The dignity of the „Heart“: The problem of human dignity and recognition in Dostoyevsky’s works

Tamás Barcsi

IN: Partitúra Irodalomtudományi folyóirat, Volume: IX. Issue 2, 2014, p. 51-92., ISSN 1336-7307

DOI: 10.17846/PA.2014.9.2.51-92

In my article I analize the appearance of the problems of human dignity and recognition in Dostoyevsky’s – especially his last period’s – works, using Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. Dostoyevsky’s heroes, who are struggling for the lack of recognition, pursue self-confidence and they show up their peculiarity with the expense of harm of dignity of human prejudice. In Dostoyevsky’s works the respect for human dignity could be linked to the „voice of the heart“, what is the voice of the sense of co-existence in the world. In my study, I compare the interpretation of human dignity in the former sense, with major philosophers’ (eg. Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus) theories related to human dignity.

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