Dostoevskij and Camus [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The growth of science and industrialization in the modern age has opened to man immense possibilities not only for making his life physically and materially comfortable, but for expanding his knowledge of himself on every level. Yet the very increase of these possibilities seemed to have deprived man of his spiritual security and a sense of unity. A sense of security may be created within the framework of society by a recognition of one's position and obligation, within the historical framework, it is created by the sense of continuity of generations and traditions, within the famliy by a sense of belonging and the emotion, of love and being loved. Some unified philosophical basis is often needed for a sense of stability on the psychological or intellectual levels. In the past, when traditions were seldom questioned. Western man lived in a much more secure universe, unified in each age by secular, religious or cultural synthesis. In a time when man lives by an authoritative tradition or religion, his place and destiny are rather clearly defined within that structure, and his identity is not in doubt. Even if he is intensely concerned with the problem of his inner self, as was, for example, St. Augustine, even if he is willing to struggle with existential problems and to face the paradoxes of his relationship to the universe, he will, in the end, resolve his struggle by an appeal to metaphysical authority, to an abstract and universal concept of the dignity of man or to the importance of a secular cause. Yet with the advance of science, as man ventured to conquer nature or at least steal her secrets for his own advancement, at the time when man sought to understand himself and the structure of the socio-political framework better, ironically the very