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With Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophy was dangerous not only for philosophers but for everyone. His ideas presaged a collective madness that had horrific consequences in Europe in the early 1900s. Though his philosophy is more one of aphorisms than a system, it is brilliant, persuasive, and incisive. His major concept is the will to power, which he saw as the basic impulse for all our acts. Christianity he saw as a subtle perversion of this concept, thus Nietzsche's famous pronouncement, "God is dead."

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One of the two major philosophical traditions of the twentieth century was linguistic analysis, derived largely from Wittgenstein. The other, diametrically opposed, came from Heidegger, and its fundamental question was, "What is the meaning of existence?" For Heidegger, this question could not simply be "analyzed away". It was beyond the reach of logic or reason. It was the primary "given" of every individual life. To confront it, Heidegger needed to develop an entire new form of philosophy.

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Kierkegaard wasn't really a philosopher in the academic sense. Yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. His subject was the individual and his or her existence, the "existing being." In Kierkegaard's view, this purely subjective entity lay beyond the reach of reason, logic, philosophical systems, theology, or even "the pretenses of psychology." Nonetheless, it was the source of all these subjects. The branch of philosophy to which Kierkegaard gave birth has come to be known as existentialism.

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  • Sartre in 90 Minutes

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During his lifetime, Jean-Paul Sartre enjoyed unprecedented popularity for a philosopher, due partly to his role as a spokesman for existentialism at the opportune moment, when this set of ideas filled the spiritual gap left amidst the ruins of World War II. Existentialism was a philosophy of action and showed the ultimate freedom of the individual. In Sartre's hands, it became a revolt against European bourgeois values.

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Rene Descartes spent most of his childhood in solitude, a situation that also came to characterize his adult life. Fortunately, these countless lonely hours helped Descartes produce the declaration that changed all philosophy: "I think, therefore I am." Eventually convincing himself to doubt and disregard sensory knowledge, Descartes found he could prove his existence through his thoughts. This internal information, he believed, was the true reality and external forces were hopelessly deceiving.

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In Rousseau we encounter a walking ego, naked sensibility. Feeling triumphs over intellectual argument in his works, which are both deeply stirring and deeply inconsistent. Yet while his contemporaries Kant and Hume may have been superior academic philosophers, the sheer power of Rousseau's ideas was unequaled in his time. It was he who encouraged the introduction of both liberty and irrationality into the public domain.

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Publisher's Summary

After narrowly avoiding a firing squad when he was just twenty-eight years old, Dostoevsky never took things lightly. His great novels burst upon the European literary scene like a succession of thunderbolts. His understanding of the darker and more extreme recesses of the human mind cast a forceful light into these areas of experience. The raw psychology and passionate involvement of his books galvanized writers and thinkers as disparate as Nietzsche and Kafka.

In Dostoevsky in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Dostoevsky's life and ideas and explains their influence on literature and on man's struggle to understand his place in the world. The book also includes selections from Dostoevsky's writings, a list of his chief works in English translation, a chronology of Dostoevsky's life and times, and recommended reading for those who wish to delve deeper.
©2004 Paul Strathern (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

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loved it!

Great overview of Dostoyevsky's life and works. The reader captures the tone of Dostoyevsky's atmospheric works

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  • Cam
  • Mirabel, Qc
  • 04-04-13

Appetizer!

What made the experience of listening to Dostoevsky in 90 Minutes the most enjoyable?

I listened to this between Boston and Montreal, rolling between the mountains of New Hampshire guiding 80,000 lbs on my fingertips and the time flew by. This brief history of Dostoevsky,s life and writings just wet my appetite for more. So from Dostoevsky to Gogol, to Tolstoy, it's going to be many hours of interesting listening. Paul Strathern covered everything I need to know and won't hesitate to purchase others in this series.
Robert Whitfield is clear and animated.