A Philosopher’s Fairy Tale
Dostoevskij and Kierkegaard on Imaginary Worlds
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21420088 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Petr Vaškovic (0000-0002-9054-4647, The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 110-126 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scando-Slavica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0080-6765 • E-ISSN: 1600-082X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00806765.2024.2317375 |
| OpenAlex | W4399436941 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
The faculty of imagination plays an important but somewhat ambivalent role in the works of Fëdor Dostoevskij and Søren Kierkegaard. On the one hand, both Kierkegaard and Dostoevskij believe that it can facilitate the becoming of ethical and religious subjectivity, but they are also aware that an overly active imagination can lead to escapism which may in turn hinder ethical and religious self-development. This paper focuses specifically on the negative side of imagination, examining the stories of Frater Taciturnus from Kierkegaard’s Stages on Life’s Way and General Ivolgin from Dostoevskij’s The Idiot, both of whom construct highly elaborate personal imaginary worlds which, as this paper argues, serve as a means of escapism. The paper outlines the structure of these imaginary worlds and examines how they serve as a means of avoiding personal and moral responsibility
Art · Literature · Psychoanalysis · The Imaginary · Kierkegaardian Philosophy and Influence · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies
| Highly cited | No |
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