Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/293

Rh In his conception of revolution and in his condemnation of the revolutionary movement, Solov'ev agreed with Dostoevskii, taking from that author his analysis and his estimate of the revolution, of nihilism, and of atheism. Just like Dostoevskii, Solov'ev had at first enthusiastically accepted nihilism. In his school days he had been an "iconoclast," and on one occasion had thrown out of the window the icons before which he had been accustomed to pray.

The essence of the moral decay of Europe and Russia, the essence of "secularisation," is discerned by Solov'ev as by Dostoevskii in atheism, in the turning away from God, in godlessness, which manifests itself as modern subjectivism and individualism, as the doctrine of the superman.

It was from Dostoevskii that Solov'ev took his philosophy of atheism, which, to put the matter shortly, was that atheism, as subjectivism and individualism, leads to murder or to suicide.

Solov'ev adduced, in addition the spread of criminality, the increasing frequency of suicide and mental disorder, as symptoms and consequences of moral decadence. He was especially interested in the study of suicide, his attention having been directed to the matter by Schopenhauer and Hartmann. He began his Ethics by enquiring what was the essential nature of suicide. He considered that suicide afforded proof that there are men, serious-minded men, who take their lives deliberately, fully responsible for what they are doing, actuated by disillusionment or despair, and thus give expression to their conviction that life is void of meaning. These practical pessimists impress Solov'ev's imagination more than do the theoretical pessimists, more than those who continue to cling to life despite all their reasoning concerning its futility; it is the existence of the former which induces him to give the leading place in his philosophy to ethics as the doctrine of the meaning of life. God is, and God furnishes, the meaning of life. Theism gives meaning and value to life, whereas atheism deprives life of meaning and value; atheism is death, and the atheist becomes a murderer or a suicide.

In his analysis of Dostoevskii, Solov'ev accepts this formula and develops it as follows.

A man who bases his right to change the world upon his wickedness and unreason is essentially a murderer; he will employ force against others, and will himself ultimately perish through force. He considers himself strong, but is in the