Why Nietzsche Loved Dostoevsky

Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:

WATCH:

OUR ANALYSES:

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
03:14 A bookshop in France
06:22 Know thyself - or don't
11:16 Ressentiment
16:54 Conclusion

Nietzsche first discovered the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1887. This is relatively late in his intellectual career, yet the Russian writer still had a profound influence on him.

He called Dostoevsky “the only psychologist from whom I had anything to learn” and read a few of his novels in French translation. The very first novel he read was Notes from the Underground, although in a botched, low-quality French translation.
Still, it’s highly likely that Nietzsche got the idea (maybe even the word) of ressentiment from Dostoevsky. This French term appears 4 times in the book that Nietzsche read, and while inklings of the idea were present in earlier works, it was not until the Genealogy of Morals (written in 1887, so the same year as his discovery of Dostoevsky) that the word would take centre stage in his philosophy.

Dostoevsky describes the inner psychology of the Underground Man, touching upon themes of isolation, cognitive dissonance, struggles with nihilism, and most importantly (for Nietzsche) resentment. He describes the man of “heightened consciousness” who does not immediately strike back upon being hit, but plots and thinks and analyses his revenge instead. Out of weakness, perhaps, or simply because he thinks too much about the question of justice.

In any case, this lingering has nasty psychological side effects. Dostoevsky describes this man as a mouse, who hides in his mouse-hole and feasts on his own eternal spite. Over time he might even start to enjoy this wallowing in self-pity.

This describes almost to a T, Nietzsche’s idea of ressentiment. The condition of the slave, who cannot win from his masters (the strong) in the real world and therefore takes recourse in an imaginary revenge. This slave morality would ultimately give birth to Christianity and other so-called Hinterwelt philosophies.

But what Nietzsche admired most was Dostoevsky’s psychological insight into what makes us human. The portrait of the Underground Man is dark and deep, the type of psychology that Nietzsche first envisions in Beyond Good and Evil, the new “crown of the sciences”, a psychology that dares to leave morality behind and venture beyond good and evil.

This video was sponsored by Brilliant.

[Nithin_sp]

Nietzsche is one of many characters in Dostoyevsky's works

[willb]

My heart legitimately skips a beat when I see a new video from you appear on my feed. It’s because of this channel that I decided to dual major in philosophy while I’m in college

[Mnnwer]

Damn I feel kinda bad for Nietzsche never having got to read The Brothers Karamazov.

[texasred]

This channel has gotten me into Nietzsche and Dostoevsky's writing and I am quite appreciative.

[The_Wanderer_And_His_Shadow]

It is interesting, how nowadays, we take for granted these great 19th century works and how easy access is to all the books we want and all the information about the authors, but the people who lived in that time may miss some great pieces of literature or music or art. Recently I've read very nice biography of Nietzsche "I am a dynamite" by Sue Prideaux and there she gives information about how his books were selling during his sane years and usually the copies sold were between 100 to 600... And it makes me think of that how important works can be easily missed by the contemporaries.

[marcpadilla]

I read it. I don't remember reading Dostoevsky's psychological profile of the stories in it. It makes sense now. I somewhat gathered the same impressions from the stories. Stories of disappointment, unrequited love, self sabotage, always building up for the let down as the actual climax. What do you give the man who has everything. Failure. He squanders success for failure.

[alexsveles]

Dostoevsky is not only a incredible writer but has all the qualities of a prophet

[darthJ]

Just the thought that these two intellectual giants were lost in thought at the same time on this same planet and unaware of each other's existence is just mind boggling to me. What an almost surreal time to have been alive.

[paulie]

Great video as always! The passage at 15:50 I think is where their viewpoints differ most drastically. In the Brothers Karamazov, this exact lens of ressentiment could have been placed over the dynamic between Ivan and Aloysha. Dostoevsky instead makes Aloysha 'the hero' of the novel, and Ivan's ideas cause him to descend into despair (presciently mirroring Nietzche).

[mechanicsfield]

Thanks for your great works Weltgeist!

Oswald Spengler was buried with a copy of Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra and a copy of Goethe Faust.

It might really be that Spengler is the one that gave us the key to understand history.

Will be a lot of work...but make a series on Spengler.

[end.olives]

Just to add on the concept of resentment by nietzsche being "stolen" from dostoevisky: he also said that Ralph Waldo Emerson was a sister soul of his, and if you read him you find that many of the ideas are the same. And one of those ideas is that: whatever one can grasp on the thoughts of others were already his thoughts from the beginning. Also relates to the old buddhist writtings, and i find it a very wholesome thing that they all sort of tie together. One cannot steal from the mind of others the same way one cannot be but himself. In every copy the thief leaves his trademark, and a keen eye can see that the copy is nothing but a copy, thus the phrase " to immitate is suicide".

[bertalanfabian]

Insanely good as always. Thank you for the great work

[jmiller]

Fantastic video. As a reader and fan (but not follower) of Nietzsche, and a reader and fan of Dostoevsky, I had still never heard about the French mashup book that introduced N to D's writings. Well done, Sir!

[im_not_political]

Just discovered your channel and falling in love with your content - especially this video

That said, it would be very helpful if you were to make more playlists for your channel, specifically to subdivide your analyses of specific books by Nietzsche (Antichrist, Ecce Homo, etc) to make them easier to follow

Other than that, thank you!

[xelldincht]

It's quite interesting that both came up with the concept of the Übermensch ("extraordinary' people" in the case of C&P) independently but both have opposite views on that. What a shame both never got the chance to discuss this

[perkinscurry]

Thanks for another interesting and insightful video. Just one minor correction (I think). I believe it's more properly "Notes from Underground" without the "the". "THE Underground" has the implication a political movement that I don't think was intended.

[markoslavicek]

How do we make sense of Dostoevsky's religious undertones and Nietzsche's disdain for them? Would he change his mind about Dostoevsky if he read Brothers Karamazov as he eventually changed his opinion on Wagner upon seeing some of his later operas?

[raskolnikov]

Interesting. Love the accompanying images in this video. Beautifully done. Imagine if he would read Karamazov Brothers…

[PastPresentFutureWorld]

The meaning of life is what we make it. Spread love, always.

[alecmisra]

That was very interesting indeed. I always felt notes from (the) underground was inspired by Gogol's diary of a madman, though it is a quite differnt work.

Crime and Punishment (which you may cover later) in a sense affirms Nietzsche's view which is that going "beyond good and evil" (ruthless pursuit of an ideal) is harder than it seems, since it triggers all sorts of innate and ingrained psychological reactions. N would have agreed with this analysis. Interestingly Raskolnikov's model was Napoleon, yet R is merely a tawdry figure who fails right from the start. Again, the "higher man" is rarer and harder than it seems.

As a final point Nietzsche"s later views on Christ (as the holy fool), which you may also cover later, seem to have been influenced by his reading of the Idiot.