or
accident, but possibility, that there does
exist a god-given freedom without boundaries,
without walls or borders. Shestov maintains
that we should continue to struggle, to fight
against Fate and Necessity, even when a successful
outcome is not guaranteed. Exactly at the
moment that all the oracles remain silent,
we should give ourselves over to God, who
alone can comfort the sick and suffering soul.
In some of his most famous words he explains:
"Faith, only the faith that looks to the Creator
and that He inspires, radiates from itself
the supreme and decisive truths condemning
what is and what is not. Reality is transfigured.
The heavens glorify the Lord. The prophets
and apostles cry in ecstasy, "O death, where
is thy sting? Hell, where is thy victory?"
And all announce: "Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him." (Quoting 1 Corinthians
15:55, 2:9)
Furthermore, although a Jewish philosopher,
Shestov saw in the resurrection of Christ
this victory over necessity. He described
the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus
as a transfiguring spectacle by which it is
demonstrated that the purpose of life is not
"mystical" surrender to the "absolute", but
ascetical struggle:
"Cur Deus homo? Why, to what purpose, did
He become man, expose himself to injurious
mistreatment, ignominious and painful death
on the cross? Was it not in order to show
man, through His example, that no decision
is too hard, that it is worth while bearing
anything in order not to remain in the womb
of the One? That any torture whatever to the
living being is better than the 'bliss' of
the rest-satiate 'ideal' being?"
Likewise, the final words of his last and
greatest work, Athens and Jerusalem, are:
"Philosophy is not Besinnen [think over] but
struggle. And this struggle has no end and
will have no end. The kingdom of God, as it
is written, is attained through violence."
(cf Matthew 11:12)
=== Influence ===
Shestov was highly admired and honored by
Nikolai Berdyaev and Sergei Bulgakov in Russia,
Jules de Gaultier, Georges Bataille, Lucien
Lévy-Bruhl and Albert Camus in France, and
D. H. Lawrence, Isaiah Berlin and John Middleton
Murry in England. Among Jewish thinkers, he
influenced Hillel Zeitlin.
Today, Shestov is little known in the English-speaking
world. This is partly because his works have
not been readily available. Partly the specific
themes he discusses are unfashionable and
"foreign". A sombre and yet ecstatic atmosphere
permeates his writings. And his quasi-nihilistic
position and religious outlook are an unsettling
and incongruous combination, at first sight.
He did however influence writers such as Albert
Camus (who wrote about him in Le Mythe de
Sisyphe), Benjamin Fondane (his 'pupil'),
the poet Paul Celan, and notably Emil Cioran,
who writes about Shestov:
"He was the philosopher of my generation,
which didn't succeed in realizing itself spiritually,
but remained nostalgic about such a realization.
Shestov [...] has played an important role
in my life. [...] He thought rightly that
the true problems escape the philosophers.
What else do they do but obscuring the real
torments of life?" (Emil Cioran: Oeuvres,
Gallimard, Paris 1995, p. 1740, my translation.)Shestov
also appears in the work of Gilles Deleuze;
he is referred to sporadically in Nietzsche
and Philosophy and also appears in Difference
and Repetition.
More recently, alongside Dostoyevsky's philosophy,
many have found solace in Shestov's battle
against the rational self-consistent and self-evident;
for example Bernard Martin of Case Western
Reserve University, who translated his works
now found online [external link below]; and
the scholar Liza Knapp, who wrote The Annihilation
of Inertia: Dostoevsky and Metaphysics. This
book was an evaluation of Dostoyevsky's struggle
against the self-evident "wall", and refers
to Shestov on several occasions.
According to Michael Richardson's research
on Georges Bataille, Shestov was an early
influence on Bataille and was responsible
for exposing him to Nietzsche. He argues that
Shestov's radical views on theology and an
interest in extreme human behavior probably
coloured Bataille's own thoughts.
== Main works ==
These are Shestov's most important works,
in their English translations, and with their
date of writing:
The Good in the Teaching of Tolstoy and Nietzsche,
1899
The Philosophy of Tragedy, Dostoevsky and
Nietzsche, 1903
All Things are Possible (Apotheosis of Groundlessness),
1905
Potestas Clavium, 1919
In Job's Balances, 1923–29
Kierkegaard and the Existential Philosophy,
1933–34
Athens and Jerusalem, 1930–37
== References ==
== Further reading ==
(in French) Geneviève Piron : Léon Chestov,
philosophe du déracinement, Éditions L'Âge
d'Homme, 2010 (ISBN 978-2-8251-3976-9).
== External links ==
Works by Lev Shestov at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Gregory B Sadler, Existentialism: Lev Shestov,
"The Theory of Knowledge on YouTube
Gregory B Sadler, Existentialism: Lev Shestov,
All Things are Possible (part 1) on YouTube
Gregory B Sadler, Existentialism: Lev Shestov,
All Things are Possible (part 2) on YouTube
Gregory B Sadler, Existentialism: Lev Shestov,
All Things are Possible (part 3) on YouTube
The Lev Shestov Society homepage
Martin, Bernard (1966). Lev Shestov - Introduction.
Retrieved 2 January 2006.
