S.L. Frank on Dostoevsky humanism

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the crisis of humanism, disclosed by S.L. Frank in his speech on the day of the death of F.M. Dostoevsky (1931), and the method proposed by the philosopher to overcome this crisis. The author analyzes the main historical types of humanism and fixes the moment of origin of the crisis of humanism. The question of whether F.M. Dostoevsky with his teachings was able to overcome this crisis. According to Frank, Dostoevsky’s response to the crisis of humanism and the way to overcome it is the recognition of the ontological depth of any human person. Dostoevsky turns out to be the writer and thinker who was again able to consider the unconditional importance of a person as such — regardless of his social status, social condition, economic capital. Any of his characters is, first of all, a man; personality, given in its intrinsic value. Regardless of what people are, whether they are good or evil, the significance of their lives is equal. And Dostoevsky teaches the attentive reader to understand this equivalence.