An uncanny dialogue: Lev Shestov’s philosophy as the ‘great art’ of not seeing and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic investigations of the unconscious mind

Abstract

Having become known as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, Lev Shestov (1866–1938) advanced his pioneering ideas in parallel to Freud’s development of psychoanalysis. Originating in his earlier works, his views of philosophy as art and the corresponding idea of the possibility of a fundamental, inner and creative transformation of one’s worldview found its further expression in his mature writings, in which his insight into the nature of other thinkers’ creativity took on a definitively active role in his philosophy. With the focus on the notion of the transformative capability of thought in Shestov’s writing and based on my archival research and translations, in this article, I explore the Kyiv-born philosopher’s ideas in dialogue with Freud’s psychoanalytical theory and in the context of the postmodern view of reality as a symbolical and multifaceted representation.