F.M. Dostoevsky and L. Feuerbach: on possible source of Dostoevsky's dialogism

In the article the question of a possible influence of Feuerbach'sphilosophy on Dostoevsky is considered. The writer was acquainted with Feuerbach's works since he participated in Petrashevsky'sCircle. The ideas of the German thinker who considers Christianity in terms of atheism are definitely the object of polemic forDostoevsky. But this polemic is very interesting and passionate. Many motifs of Dostoevsky's writings spring from the context ofphilosopher's works, foremost, from his famous book Das Wesen des Christenthums. In the novel The Brothers Karamazov Alexey andIvan Karamazov ponder over the thought that God created man in his own image. In the philosophical context of the 19th century thisidea is undoubtedly associated with Feuerbach's Das Wesen des Christenthums. In the article it is shown that Dostoevsky's motif of thechild's teardrop may go back to this book. The German thinker quotes Luther's ideas on Psalm 55 (56 in the Slavic Bible), which tellsthat God counts every human teardrop. This image is secondary in the Holy Bible, but in Feuerbach's work it is as expressive as inDostoevsky's novel. Ivan Karamazov speaking about child's teardrop is associated with Luther. The incident when Ivan Karamazovthrows a glass in the devil reminds the famous event when Luther threw an ink pot in the devil. The association of Ivan with Luther mayarise through Feuerbach's work. The question of influence of the German philosopher on the Russian writer is important becauseFeuerbach was among the first to raise the problem ''You'' and is considered a precursor of the dialogue philosophy. In the articleFeuerbach's phrase ''A human for a human is God'' is compared with evangelical and Dostoevsky's principle ''Treat others the way Godtreats you''. The difference between these models is described. The basis of Dostoevsky's dialogism is a fundamental difference of thepowers of I and The Other, the active dialogue position of The Other. In Feuerbach's works ''You'' is only an objectivization of I.Feuerbach also thinks that ''You'' in self-consciousness is a representative of a kin. This aspect of Feuerbach's philosophy can becompared to ''Belkin's'' conventional model of interrelation with The Other, which Dostoevsky considered as an essential discovery inPushkin's prose since Poor Folk. In this model a person arranges life in the horizon of an authoritative anonymous Other. When a humanperforms acts s/he accounts for possible assessment by people around. M.M. Bakhtin defines this model as ''biographical''. Feuerbachtogether with Pushkin could be one of the stimuli in the history of Dostoevsky's dialogism formation.

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