Episode #220 ... Dostoevsky - Demons

Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This. So today, we're talking about the book Demons. It's one of the five great novels people say you just have to read if you're gonna be reading some Dostoevsky. And as usual, this podcast is gonna be covering the philosophical themes of this book, You know, what Dostoevsky was going for in the context of the thought of his time. What I mean is, this is not intended to be like a book club, where I'm telling you what I think about the book. No. This isn't my opinion about how this character reminds me of my uncle Murray or something. And more than that, this episode isn't intended to be a replacement for actually reading the book. Just feel the need to say that every time as we get started with one of these. Another thing to say here is that this is now the third book from Dostoevsky that we've covered, and notes from underground and crime and punishment will be referenced throughout this entire episode. So just a heads up there. But that said, how do you begin to describe a book like demons? It's one of the most complex books Dostoevsky ever wrote in his lifetime. I mean, there's a lot to this book. It's about 750 pages long. It's full of symbolism. For whatever it's worth, it's the book Nietzsche stumbled upon in a bookstore one day that made him a fan of Dostoevsky as a thinker. I guess I'll try to start this way. Remember how I said that Crime and Punishment may look like one kind of book on the surface, but that it's actually something deeper than that for Dostoevsky. That Crime and Punishment kind of masquerades as a book that's about a guy that murders a couple people, but that the true drama of the book is in his internal experience and his slow, painful coming to terms with his relationship to something greater than himself, and then further finding a way to consent to that fact. Well, if that's what Crime and Punishment is, then Demons by Dostoevsky is a book that masquerades as a political novel. It's a book that seems to be about a group of revolutionaries, bunch of people upset about the state of Russian society. The book then shows them planning and executing acts of political violence where they're ultimately trying to bring about a revolution. That may be what the book looks like on the surface. But in fact, what the book's more about to Dostoevsky, and he wrote this later in a personal letter to a friend about the book. One of the biggest points, he says, is to explore maybe the thing he's wrestled with the most in his entire lifetime, belief or nonbelief in the existence of God. And the way that connects to the political philosophy that's laid out in this book will make a lot more sense by the end of …