Nihilistyczne próby demonizowania natury w twórczości Fiodora Dostojewskiego
The Nihilistic Attempts to Demonize Nature in Fiodor Dostoyevski’s Writing

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article presents Fiodor Dostoyevski’s nihilistic vision of nature and the man’s place in it, with special emphasis placed on the writer’s attempts at demonizing nature. The paper is not meant to be a voice in the discussion concerning the notion of nihilism as such, neither does it discuss all aspects of nihilism in Dostoyevski’s writing. In their attempts at demonizing nature, the nihilist can go two ways. In the first case, the starting point is a mechanistic vision of nature and the acceptance of the absurdity of the situation of a conscious being in a world conceived this way; this causes a reaction of outrage and protest in the nihilist. This protest, in turn, generates a “funny” thought about the demonic character of nature. In the other case, the demonic character of nature is revealed to the nihilist in the act of direct observation; it awakens the feeling of aversion and an attitude of rejection. Such an image of nature is then subjected by the nihilist to rational processing, as a result of which it gains the value of validity and the allure of commonness and openness to the world. It shouldn’t be forgotten, however, that this image is not a product of the so-called natural cognitive powers of the nihilist but of the irrational layer of his personality. The author of the paper points at such attitudes in Dostoyevski’s characters and discusses consequences of adopting them.

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