of course you know that Nietzsche was
the philosopher who announced the death
of God right and who was a great great
critic of Christianity at vicious critic
of institutional Christianity in the
best sense you know and he announced the
death of God and he said that we'd never
find enough water to wash away the blood
it wasn't a triumphant Proclamation even
though it's often read that way
and those niches conclusion from that
from the death of God the fact that our
ethical systems were going to collapse
when the foundation was pulled out from
underneath him he believed that human
beings would have to find their own
values to create their own values and
there's a problem with that because it
doesn't seem this is something Carl Jung
was very thorough in investigating it
doesn't really look like people are
capable of creating their own values
because you're not really capable of
molding yourself just any old way you
want to be like you have a nature that
you have to contend with and so it isn't
a matter of creating our own values
because we don't have that capacity it
might be a matter of rediscovering those
values which is what Jung was attempting
to do no and and and so I think
Nietzsche was actually profoundly wrong
in that in that recommendation I think
he was psychologically wrong now you
know Dostoevsky wrote in many ways in
parallel to Nietzsche was a great
influence on Nietzsche their lives
parallel each other to a degree that's
somewhat miraculous since in some sense
it's it's quite uncanny Dostoyevsky was
obviously a literary figure well whereas
Nietzsche was a philosopher a literary
philosopher but still a philosopher and
Dostoyevsky wrestled with exactly the
same problems that that Nietzsche
wrestled with and but he did it in a
different way
he literary manner and he has this great
book and The Brothers Karamazov and in
that book there's a hero of the book is
really a lyosha who's a monastic
novitiate a very good guy
kind of not an intellect not an
intellect but a person of great
character you know but he has a brother
Ivan who's his older brother who's a
great intellect and and a very handsome
soldier and a brave man and like
Dostoyevsky's villains Ivan isn't
exactly a villain but that's close
enough
Ivan or Dostoevsky makes his villains
extraordinarily powerful so if
Dostoyevsky's trying to work out an
argument he he clothes the argument in
in the flesh of one of his characters
and if it's an argument he doesn't agree
with and he makes that character as
strong as he possibly can as strong and
as attractive and intelligent as he
possibly can and then he lets him just
have out her and so Ivan is constantly
attacking Elly OSHA and from every
direction trying to knock him off his
perch of faith let's say and elosha
Alyosha can't address a single one of
Ivan's criticisms and and he doesn't
have the intellect for it and and and
Ivan has a devastating intellect it's
devastating to him himself as well what
happens in the brothers karamazov
essentially is that the Alyosha
continues to act out his commitment to
the good let's say and in that manner
he's triumphant it doesn't matter that
he loses the arguments because the
arguments aren't exactly the point the
arguments in some sense are a side issue
because the issue is and this is the
existential issue the issue is not what
you believe as if it's a set of facts
but how you conduct yourself in the
world and so Dostoyevsky he grasped that
and it's one of the things that makes
him such a an amazing amazing literary
figure an amazing genius because he was
smart enough to to formulate the
arguments in a manner that no one else
really could with the possible exception
of Nietzsche and that's quite an
exception and yet he could still using
his dramatic embodiment he could still
lay out solutions to the problems that
he was describing that are extremely
compelling and both crime and punishment
which is a amazing thrilling engrossing
book and The Brothers Karamazov all of
Dostoyevsky's great books really
circulate around around those profound
moral issues and so I've learned a
tremendous amount from reading him
you
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