In Week 5 of our class, our main focus will be on Lev Shestov, an important member of what we can call the "second wave" of Existentialist thinkers. This second wave started in the early 20th century and included a number of thinkers who were aware of the importance of the thought of the first generation, and who saw some common connections, themes, or approaches. In the case of Shestov, he was already noting and exploring connections between the thought of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche (as well as other authors such as Henrick Ibsen, Leo Tolstoy, and Anton Chehkov). He would discover Kierkegaard later on in life, and embrace (as well as criticize) his thought as well.

Technically speaking, Shestov is a philosopher, but he has also been called an "anti-philosopher" by some of his interpreters. His work is inherently anti-systematic and brutally insightful about the various philosophical and cultural movements of his time. He is at the same time a thoughtful skeptic, an insightful cultural critic, and a fideistic religious believe. Like Nietzsche, he does not consider himself bound to maintain perfect consistency between his thoughts and statements, and he is uninterested in creating one new philosophical system to add to the current lot. He is intensely interested in the interconnections between philosophy and life, and is willing to engage in a great experiment of tracing out new paths for philosophy.

We will be discussing the following texts (which you'll find in the module "PDFs of Course Texts"):

• All Things Are Possible

Some of the key ideas we will be examining together are:

• Skepticism towards philosophical systems
• Confines of logic and morality
• Interpretations of previous existentialist authors
• The implications of the absurd
• Creativity and authentic existence
• Whether we can grasp ultimate realities