Arquivo para January, 2025
Dostoevsky and the war
06
Jan
Imagining that all Russian literature is Soviet is,
above all, ahistorical because great masters of literature predate the Soviet period: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) and Leon Tostoy (1828-1910), not to mention Gogol, Pushkin and others.
Dostoevsky was a master at exploring ethical and spiritual issues in his characters, he also addresses issues of faith, redemption and the search for truth.
Dostoevsky was imprisoned for political reasons, his style of literature was realistic, but from a philosophical point of view, to give a more precise connotation, he was an existentialist, his anti-tsar ideas (the Russian monarchy) make many interpreters place him as a “revolutionary”.
Dostoievsky belonged to a group known as the Petrashevsky Circle, despite being from different currents, they were mostly progressive and wanted the end of Russian feudalism.
Among his best-known works are: The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot and Crime and Punishment, although they are ethical and existentialist dramas, there is within these works the ideal of pan-Slavism, an ideal of unity between all Orthodox Christian and Slavic nations and in this sense, they were conservative, as other currents defended integration into Europe.
The Idiot was a novel that began in September 1867 when the author was in Geneva and concluded in January 1869 in the city of Florence. This alone would indicate its universal character and with themes that go beyond the literary and political scope.
The Idiot tells the story of the young Prince Myshkin who, after several years in a sanatorium in Switzerland, returns to Russia and comes across a world mired in indolence and material life.
Contrary to the title, the character seen by many as an idiot for refusing values and the spirit of indolence by returning to his country, feels like an idiot to a certain extent, but teaches us that it is possible to live outside the unethical and immoral standards of the world. your time.
The character resolves to be courteous and sincere in a corrupted world and the author writes about him: “No one should expect more than this from me. Maybe here they also look at me like a child; It’s okay” and adds: “But can I be an idiot now, if I feel able to see, for myself, that everyone takes me for an idiot? When I arrived, I thought: “I know they take me for an idiot; However, I have discernment and they don’t realize it!…”.
So the Russian drama of experiencing pan-Slavism or integration into the West was already present.
Witnessing and acting in peace
03
Jan
It may seem that peace, seen as a new way
of thinking about personal and social relationships, is something intimate or purely “interior” (it is a complement to exteriority), but it is not, because it is possible to act according to this peace that is different from that conceived as only human.
This inner peace, which is not what we developed in the previous post, is not what the Greeks called ataxia, peace of mind free from fear, nor aponia, absence of pain, which would be the ideal states of life; pain and fear do exist, especially at times of crisis.
In fact, it is this bad relationship with pain and fear that makes society sink deeper into its crisis, the pursuit of pleasure without measure and the absence of fear in daily attitudes and actions that are contrary to peace in the world; wars begin with small actions of hatred.
Committing to peace, in the realm of truth, can even put your life at risk, as Thomas Aquinas says: “Whoever tells the truth loses friendships”, but it must be said that his truth is not logical but onto-logical, in other words, it follows a logic of Being.
In previous posts, we returned to the question of the cardinal virtues, pointed out in particular by Philippa Foot (English philosopher). In Thomas Aquinas, we find the connection between peace and these virtues: justice, wisdom, prudence and charity. For the Aquinate, peace is achieved in the midst of men if these virtues help to produce the peace desired by humanity.
Thomas Aquinas also understands peace in a broader sense: “peace is the tranquillity of manner, of species and of order” (Aquinas, 2019) (It is worth noting that by order, we mean that each thing is in its proper place).
Thus, along with the virtues of justice, wisdom and prudence, there must be the bond of charity, which is not simply worldly love or appreciation. Charity not only unifies the appetites of individuals, it also leads each man to love his neighbor as himself, that is, to want to fulfill the desires and needs of his neighbor as if they were his own.
The Angelic Doctor says: “Peace is nothing other than the unity of affections, which is proper to God alone, because it is through charity – which only comes from God – that hearts are united. In fact, God knows how to bring together and unite, because God is Love, which is the bond of perfection” (Aquinas 2019).
So this desired peace depends on more than divine love, putting it into practice in our lives and in our daily lives, illuminating conflicting relationships with concord and unity.
SANTO TOMAS DE AQUINO. Corpus Thomisticum. [S. l.]: Fundação Tomás de Aquino, 2019. Available in: http://www.corpusthomisticum.org, access: december 2024.
Remaining at peace
02
Jan
January 1st is known as the World Day of Peace.
We didn’t post yesterday because it was a public holiday, but we did look at four books that we’ll be reading and posting throughout the year.
We’ve already talked about the peace of the unknown (to most) Sassanids, called the Iberian peace (527-531) and about Christian peace: “I give you peace, but not as the world gives” (Jn 14:27), the dark signs of the coming year are indicative of a better understanding of this peace.
Say what you think, try to be coherent in your actions and words, but don’t expect agreement or applause, in general the truth when it’s harsh is never well accepted, increasingly we have a world of narratives and bipolarization and everyone has their own “story”.
The popular saying goes that the first to die in a war is the truth, and if you have a fair and coherent position (this is impossible without a moral position, and I recall the cardinal virtues described by Philippa Foot), if you are a temple of peace (peace comes from above) get ready.
Also in social terms, those who get involved in conflicts, and there are many situations for this today, need to remain peaceful and have serenity and resilience.
On the other hand, those who suffer from social and economic problems imagine that a spiritual solution will do the trick, as if the divine were a house of credit or the solution to structural problems.
Look for medium and long-term alternatives, the immediate ones are panaceas, especially in financial matters, and be very careful because the winds are blowing in the opposite direction.
In short, keep your inner peace, look for practical solutions to practical things and be serene.
