Fyodor Dostoevsky | Notes From the Underground | Existentialist Philosophy & Literature 

Dostoyevksy is by far my favorite author and psychologist of all time. Even Einstein said "I get more from reading Dostoyevsky than from any scientist" and I think he truly is one of the greatest intellectuals of all time, right up there with Pascal..I've been looking for a lecture to listen to and this one is perfect. thanks!

Dostoyevsky:“Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I'm human” Very informative lecture! Thank you!

"To be a hero or to grovel in the mud - there was nothing in between."

John Travolta does a great job in this!

I always love finding out you've done a video on a book I just finished. Your lectures are great and the selection of them greatly influences my reading list.

I asked about more Dostoevsky on your Grand Inquisitor video and you said you were planning this. Thanks for posting these by the way, I'm steadily making my way through all your videos and reading the texts. I think its really awesome that you're offering all of this on RU-vid for free. Much appreciated.

Nice video, I greatly appreciated you fleshing out some of the ideas. Particularly enjoyed the Platonic observation about consciousness and punishment; that a conscious/intellectual undergoes punishment by recognizing their wrong. It puts one in mind of that great Defeo line 'In trouble to be troubled, is to have your trouble doubled ....'for to sink under trouble is double the weight, and he that will dye in it shall die in it.' In many ways, I think that what happens in this book. Troubles consume the character. He is aware of himself but as an intellectual recognizes the repellent nature of his existence. I think this connects to your idea of a disconnect; his inability to reconcile his idealized self with reality. He cannot cope with this imbalance and projects his problems onto others and works against his self-interest. By accepting the company of the prostitute into his life would have been to admit his weakness and pathetic existence. Doing so would have started a process of reconciliation of those two worlds and would begin his walk out of the underground and back into the light. When he gives the prostitute a five-ruble note he extinguishes any hope of salvation. It is an act that maliciously and intentionally labels her a whore, even though she has witnessed his soul and shared an experience that transcended a paid service into something real and tangible. He permanently offends an intentionally alienates the one person who could have made him a better person and brought him from the underground. In this action, Dostoevsky's suspicion of Enlightenment values is starkly presented , a man has worked against his self-interest when the greatest thing of interest was at stake: his soul.

Yep -- translation always involves interpretation. And with someone like Dostoevsky, its going to be more than just stylistic divergences.

Your lectures never disappoint. Thanks for making these!

The first video of yours that I have watched, back in 2014. Also, the third educational video on RU-vid that I've watched overall (the first two were lectures by Irwin Weil, also on Dostoevsky), discovering how educational and good RU-vid can be. It's easier to watch videos than read, and when you want to relax it's great to have this content so you can do so in a meaningful way.

Ah, I've been looking forward to this!

Thanks a lot for sharing this, Greg.

Have you ever thought of making these lectures into podcasts as well as videos? A small part of me really wants to hear these lectures on the go.

I've very glad it was helpful for you -- and also glad to read that not only are you interested in Dostoyevsky, but that you have someone like your dad who is also so interested in him. You're welcome!

Always appreciate those who post lectures as I am too unhealthy to go to college right now and this gives me the stress free environment to learn when I can! Thank you!

Aha! That's what comes of letting too much time on my part pass between recording and uploading these lectures -- missing those connections. I'm glad you like them. At least with the Existentialism vids, I'm actually starting to experiment with a new platform -- Learnist, which might be better for adding in all sorts of additional materials.

Badass exploration of the underground man, wish my professor had the chance to cover in so much detail!

i always thought that what is lacked in education is an honest presentation of the great works. it's very nice that you are trying to introduce these works in a somewhat bigger audience :) i have seen only the beginning of this video, although i watched yesterday the ones you made about kafka, and his story "metamorphosis". i am writting because you mentioned in the beginning that -dostoyefski isn't necessarily identical to the character he portrays at the basement, and camu isn't necessarily the hero at "the stranger", rather (if i understood correctly) they are vessels whith which they can explore a certain (existentialist) point of view. i think that you are correct in that they use characters that can help them discover- express, but i think that both of the authors characters are very much found (at least a great part) in those stories. Camu in his work "the stranger" is picturing an illness that is pretty common but rarely spoken of because of it's confussing nature, depersonalization. it is an illness that can change the way of perceiving the world and of yourself, thous trigering solitude, strange behaviour, and generally an altered and negative view of the world and yourself. "the stranger" by camu is a kind of flag for those suffering from that, like is dostoyefski's "the double"(i hope it's called the double in english:)). anyway your videos are great, and it makes me feel like i do something of value, instead of just serfing in the net.:)

wonderful work!!

Just ordered this book on Audible. Thanks for breaking it down a bit and turning me, for one, on to it. Interesting video.

Great lecture! I enjoy your material. Very inspiring and clear. Which translation of this book are you reading from?

I finished all my philosophy major courses just under two years ago, and you were a great help. Now I'm almost done my second major (liberal arts). We're currently at the "fin-de-siecle" doing dostoevsky. Feels good to be watching your videos again and I hope I'll be watching more to finish the 20th century classes! :) I know we're doing Derrida and Foucault. Oh, and we're starting Nietzsche next week.

your lectures are all incredible I watch them for fun :)

Excellent lecture! I feel I have gained a bit more understanding (no pun intended) on this important piece of existentialist literature. Thanks.

Well. . . there's lots of youtube to mp3 converter programs out there. I'm not sure whether the lectures will transfer over well without a chalkboard and my gestures

Not yet. Right now, its either recommendations from their fellow students or their advisors, or they look me up on RateMyProfessor. They're pretty happy to have the videos, though

You're very welcome -- book reading groups are a great way to work through Dostoevsky, I think.

A good question. I'll have to think about that a bit -- what would be good secondary literature. I'd say this -- some of the existentialists do discuss the other, often earlier existentialists. Shestov, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Camus in particular do that

I was born and raised in the US but I'm of Russian heritage. As I've become older I've come to appreciate and love Russian Literature; Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov, etc. I finished Notes From the Underground this morning and found this lecture invaluable. Thank you Prof. Sadler!

I'm glad to read that -- but how did you know it was coming? Just too big of an existentialist piece for me to avoid entirely?

Yes, the Underground man, and his emphasis on rationaleless whim, is a theme running through Dostoyevsky's thought.

By far my favourite writer. I have read Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and this. I'm just about to start The Possessed (Demons). I love these discussions thanks you so much for the uploads!!

Excellent, thank you.

I'm very pleased to see that we are on the same page. TODOROV wrote his Lecture/Intro to the French Bilingual Edition IN FRENCH. You will find it most stimulating. OH! I've just noticed that a dramatic adaptation has been made of... THE GRAND INQUISITOR, with John GIELGUD being the bad evil Catholic Dominican guy in this fully justified denunciation of the Western Catholicism of the time (what one stands for, then, becomes the question). GOD BLESS, PhRR.

Well, at the very least some handouts and pages of useful links. Perhaps some overviews of the texts -- the sorts of things that for my college students I build into our course management system course shells

Thanks for the lecture just finished the book. Surprised this lecture came out when I was just 11

You're welcome

It's striking how disimilar different translations of Dostoyevksi are! I'm compelled to read this translation now.

thanks for this video it help me so much in my paper

I have noticed different interpretations of the title. Some use "The Underground," while others use just "Underground," as in "Notes From Underground." Is there any difference between Underground and The Underground?

Love you for your work

great video

Where I'm currently teaching, just Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics. I've taught about 20 or so different courses over my career so far. You can find my CV on my academia.edu page or on my main blog, Orexis Dianoeike

Yep, I've read Bakhtin's work on Dostoevsky, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't mind structuralists, actually, and I'll check out Todorov's translation sometime. I don't read Russian, but I read and translate French

Thank you Greg for this contribution!! Envious of your chalkboard ;-) Great contribution sir!! 5:49, 8:24-9:47 [genius!!], 16:34, 19:23 [symbolic interaction not insecurity], 21:47 [immoralist], [24:11 I would have liked to hear you discuss this idea a bit more] 26:35!!! [Genius], 29:17 [sublime is technical jargon glad to hear that], 32:12 [the sublime aufhebung is of critical importance], 36:00 [the sublime is "no ordinary disgrace"], 52:23 Nice!! [Reason as Nymph], 53:39, 57:08!!!!

great video as always. But do you consider the underground man as an ''absurd hero'' in Camus's terms maybe?

What kind of materials do you have in mind?

Could you tell me the name of that Greek historian which you mentioned earlier on in the lecture. Cheers

The sound is really low... can you increase the volume?

Could you post some stuff on Post-modern philosophy eventually?

Awesome channel

Yes, he is certainly one of the greats. The Idiot doesn't seem to get as much attention -- but I certainly enjoyed that one myself. You're very welcome. I should be shooting some more Dostoevsky vids later on this semester (hopefully)

Hahaha! Well, unfortunately, it's not my chalkboard, but rather Marist College's -- and over the last summer, when classes were pretty thin on campus, I could shoot whenever I'd get on campus. Marist has excellent enrollment, which means all across campus, almost every chalkboard is in use from 8-9 -- just a small window on Wednesdays. I took for granted that luxury of a good chalkboard! Thanks for these detailed time-notes! So, the different types of reading? Maybe another vid is neded

I'll just have to take your word for that, I suppose

Well, the Dostoevsky will keep you working and thinking for years -- which is great. He's woven all sorts of interesting philosophical discussions, problems, arguments, etc. into his works and characters. Yep, I'm familiar with the dialogue, and with the dilemma. Why?

also when Dostoevsky was in prison, he wrote so-called "Siberian writing-book" Сибирская Тетрадь (i don't know exactly how it's written in translation)! he wrote down his thoughts, prison songs and proverbs in this book! so "Siberian writing-book" became the main material for creation of "Notes from underground"!

I always assumed Underground Man was Dostoevsky, to a large degree. Now that I'm finishing Brothers Karamazov, I'm forced to come to terms with how impossibly adept he was at writing convincingly from others perspectives. Like an out of body experience... Anyway, thanks. This was a good listen having read the book.

GREETINGS PROFESSOR! It will be an honor for me to listen to your lecture. If you read French and Russian, I recommend to you a BILINGUAL French Edition where your Bulgarian colleague Tzvetan TODOROV not only translates from Russian to French, but provides an excellent lecture-introduction to the work (where he is not being structuralist at all). YOU ARE RIGHT, the subterranean man is NOT F.M.D.. BAKHTINE analyses the author's POLYPHONY. I look forward to follow your lecture. PhRR.

The idea that "in Russia there are no fools" and that the Russian romantic/intellectual never forgets the main "prize" aka an apartment, an easy job seems very interesting. Pushkin was kind of like that =)). In a way the underground man is the only fool in Russia

can someone explain to me what is existentialism and what is the difference between exist. and nihilism? is existentialism form of nihilism? they say it's similar but it doesn't sound similar to me. so what is what?

Sadler, see if this is correct-- I'm beginning my studies of Dostoevsky now ("The Brothers"). Doestoevsky is writing to the Russian middle class in their "vernacular." He is the ultimate imposter. His novel "The Double" indicates this quite well. It's a major theme in all his novels. He is writing the the Russian middle class in order to convince them of "other" things. Things quite opposite of faith, God, the church, history, laws, economic conditions, society as it is known. Freedom as an absolute seems to be the only motivation. Diversity without unity. Liberty without law. Doing without direction or restraint. There is no moral or natural law. Man defines himself.

Much better than Peterson. You're great. Congrats!

we did on later videos. This one, no

Hi, I'm surprised you didn't mention the underground mans age ?? "Anyon who lives past 40 is selfish" right? Gr8 job my friend God Bless.

desire and reason don't often go together....that is for sure

The Underground Man sounds like a perfect example of an INTP personality.

Thanks a lot for the lecture! The only thing that bothered me a little was that the type of courage claimed by the Underground Man was not the courage to discuss his cowardice but the courage to ignore scientific truth (the stone wall) that supposedly proves the pointless of all virtues, facing which "l'homme de la nature et la vérité" crumbles. He seems to be saying he would rather live in an ethical word of illusion by rejecting nihilism, even if it's scientifically "proven", rather than living in a hell-hole where one drop of one's own fat is worth a thousand lives of others. I don't know why he thinks atheism has to lead to destruction instead of altruistic socialism, but all his ramblings about the impossibility of bettering himself suggest that people are inherently evil (or "sinful" in his mindset) so that there's no redemption without a savior.

Hahaha! I must be fortunate. It's not from years of clean living or consistent exercise

interesting lecture, but if you decided to discuss this book, you have to consider some factors, historical and biographical ones! (actually as well as any other book) nevertheless it's necessary to consider the time which this book has been written in! what kind of thoughts and mainstream of those days has influence on it!

Have you ever had students ever say they took your class because they saw you videos on RU-vid?

Well, my own view is that it ends up being a false dilemma, once you actually start thinking through traditional monotheistic understandings of God, where the goodness of things does reside in them, but also flows from the divine nature. Not to say that there aren't plenty of Jews/Christians/Muslims who don't adopt a very "voluntarist" position -- things are good just because God says so, etc. And plenty who would set up some moral standards first, and then try to squeeze God into them!

I suppose since I'm older than 40. Hahah!

Good content. Would greatly appreciate a refresh though if possible. Audio doesn't hold up too well and would enjoy hearing a fresh take as well.

'they'll pop you in the face": Except in California, because of its harsh laws. Fun fact.

10:39, No, not fear. SHAME. This is a book of shame, and obviously, like most of us, we either deny it or cant or want to recognise it because SHAME is too painful to even admit, because that in of itself is.... shameful.

I think Chekhov was the most existentialist of all the Russian authors.

Six years late. It may be a more modern interpretation. Or maybe I am projecting... but I cannot take the UM's ramblings at face value, to me they seem more to be excuses than actual reasons for his behavior and situation.

Това не е точно изповед. На ман ми звучи, като самоанализ, вид психологическа терапия. Мисля, че по този начин е търсил образа на поредния герой за следваща книга. Иначе лекцията ви е добра и дава доста хляб за размисъл.