A Comparative Study Of Nietzsche And Dostoevsky’s Anti-rationalism

The first half of the 20th century in Europe was an era of comprehensive crisis of science,philosophy,spirit and culture,and its roots were a dogmatic rationalism.It directly led to the tragedies of the two world wars,which caused a violent anti-rationalism and anti-scientism modern criticism in Europe,and formed an important social critical theory in the 20th century:anti-rationalism.Nietzsche’s extremely predictable judgment on this crisis established his antirationalist status.At the same time,Nietzsche discovered Dostoevsky and admitted that Dostoevsky had influenced him.According to investigations,Nietzsche and Dostoevsky have many similarities in many ideas,especially in anti-rationalism.Therefore,the article makes a comparative study of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky’s anti-rationalism to explore their common position in the anti-rationalism trend of the 19th century and the possible enlightenment to philosophy after the 20th century.The thesis is divided into five parts.The first part elaborates the importance of them on the issue of anti-rationalism in the 20th century,discusses the ideology of them,and points out that they had the same judgment on the hidden spiritual crisis in Europe in the 19th century.The second part discusses Nietzsche’s own discovery of Dostoyevsky and other thinkers,especially Shestov’s argumentation of the similarity of them from the perspective of antirationalism.It also discusses the inheritance and deepening of anti-rationalism to the irrationalism in the 19th century,and points out that anti-rationalism is against rational hegemony in a more radical and profound sense.The third part discusses Dostoevsky’s antirationalism from three aspects: criticism of rationality,denial of God,and doubts about existence.The fourth part discusses Nietzsche’s anti-rationalism from the criticism of the fiction of rationality,Christianity and morality.The fifth part discusses the truth that both Nietzsche and Dostoevsky perceived that "God is dead",and from this issue,put forward the ideas of superman and extraordinary,eternal reincarnation and soul immortality,and then compares the similarities and differences of these ideas,points out there always exist the binary confrontation between freedom and necessity in their thoughts.Finally,the author concludes that Dostoevsky’s thoughts include criticism of some unshakable concepts in philosophy and Christianity,rational proof of belief,moral defense based on rationality,selfunity,even the questioning of rationality itself,and the praise of personal will,the pursuit of superman’s perfect humanity are exactly the same as Nietzsche!...