Nietzsche and Dostoevsky: On the Verge of Nihilism

247 Pages·2015·0.72 MB·english

by  Paolo Stellino

Nietzsche and Dostoevsky
LISBON PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
uses of language in interdisciplinary fields
A Publication from the Institute of Philosophy of Language at the New University of Lisbon
edited by
António Marques (General Editor)
Nuno Venturinha (Executive Editor)
Editorial Board:
Gabriele De Angelis, Humberto Brito, João Fonseca, Franck Lihoreau, António Marques,
Maria Filomena Molder, Diogo Pires Aurélio, Erich Rast, João Sàágua, Nuno Venturinha
Advisory Board:
Jean-Pierre Cometti (Université de Provence), Lynn Dobson (University of Edinburgh),
Ernest Lepore (Rutgers University), Renato Lessa (IUPE-Rio de Janeiro), Andrew Lugg
(University of Ottawa), Stefan Majetschak (Universität Kassel), Jesús Padilla Gálvez
(Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha), Joachim Schulte (Universität Zürich)
PETER LANG
Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien
Paolo Stellino
Nietzsche and Dostoevsky
On the Verge of Nihilism
PETER LANG
Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien
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Dedicated to the memory of my
beloved grandfather, Giovanni.

Acknowledgments
This work is a completely revised version of my doctoral thesis com-
pleted at the University of Valencia, Spain, in July, 2010. The thesis was
supervised by Jesús Conill and Juan Carlos Siurana Aparisi. My grati-
tude goes to both of them for having been encouraging and enthusiastic
guides. Joan B. Llinares’ help was, as well, important and valuable. To
him, I am greatly indebted for shared knowledge and generous support.
My thanks also go to Giuliano Campioni, Adela Cortina, Luis Enrique
de Santiago Guervós, and Diego Sánchez Meca for providing helpful
comments as examiners.
I am especially grateful to Volker Gerhardt, Paolo D’Iorio, Karin
Bauer, and Werner Stegmaier for welcoming me as visiting scholar at
Humboldt University of Berlin, Maison Française d’Oxford, McGill
University, and Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald,
respectively.
I also express gratitude to all the persons who have been helpful
by providing me with useful material, discussing specific aspects of
my work or reading part of the manuscript and making several critical
comments. Those persons are Christian Benne, Andrea Bertino, Ken
Gemes, Marie-Luise Haase, Enrico Müller, Nicola Nicodemo, Ekate-
rina Poljakova, Mattia Riccardi, John Richardson, Beat Röllin, Andreas
Urs Sommer and Yannick Souladié. Special thanks go to João Constân-
cio, Maria Cristina Fornari, Pietro Gori, Luca Lupo and Maria João
Mayer Branco for their insightful comments on a previous version of
this work.
During the last years, I have had the chance to discuss several
aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy with the members of SPN (Semi-
nario Permanente Nietzscheano, Centro “Colli-Montinari”) and NIL
(Nietzsche International Lab, New University of Lisbon). To all of them
go my sincere thanks.
I should also like to thank the directors of the series Antonio
Marques and Nuno Venturinha for their willingness to publish this
study and Angelica Scholze for her help and support during the publi-
cation process.
This book would have not been possible without the loving support
of my family, especially my mother Anna, my companion Audrey and
my friends Luca Giancristofaro and Pietro Gori.

8
Contents
Note on Translations and Abbreviations .............................................11
Preface.................................................................................................15
Part I. Nietzsche Discovers and Reads Dostoevsky
1. Nietzsche’s Discovery of Dostoevsky ...........................................23
2. L’esprit souterrain (Katia, The Landlady) ....................................29
3. L’esprit souterrain (Lisa, Notes from Underground) ....................37
4. Resentment ...................................................................................45
5. Notes from the House of the Dead ................................................57
6. The Insulted and Injured ..............................................................67
7. A Heated Debate ..........................................................................75
8. A “Subterranean” at Work ............................................................83
9. Petersburg-Style Nihilism.............................................................89
10. Further Readings ..........................................................................93
11. On the Possible Reading of Crime and Punishment .....................99
12. Jesus as Idiot ...............................................................................107
13. Demons .......................................................................................119
14. Dostoevsky as Artist. Russian Pessimism and Décadence .........131
15. An Unexpected Silence? A Recapitulation of
Nietzsche’s Discovery and Reading of Dostoevsky ...................139
Part II. If God Does not Exist, Is Everything Permitted?
Contextualization of the Problem .....................................................145