The Situation of Human Being in Nature According to Fedor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, and Robert Musil: A Paradoxical Builder, Self-Enhancing Being and Speaking-Animal

In Calley A. Hornbuckle, Jadwiga S. Smith & William S. Smith (eds.), Phenomenology of the Object and Human Positioning: Human, Non-Human and Posthuman. Springer Verlag. pp. 235-247 (2021)
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Abstract

Dostoyevsky explained how human being could be the builder who has the power to destroy everything-that-is. Thomas Mann unveiled the deep influence of the unconscious as well as the subconscious: both components of human psyche must be taken into account, when exploring the mystery of human being. Robert Musil’s literary works focused on commonalities between animals and human beings, that is, their similar instincts. Musil was promoting a new morals, as it is grounded on instinctive life. Dostoyevsky, Mann and Musil agreed that human being is prone to consider himself/herself as an infinite being. Firstly, human being destroys Nature and justifies himself/herself through technocratic, anthropometric, and anthropocentric worldviews. Secondly, human beings forget the situation of nonhuman beings and put the emphasis on their privileged position in the Cosmos. Thirdly, human being looks at language as the supreme quality of living beings and makes human language the ultimate parameter for any other form of language. The way those three aspects of human being and existence are idolized strengthens a mindset focusing on the infinite character of humankind, when compared with the situation of nonhuman beings.

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