Abstract

Although little known in the English-speaking world, Lev Shestov was a highly regarded philosopher who influenced some of the most pivotal figures of the 20th century including Nikolai Berdyaev and Sergei Bulgakov in Russia, George Bataille, Jules de Gaultier, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and Albert Camus in France, and D. H. Lawrence and John Middleton Murry in England. Shestov was deeply interested in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard. Emil Cioran wrote 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?" As an existentialist, Shestov was known for his "Philosophy of Despair". His work is often fragmentary, and he maintained that no one system could solve the mysteries of life. Rather than a theory or idea, he expounded the experience of despair which he described as a loss of certainties, loss of freedom, and even a loss of the meaning of life. But through this, Shestov attempts to break beyond despair to a place that he refers to as "Faith", which derives from the deepest place of insecurity and doubt. This updated edition includes a collection of selected quotes by Shestov, as well as multiple images of Shestov and his contemporaries. Also included is an active table of contents for convenient reference.