All Things Are Possible and Penultimates Words and Other Essays

by Lev Shestov

This Animus Classics edition compiles some of the most important writings of the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov (1866-1938). It consists of the book All Things are Possible (also known as The Apotheosis of Groundlessness ) as well as a selection of four Anton Tchekhov (Creation from the Void) , The Gift of Prophecy , Penultimate Words and The Theory of Knowledge. Shestov was one of the most influential Russian thinkers of the early 20th century, with authors such as D. H. Lawrence (who also wrote the foreward to All Things are Possible , contained in this volume) and Georges Bataille citing him as a major inspiration.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

239 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Lev Isaakovich Shestov (Russian: Лев Исаа́кович Шесто́в), born Yehuda Leyb Schwarzmann (Russian: Иегуда Лейб Шварцман), variously known as Leon Shestov, Léon Chestov, Leo Shestov.

A Ukrainian/Russian existentialist philosopher. Born in Kiev (Russian Empire). He emigrated to France in 1921, fleeing from the aftermath of the October Revolution. He lived in Paris until his death.

Reviews

[Andrew]

We don't think much about Russian philosophy in the West. It doesn't fit into any of the neat traditions we've cleaved philosophical thought into... existentialist, analytical, continental, French, German, Anglophone, and so forth. But so much of Western thought has been derived from Shestov without us Occidentals knowing it. Here we have a radical empiricist, nihilist, Nietzschean, Kierkegaardian-mystic, Slavophile, proto-existentialist, anti-Kantian thinker who integrates literary theory and philosophy in an aphoristic style, and who went on to inspire Camus, Deleuze, Dostoyevsky, D.H. Lawrence, Cioran, and Bataille. Whoa!

The cherry on top: that aphoristic style makes it intensely pleasurable to read, which is a bonus given the heavy, Russian attitude.

[abdalmalik rezeski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. I am only in the first pages. However: A must read for philosophers and thinkers.

Quote from first pages: "The comfortable settled man says to himself: 'How could one live without being sure of the morrow; how could one sleep without a roof over one's head?' But misfortune turns him out of house and home. He must perforce sleep under a hedge. He cannot rest, he is full of terrors. There may be wild beasts, fellow tramps. But in the long run he gets used to it. He will trust himself to chance, live like a tramp, and sleep his sleep in a ditch."

Or, even more wonderful:

"A writer, particularly a young and inexperienced writer, feels himself under an obligation to give his reader the fullest answers to all possible questions. Conscience will not let him shut his eyes to tormenting problems, and so he begins to speak of "first and ultimate things." As he cannot say anything profitable on such subjects--for it is not the business of the young to be profoundly philosophical--he grows excited, he shouts himself to hoarseness. In the end he is silent from exhaustion. And then, if his words have had any success with the public, he is astonished to find that he has become a prophet. Whereupon, if he be an average sort of person, he is filled with an insatiable desire to preserve his influence till the end of his days. But if he be more sensitive or gifted than usual, he begins to despise the crowd for its vulgar credulity, and himself for having posed in the stupid and disgraceful character of a clown of lofty ideas."

[Floris Meertens]

(Over de uitgave Uren met Sjestow, een Nederlandstalige bloemlezing van essays)

Sjestow zet zichzelf af tegen vrijwel alle wijsbegeerte, en kiest voor het irrationele. Hij beticht Spinoza ervan de filosofie definitief te hebben gedegradeerd tot een slaafse navolging van de ratio. Op zoektocht naar een ander antwoord dan de kille gedecideerdheid en ogenschijnlijke zekerheid van deze ratio, vindt hij Kierkegaard en Dostojewski. Daar bouwt hij op verder, en komt nog extremer uit de hoek.

Kern van het verhaal is dat de filosofische traditie van Plato en Aristoteles voortkomt uit verwondering. Ze stonden versteld van het mysterie van het bestaan. (Ik zou zelf zeggen dat de hedendaagse filosofie ook veel van die verwondering heeft verloren en nu een minder nederige houding aanneemt). Kierkegaard daarentegen begint vanuit de wanhoop. Filosofie is een kwestie van leven en dood, betekenis en betekenisloosheid.

Elk essay is eigenzinnig en uiterst emotioneel. En aanwezig ik een voorspelbaar wezen ben, ben ik er weg van. Niet altijd snap ik de denktrant helemaal, maar de kritische houding tegenover de hoogmoedige ratio vind ik verfrissend. Filosofie op zijn menselijkst.

[Agostinho Paulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listening to Librevox audiobook copy YouTube suggested me while I was deep in work for a whole week straight. I don't like audiobooks, specially if I haven't read the piece first, which is the case here. So I listened to this one thrice in the course of the week just because I enjoyed it.