The rabbit and the duck

antinomic unity in Dostoevskij, the Russian religious tradition, and Mikhail Bakhtin

Ksana Blank

pp. 21-37

in: Robert Bird (ed), Dostoevskij's significance for philosophy and theology, Studies in East European Thought 59, 2007.

Abstrakt

At the core of Dostoevskij's philosophy and theology lies a concept according to which the Truth (Istina) is antinomical: it contains both a thesis and its antithesis without expectation of synthesis. This concept can be traced to Eastern Patristics. After Dostoevskij, the theory of antinomies was elaborated by 20th century Russian religious thinkers such as Pavel Florenskij, Sergej Bulgakov, Nikolaj Berdjaev, Semën Frank, and Vladimir Losskij. Their ideas help us to understand that Dostoevskij's dialogism, made famous in its secular guise by Bakhtin, has a theological underpinning. Dostoevskij's exposition of conflicting truths should therefore be seen not as a case of irresolvable contradiction or paradox but as an organic wholeness.

Cited authors

Bulgakov Sergej

Berdjaev Nikolaj

Florenskij Pavel

Bachtin Michajl