Lev Shestov

Also known as Lev Isaakovich Shestov

Russian existentialist philosopher (1866 – 1938)

Person · Open Library

Born: 1866
Died: 1938
Works: 106

Top works

Nachala i kont︠s︡y
Shekspir i ego kritik Brandes
Dostoevskiĭ i Nitshe
Kierkegaard et la philosophie existentielle
Le Pouvoir des clefs

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Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Country: UA

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 3
Total plays: 19

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Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Thought and language.
· 1962 · cited 6,753x
Single Molecule Detection Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)
· 1997 · cited 6,175x
A ceRNA Hypothesis: The Rosetta Stone of a Hidden RNA Language?
· 2011 · cited 5,964x
Theory of Bose-Einstein condensation in trapped gases
· 1999 · cited 4,885x
Metabolic regulation of gene expression by histone lactylation
· 2019 · cited 3,537x

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Quotes

“What can be more terrible than not to know whether one is alive or dead? “Justice” should insist that this knowledge or this ignorance should be the prerogative of every human being. p. 3”
“Suppose Euripides is right, and that indeed no one can be sure whether life is not death and death life; can this truth ever become certain? If all men daily repeated Euripides’ words when they got up and when they went to bed, they would remain as strange and as problematic as on the day when the poet first heard them in the depths of his soul. P. 6”
“There are no ideals exalting the soul, but only chains, invisible indeed, but binding man more securely than iron. And no act of heroism, no “good work” can open the doors to man’s “perpetual confinement”. Dostoievsky’s barrack vows of “improvement” now appeared to him as a sacrilege. He experience which he underwent was much the same as Luther’s when he remembered with such unfeigned horror and disgust the vows which he had pronounced on entering the convent. P. 10”
“Plato, too, knew the “underground”, but her called it a “cave” and created his splendid world-famous myth in which men were likened to prisoners in a cave. But he did it in such a way that no one thought of calling Plato’s cave “underground” nor calling Plato himself a sickly, abnormal being, one of those for whom normal men have to invent theories, treatments, etc. p. 13”
“When he was in the settlement Dostoievsky was already especially attracted by these resolute men whom no obstacle could turn from their purpose. He tried by every means in his power to understand their psychology, but he did not succeed. P. 19”
“Directly Kant hears the word “law” pronounced he takes his hat off; he neither wishes nor dares to dispute. He who says “law” says “power”; he who says “power” says “submission” – for man’s supreme virtue is to submit himself. P. 23”

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Key facts

Born: Yeguda Lev Shvartsman , ( 1866-02-05 ) February 5, 1866, Kiev , Kiev Governorate , Russian Empire , (now Kyiv , Ukraine )
Died: November 19, 1938 (1938-11-19) (aged 72), Paris , France
Era: 20th-century philosophy
Region: Russian philosophy , Western philosophy
School: Christian existentialism
Main interests: Theology , nihilism
Notable ideas: Despair as "the penultimate word"

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Si Léon Chestov noong 1927.jpg

Show 6 more facts

date of death: 1938-11-19
date of birth: 1866-00-00
Commons category: Lev Shestov
Commons gallery: Lev Shestov
name in native language: Лев Исаакович Шестов
birth name: Ієгуда Лейб Шварцман

Sources (4)

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~20 min read

Article

Lev Isaakovich Shestov (Russian: Лев Исаакович Шестов; 5 February [O.S. 24 January] 1866 – 19 November 1938), born Yeguda Lev Shvartsman (Russian: Иегуда Лейб Шварцман), was a Russian existentialist and religious philosopher. He is best known for his critiques of both philosophical rationalism and positivism. His work advocated a movement beyond reason and metaphysics, arguing that these are incapable of conclusively establishing truth about ultimate problems, including the nature of God or existence. Contemporary scholars have associated his work with the label "anti-philosophy."

Shestov wrote extensively on philosophers such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, as well as Russian writers such as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. His published books include Apotheosis of Groundlessness (1905) and his magnum opus Athens and Jerusalem (1930–37). After emigrating to France in 1921, he befriended and influenced thinkers such as Edmund Husserl, Benjamin Fondane, Rachel Bespaloff, and Georges Bataille. He lived in Paris until his death in 1938.