Dostoevsky, Madness, and Religious Fervor: Reason and Its Adversaries

Dostoevsky has frequently been classed as an existentialist or "irrationalist" but these labels imply that his ideas are less coherent and systematic than indeed they are. Dostoevsky is not an irrationalist in the sense that he believes that rational philosophical arguments cannot be made---indeed he values reason---to a point. He can be called an irrationalist only in that he suggests that reason is not useful in answering "ultimate' questions about religion and human nature, both of which are, at their core, beyond reason. He is also acutely aware that reason, followed blindly, frequently leads to the ultimate irrationality. In this dissertation I provide historical-sociological backgrounds of madness and religious fervor---the two key forces of "unreason" in Dostoevsky's works---and explore how these forces function in The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov. I also suggest that Dostoevsky was prescient in recognizing how central these forces are to our society---both in his era and our own.