Dostoevsky and Arendt on the Crisis of Tradition

Abstract

In this paper, I shall pursue two goals. Firstly, I will demonstrate that H. Arendt's early analysis of the origins of totalitarianism was anticipated in many ways by F. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, specifically Dostoevsky's description of Raskolnikov, who is placed in a marginal position of social isolation as well as deprived of traditional orientation. Raskolnikov's crime follows from an attempt to compensate for this lack of traditional orientation, with speculative rational constructions that provide alternative values and orientation. Arendt's analysis of the origins of totalitarianism, in similar vein to Dostoevsky, is concerned with individuals' isolation from the common sense of a given political community, a common sense that provides orientation and values for every member. Being isolated from common sense (and, consequently, from others) and thus not able to disclose the common world, people are forced to substitute intersubjective disclosure of truth with what she describes as =logicality' of thought, a mere logical consistency, which eventually leads to justifying such phenomena as genocide. Secondly, I shall demonstrate how Arendt's early thought goes beyond Dostoevsky's diagnosis. While Dostoevsky had attained a conservative standpoint stressing the role of a pre-given tradition and religion, Arendt investigates the condition of possibility of the common sense demonstrating that communication among individuals who are capable of accepting other's point of view (-thinking from other fellow's point of view‖) can serve to rebuild common sense