Hope Manacled by Uncertainty. Around Lev Shestov's Thought

Abstract

HOPE MANACLED BY UNCERTAINTY

AROUND LEV SHESTOV’S THOUGHT

In this article, the author aimed to emphasize the problem of human hope regarding Lev Shestov’s existential reflection on human fate, God and the world’s destiny, keeping in mind the Russian soul of the philosopher. Hope which is found in the truths based on contradictions. As they are not abstract, polished truths of the reason, but existential truths subject to special rules. Namely, the ones lying beyond the sphere of certainty of our existence. In this sense, it is obvious that the thinker requires an impossible thing from philosophy - to state with the language of science about something which is not philosophy. Shestov is considered as the one „thinking beyond logic and philosophy”, and thereby he is placed in real opposition to the guild of academic philosophers. For them, as declared rationalists, Shestov’s „thinking beyond thinking” meant uncertainty and insecurity. Paradoxically, it is there, in the „chaos” of lack of speculative solutions, in the terrifying existence of Hiob and the like, Shestov finds the way of hope to find the eternal truth leading us to the gate of salvation.

Key words: 

Hope, uncertainty, mystery, paradox, truth, philosophy, knowledge, system, existence, God, rationalism, irrationalism, possible, impossible, metaphysics, idealism, materialism.