SHESTOV, Leo (Lev Isaákievich Shvartsman). - Russian religious writer, b. in Kiev in 1866, d. in Paris in 1938, where he had emigrated after the revolution.

In the years of exile he wrote his best works, which are cited in the French edition: Les révélations de la mort (Paris 1923); La nuit de Gethsemani (ibid. 1923; Italian trans. Milan 1945); Kierhegaard et la philosophie existentielle (Paris 1936); Athènes et Jérusalem (ibid. 1938; partial Italian trans., ibid. 1943, under the title Il sapere e la libertà); in addition to the essays collected in the volume Le pouvoir des clefs (ibid. 1928).

S. may be defined as a mystical-religious Nietzsche; he sharpens to the point of paradox Dostoevsky's critique of science (v.), Nietzsche's critique of morality (v.) and the Pascalian opposition between the "God of philosophy" and the "God of religious faith." To rational "knowledge" or "speculative philosophy" (which he identifies with "sin" and with "diabolical pride") he opposes "existential philosophy," intimately united with faith, whose truth is not "comprehension" or "evidence," but subjective certainty, "free" from every "logical constraint." He accepts Tertullian's "certum est quia impossibile."

S.'s fideism, despite its religious intensity, denies every rational foundation of faith and the very validity of reason. In this sense it is subjectivism and skepticism (v.), in contrast with Catholic doctrine.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: A. Pastore, Husserl, Heidegger, Chester, in Arch. di filos. ital., 2 (1933), pp. 107-18; B. Fondane, A propos du livre de L. Ch.: Kierhegaard et la philos. exs., in Revue de philos., 37 (1937), p. 381-414; id., L. Ch. et la lutte contre les évidences, in Revue de philos. de la France et de l'Etranger, 126 (1938), pp. 13-50; M. F. Sciacca, La filosofia, oggi, Milano 1945, pp. 336-40.

Michele Federico Sciacca

@incollection{ec11_sestov_leone_lev_isaakievic_sv, author = {Sciacca, Michele Federico}, title = {ŠEstov, leone (lev isaákievič švarcman)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {433}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sestov-leone-lev-isaakievic-svarcman} }

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Shestov, Leo (Lev Isaákievich Shvartsman)

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