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Herzen and the Existential World View: A New Approach to an Old Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

William Cannon Weidemaier
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Extract

Nineteenth-century Russian writers often displayed an existential quality that is significant not only because it was apparently indigenous but because it was one of the first features of Russian thought to influence the West. There is no accepted label for this trait—Geoffrey Clive uses the term “intuitive existentialism,” while Marc Raeff speaks simply of a “more or less existentialist” philosophic temperament —but, by any name, its influence on the development of existential thought in the West is undeniable. Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus each acknowledged the importance of Dostoevskii in relation to their own thought, while many religious existentialists, and even the atheistic Heidegger, have found their concerns partly anticipated in a work such as Tolstoi’s Death of Ivan Ilich. Similarly, if less frequently, Vladimir Solov'ev, Konstantin Leont'ev, Lev Shestov, V. V. Rozanov, and especially Nikolai Berdiaev have attracted the attention of specialists on existentialism.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , Winter 1981 , pp. 557 - 569
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1981

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References

1. Geoffrey, Clive, The Broken Icon : Intuitive Existentialism in Classical Russian Fiction (New York, 1972)Google Scholar; Raeff is quoted in Cantor, Norman F., ed., Perspectives on the European Past : Conversations With Historians, 2 vols. (New York, 1971), 2 : 249 Google Scholar. For Russian influence on major figures in the existential movement, see Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, chap. 9, sec. 45 (citations to Nietzsche are by chapter and section which are the same in all editions of his works; translations are Walter Kaufmann's with minor variations); Sartre, Jean-Paul, Existentialism and Human Emotions, trans. Bernard Frechtman (New York, 1957), p. 1957 Google Scholar; Albert, Camus, Notebooks, 1935-1942, trans. Philip Thody (New York, 1963), p. 1963 Google Scholar; Martin, Heidegger, SeinundZeit (Tubingen, 1963; originally published 1927), p. 254 Google Scholar. A standard introduction to existentialism which notes the contributions of nearly all of the abovenamed Russians is William, Barrett, Irrational Man : A Study in Existential Philosophy (New York, 1958).Google Scholar

2. Isaiah, Berlin, “Introduction,” in Alexander Herzen, From the Other Shore, trans. M. Budberg (New York, 1956), p. xvi Google Scholar; Allen McConnell, “Against All Idols : Alexander Herzen and the Revolution of 1848” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1954), p. 6; E., Lampert, Studies in Rebellion (New York, 1957), pp. 191, 196Google Scholar; Martin, Malia, Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), pp. 381–82Google Scholar; R. M., Davison, “Herzen and Kierkegaard,” Slavic Review, 25, no. 2 (June 1966) : 199.Google Scholar

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4. Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions, pp. 9-10, 36-38.

5. Blackham, H. J., Six Existentialist Thinkers (New York, 1959), p. 44.Google Scholar

6. See Karl, Jaspers, Philosophie, 3 vols. (Berlin, Gottingen, and Heidelberg, 1956), 1 : 5.Google Scholar

7. Max, Stimer, The Ego and His Own, trans. Steven T. Byington (New York, 1963)Google Scholar. On Stirner's anticipation of existential philosophy, see Frederick, Copleston, A History of Philosophy, 8 vols. (Westminster, Maryland, 1963), 7 : 303 Google Scholar and Karl, Lowith, From Hegel to Nietzsche, trans. David E. Green (New York, 1964), p. 299.Google Scholar

8. A. I. Gertsen, By/oe i dumy (1856-68), in A. I. Gertsen, Sobraniesochinenii, 30 vols, (hereafter cited as SS) (Moscow, 1954-65), 8 : 53-55; 9 : 27. All translations of Herzen's works are my own except those from From the Other Shore, which generally follow the M. Budberg translation.

9. A. I. Gertsen, S togo berega (1847-50), SS, 6 : 45.

10. Friedrich Nietzsche, Die Frohliche Wissenschafl, sec. 125.

11. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 11 : 294. Herzen's reference here to a “foundation” suggests that he may not have found reality as completely devoid of order and meaning as Nietzsche did.

12. Gertsen, 5 logo berega, SS, 6 : 45.

13. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 11 : 224.

14. Gertsen, S togo berega, SS, 6 : 104.

15. A. I. Gertsen, Pis'ma iz Frantsii i Italii (1847-51), SS, 5 : 89.

16. Gertsen, S togo berega, SS. 6 : 76.

17. Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, sec. 9; Stirner, The Ego and His Own, p. 58. All italics in this article are from the originals.

18. Herzen to Nikolai Ogarev, March 2, 1841, SS, 22 : 104. All dates are Old Style unless otherwise indicated.

19. A. I. Gertsen, “Publichnye chteniia g-na Professora Rul'e” (1845), SS. 2 : 142.

20. A. I. Gertsen, “O publichnykh chteniiakh g-na Granovskogo” (1844), SS. 2 : 127.

21. Gertsen, S togo berega, SS, 6 : 29.

22. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy. SS, 10 : 204.

23. See, for example, Thomas, Masaryk, The Spirit of Russia, trans. Eden and Cedar Paul, 3 vols. (London, 1961), 1 : 424–25.Google Scholar

24. Gertsen, S togo berega, SS, 6 : 98-99.

25. A. I. Gertsen, “Lettre sur le libre arbitre” (1868), 55, 20 : 434-38.

26. Kierkegaard, S∅ren, S∅ren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, ed. and trans. H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong, 4 vols. (Bloomington, 1974), 3 : 519 Google Scholar; F. M. Dostoevskii, Zapiski izpodpol'ia, in Dostoevskii, F. M., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 30 vols, (hereafter cited as PSS) (Leningrad, 1972-), 5 : 112 Google Scholar; Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, chap. 1, sec. 26.

27. Herzen to Natal'ia Zakharina, November 10-11, 1836. SS, 21 : 118.

28. A. I. Gertsen, Dnevnik, December 9, 1842, SS, 2 : 248.

29. Ibid. March 30, 1843, 55, 2 : 274.

30. Ibid., November 29, 1844, SS, 2 : 390.

31. A. I. Gertsen, “Doktor Krupov” (1847), SS, 4 : 264.

32. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 11 : 232.

33. Gertsen, S logo berega, SS, 6 : 31, 37.

34. Ibid., p. 93. This quotation, like several to follow, comes from portions of From the Other Shore written in dialogue. The reader will have little difficulty in determining which speaker expresses Herzen's views. It is the skeptic and realist, often cast in the role of the “physician, ” a device used in earlier works such as “Doktor Krupov.” The skeptic's beliefs are the only ones given full development in the dialogues and constitute by far the larger part of what is said. The occasional persuasiveness of the other characters' arguments is due, according to Dostoevskii, who discussed the matter with Herzen, to the latter's conviction that dialogue fails as a literary device if one speaker is a straw man (see Dostoevskii, F. M., Dnevnik pisatelia [1873-81], 3 vols. [Paris, 1960], 1 : 187 Google Scholar).

35. Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, chap. 2, sec. 2; Albert, Camus, Notebooks, 1942-1951, trans. Justin O'Brien (New York, 1965), p. 1965 Google Scholar; Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions, p. 13.

36. A. I. Gertsen, “Kontsy i nachala” (1862), SS, 16 : 177.

37. Gertsen, S logo berega, SS, 6 : 131.

38. Stirner, The Ego and His Own, p. 182; Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Wille zur Macht. sec. 1011; Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions, p. 51.

39. Herzen to Guiseppe Mazzini, September 1, 1850, 55, 24 : 140.

40. Gertsen, 5 logo berega, SS. 6; 131.

41. Ibid., p. 119.

42. A. I. Gertsen, “Pis'ma iz Avenue Marigny” (1847), SS, 5 : 238.

43. A. I. Gertsen, “Den’ byl dushnyi” (1833), SS, 1 : 54-55.

44. A. I. Gertsen, “Zapiski odnogo molodogo cheloveka” (1840-41), SS, 1 : 276.

45. Letters, Herzen to Natal'ia Zakharina, April 1, April 27, and December 5, 1836, 55, 21 : 73, 76, 123.

46. Gertsen, Dnevnik, April 13, 1842 and September 4, 1844, 55, 2 : 208, 379.

47. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 10 : 190.

48. Letter, Herzen to Moscow friends, October 24-27, 1848, 55, 23 : 111.

49. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 10 : 190.

50. Gertsen, 5 togo berega, SS, 6 : 101-102.

51. Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers, 3 : 308.

52. Gertsen, S logo berega, SS, 6 : 56.

53. Gertsen, Byloe idumy, SS, 10 : 344; Friedrich Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zaralhustra, part 3, chap. 10, sec. 2.

54. Gertsen, S1 togo berega, SS, 6 : 60.

55. A. I. Gertsen, “Kaprizy i razdum'e” (1843-47), SS, 2 : 97.

56. Gertsen, S logo berega. SS, 6 : 129.

57. Ibid., p. 132.

58. A. I. Gertsen, “K staromu tovarishchu” (1869), SS, 20 : 590.

59. Gertsen, “Kontsy i nachala, ” 5, 5, 16 : 160.

60. Gertsen, 5 logo berega, SS, 6 : 20-21. Cf. Soren Kierkegaard, Sickness Unto Death, trans. Walter Lowrie, in Robert Bretall, ed., A Kierkegaard Anthology (New York, 1946), p. 353.

61. Gertsen, “Kaprizy i razdum'e, ” SS, 2 : 86.

62. Gertsen, S logo berega, SS, 6 : 86.

63. Ibid., p. 57.

64. Ibid., p. 112.

65. Ibid., p. 109.

66. Friedrich Schiller, Die Rduber, act. 1, sc. 2.

67. Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, epilogue, sec. 2. Concerning Schiller's influence on the young Nietzsche, see Charles, Andler, Nietzsche, sa vie et sapensee, 6 vols. (Paris, 1920-31), 1 : 43 Google Scholar; and Hollingdale, R. J., Nietzsche : The Man and His Philosophy (Baton Rouge, 1965), p. 28.Google Scholar

68. Gertsen, By toe i dumy, 55, 11 : 438-39.

69. Gertsen, “Kontsy i nachala, ” 55, 16 : 136-38.

70. Albert, Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays, trans. Ellen Conroy Kennedy (New York, 1969), p. 197.Google Scholar

71. Gertsen, 5 logo berega, 55, 6 : 34.

72. Gertsen, By toe i dumy, SS, 11 : 249; ellipsis in the original.

73. Gertsen, Dnevnik, March 30, 1843, 55, 2 : 273.

74. Gertsen, “Kontsy i nachala, ” 55. 16 : 159.

75. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS, 10 : 120; parenthetical comment in the original.

76. A. I. Gertsen, Dilelantizm v nauke (1843), 55. 3 : 22.

77. Gertsen, 5 logo berega, SS, 6 : 44.

78. Ibid., p. 103.

79. Gertsen, Byloe i dumy, SS. 10 : 233.

80. Dostoevskii, Zapiski izpodpol'ia, PSS, 5 : 101; Friedrich Nietzsche, Zur Genealogieder Moral, first essay, sec. 1; Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York, 1956), p. 90.

81. Dostoevskii, Dnevnik pisatelia, 1 : 187; Tolstoi, L. N., Sobranie sochinenii, 20 vols. (Moscow, 1960-65), 18 : 33 Google Scholar and 20 : 224; Nikolai, Berdiaev, Samopoznanie (Paris, 1949), pp. 7, 43, 306Google Scholar. On Leont'ev and Herzen, see Zenkovsky, V. V., A History of Russian Philosophy, trans. George L. Kline, 2 vols. (London, 1953), 1 : 437.Google Scholar

82. Nicholas, Berdiaev, The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar, trans. Donald A. Lowrie (New York, 1952), p. 28.Google Scholar

83. Nietzsche to Malwida von Meysenbug, August 27, 1872 (New Style), in Middleton, Christopher, ed. and trans.. Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche (Chicago, 1969), p. 99 Google Scholar. The unpublished fragment in which Nietzsche equates Herzen with himself is quoted in part in ibid., p. 347, n. 243. It is also possible that Nietzsche was influenced by Herzen's From the Other Shore. Note, in particular, Herzen's use of the image of contemporary man as a “bridge” to the man of the future (S togoherega, SS, 6 : 7) and Nietzsche's strikingly similar use of that image (A Iso Sprach Zarathuslra, prologue, sec. 4). For a further consideration of some possible dimensions of Herzen's influence on Nietzsche, see Weidemaier, William Cannon, “Herzen and Nietzsche : A Link in the Rise of Modern Pessimism,” Russian Review. 36. no. 4 (October 1977) : 477–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

84. Albert, Camus, The Rebel, trans. Anthony Bower (New York, 1961), p. 153.Google Scholar