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.

Penultimate Words

But despair is not the last word, it is only the 'penultimate word'. The last word can't be said in human language, can't be captured in theory. His philosophy begins with despair, his whole thinking is desperate, but Shestov tries to point to something beyond despair - and beyond philosophy.

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This is what he calls 'faith': not a belief, not a certainty, but another way of thinking that arises in the midst of the deepest doubt and insecurity. It is the experience that everything is possible (Dostoevsky), that the opposite of Necessity is not chance or accident, but possibility, that there does exist a freedom without boundaries, without walls or borders. Shestov never affirms that life is meaningful, that there is 'light beyond the curtain'. He even doesn't contradict that 'every struggle brings defeat'. But Shestov maintains that we should continue to struggle, to fight against Fate and Necessity, even when a successful outcome is not guaranteed. Exactly at the moment that all the oracles remain silent, we should listen very carefully, because at that moment we could hear something very important which we have failed to hear before.

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