Guignon on Self-Surrender and Homelessness in Dostoevsky and Heidegger

Abstract

Charles Guignon’s work on Dostoevsky and much of his writing on Heidegger addresses the experience of homelessness and how it flows out of the modern configuration of the self. Using Guignon’s work as a point of reference, this paper draw connections between Dostoevsky and Heidegger regarding their critique of the modern self. The aim is to show how both thinkers point to the importance of recovering the indigenous values of a homeland for a sense of belongingness and moral orientation. For Dostoevsky this involves retrieving the values of the Eastern Church and the Greek notion of kenosis (‘self-emptying’) that can release us from selfishness and pride so that we can perform selfless acts of love in the image of Christ. And, although his conception of historical recovery is more nuanced and largely stripped of its religious context, there is an analogous theme found in Heidegger’s later writings on Gelassenheit (‘letting-be’). Both notions cultivate an attitude of shared humility and moral rootedness and can serve as a powerful corrective to the uprooted egoism that prevails today.KeywordsAuthenticityEgoismModernityNihilismDostoevskyHeidegger