Abstract

The affinity between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky rests upon their anti-dualistic revaluations of; "body", "freedom", "truth", "will", "self", "beauty", and "life". Dostoevsky's anti-dualism is revealed in his rejection of the materio-phobism of Neo-Platonic Gnosticism, especially as it relates to his aesthetic and religious beliefs and the doctrine of transcendence. ;The role of freedom in personality is explored. Closely associated with the experience of flux, freedom is considered central for revaluation and transformation through self-will. An attempt is made to show that self-will does not represent the antithesis of Divine will. ;Dostoevsky's philosophy, like Nietzsche's, replaces ethereal metaphysical study with a more tangible anthropology wherein each individual is considered superior to any disembodied concept. This anti-Rational stance issues from Dostoevsky's "Dionysian" revaluation of the beautiful human being as the ultimate measure or standard of value. Ontological beauty, the highest value, is simply antithetical to the highest of Rational standards. This is a rejection of Plato's identification of Truth and Beauty. With Dostoevsky, beautiful reasoning does not create beautiful people. ;Clear, well-ordered reasoning may yield "attractive" results epistemologically, but, as Dostoevsky shows, ontologically they produce ugly human beings. The creation of truth is attained through the highest aesthetic experience: self-creation. In The Brothers Karamazov, self-creation is equated with Christ, portrayed in a silent image awakening divine aspiration purified by aesthetic inspiration. ;Dostoevsky's aesthetic-ontology embraces Christ as the best example of earthly perfection, affirming the possibility of a non-transcendent, human beauty. As such, it stands in opposition to the Platonist notion that beauty reflects, or participates in, transcendent Beauty. Dostoevsky's version of beauty also incorporates the heroic activity of both will and emotion, allowing for tension and struggle below the surface of aesthetic form. Platonic tranquility is antithetical to this view. Like Nietzsche, Dostoevsky's anti-Platonic philosophical outlook finds its highest expression in aesthetic-ontology