Lev Shestov

Lev Isaakovich Shestov (??? ????????? ??????), born Yehuda Leyb Schwarzmann (?????? ???? ????????)) was a Russian - Jewish existentialist philosopher. Born in Kiev (Russian Empire) on January 31 (February 13) 1866, he emigrated to France in 1921, fleeing from the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution. He lived in Paris until his death on November 19 1938.

Influence

Shestov isn't very well known, in fact he is so much as nearly forgotten, even in the academic world. This is partly due to the fact that his works aren't readily available anymore (which has changed with The Lev Shestov homepage), partly also to the specific themes he discusses and the sombre and yet ecstatic atmosphere that permeates his writings, but mostly perhaps to his quasi-nihilistic position and his religious outlook - an unsettling and incongruous combination at first sight.

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He did however influence writers like Albert Camus (who wrote about him in Le Mythe de Sisyphe), Benjamin Fondane (his 'pupil'), and notably Emil Cioran, who writes about Shestov: "He was the philosopher of my generation, which didn't succeed in realizing itself spiritually, but remained nostalgic about such a realization. Shestov has played an important role in my life. He thought rightly that the true problems escape the philosophers. What else do they do but obscuring the real torments of life?" (Emil Cioran: Oeuvres, Gallimard, Paris 1995, p. 1740, my translation.)

Related Topics:
Albert Camus - Emil Cioran

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