Nikolai Chernyshevski is a revolutionary Democrat, materialist philosopher, writer, critic and literary critic.
Chinese name: Nikolai Chernyshevski
Place of birth: saratov.
Date of birth:1July 24th, 828.
Date of death:1889 65438+1October 29th.
Occupation: literary critic
Graduate School: Department of Literature and History, St. Petersburg University
Representative work: "What should I do? 》; Aesthetic relationship between art and reality
Gender: male
character introduction
Nikolai Chernyshevski, whose Russian name is николайгавриловиче. Chernyshevski. He is the second generation Russian revolutionary soldier who stepped onto the historical stage after the noble revolutionist, that is, the most outstanding representative of the civilian intellectual revolutionist. Lenin praised him as a "young helmsman in the future storm", and plekhanov compared him to Russian Prometheus.
The life of the character
Nikolai Chernyshevski was born in July 1828 in a pastor's family in saratov. /kloc-entered the department of literature and history of Petersburg university at the age of 0/8. From then on, he often approached Petrashevski Group, an advanced intellectual group, devoted himself to studying Hegel's idealism philosophy and Feuerbach's materialism philosophy, and also had a strong interest in French utopian socialism. 1850 graduated from university, and returned to saratov the following year to teach Chinese in middle schools and publicize progressive ideas. 1853 After her marriage, Chernyshevski returned to Petersburg and became a contributor to two progressive magazines, The Chronicle of the Motherland and Modern People. 1855 published a famous paper "The Aesthetic Relationship between Art and Reality". This paper boldly challenges Hegel's idealistic aesthetics and puts forward the definition of "beauty is life". 1856, Klassov went abroad for medical treatment. He edited Modern People magazine, making it a powerful position to publicize revolutionary ideas. In the winter of the same year, he began to publish a paper "Overview of Russian Literature in the Period of Nikolai Nikolai Gogol", which systematically discussed the development of Russian literary criticism. 1862, Chernyshevski was arrested by the czar government and put into Peter Paul fortress. 1864 was sentenced to seven years of hard labor and exiled to Siberia for life. Not afraid of imprisonment and exile, he wrote many excellent works full of revolutionary passion, such as "What should I do? ? "(1862- 1863)" prelude "(1867- 1869). 1883 is allowed to live in astrakhan. 1889 to allow him to go back to his hometown. Suffering from torture, he died in June 5438+the same year 10.
biographical notes
1828 was born in a pastor's family in saratov on July 24th, and 1889 10 died in the same place on October 29th.
1846 entered the department of literature and history of St. Petersburg university. Initially influenced by Hegel's idealism philosophy, he turned to Feuerbach's materialism philosophy and was keen on humanism.
1848, I met Peter la Schelsky, a group of members who held a negative position on serfdom, and began to read the works of French philosophers and utopian socialists.
1850 graduated from university. I returned to my hometown the following year and worked as a Chinese teacher in a middle school.
1853 married the daughter of a local doctor. In the same year, he moved to St. Petersburg and began to write his dissertation "The Aesthetic Relationship between Art and Reality". Later, he took part in the editorial work of Modern People magazine hosted by Necrasov. 1854 published a collection of Fu Deyev's novellas "On Sincerity in Criticism", commented on ostrovsky's comedy "Poverty is not a Crime", and emphasized the ideological and tendentious significance of literary works.
1855 defense thesis, published his masterpiece "Introduction to Russian Literature in the Period of Nikolai Nikolai Gogol". From 65438 to 0856, he presided over Modern People magazine, making it a forum for spreading revolutionary ideas. During this period, he published Lessing, his times, his life and activities, and articles about Pushkin, Tolstoy, Schederin, ostrovsky and Turgenev. At the same time, he also wrote many works on philosophy, history and economics, such as Critique of Philosophical Prejudice on Commune Ownership, Capital and Labor, and Principles of Humanism in Philosophy. These works are basically based on the universal theory of human nature, but what they see is that "man is the representative of a certain class" and "philosopher is the representative of a certain political party".
1859, he secretly went to London, England, to discuss with herzen who lived there the problem of opposing the rule of the czar. 186 1 published The Beauty of Debate, which refuted the attack of liberal scholars on the book The Principles of Humanism in Philosophy.
1862 The peasant uprising that swept through Russia was suppressed. In June of the same year, Modern People was ordered to stop publishing for eight months. On July 7, he was arrested and put in a cell in Fort Peter Paul. During his 678 days in prison, he persisted in the struggle and used all possible means to write. The novel "What should I do? It was done here.
While serving his sentence in the fortress prison, Peter Paul also wrote a novel, a novel in a novel, an unfinished novella, Arfilli Yev, and some short stories. None of them were published and later became known. After two years of imprisonment, the czar government could not find any evidence of the crime, so it had to take perjury, forcibly sentenced to seven years of hard labor, deprived of all property and exiled to Siberia for life.
1in may, 864, he was taken to the metnin square in St. Petersburg for public display and sentenced to cruel suspended animation. In July, he was exiled to Irkutsk salt field to do hard labor, and in August, he was transferred to Cadahia mine. Two years later, he was taken to the studio in Alexandria. After the expiration of seven years of hard labor, his hard labor period was extended and he was transferred to Yakutia and Viliuyisk, where he continued to be exiled for 2 1 year. During his long exile, he continued to write many novels and articles, among which only the novel Preface (1867 ~ 1869) survived. It depicts the Russian social struggle on the eve of serfdom reform, and depicts the images of revolutionary democrats-vulcan and Levich.
1883 was allowed to live in astrakhan for health reasons, and he wrote articles such as Recalling the Relationship between Turgenev and Dobro Lyubov and Characteristics of Human Knowledge. June 1889 was allowed to return to his hometown of saratov. Four months later, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Literary achievements
theory of literature and art
As a revolutionary Democrat, Chernyshevski's achievements in literary theory are groundbreaking. The book Aesthetic Relationship between Art and Reality inherits and develops belinsky's literary viewpoint, criticizes the idealistic aesthetics of Hegelian school prevailing at that time, and puts forward the definition of "beauty is life". It is believed that beauty is not subjective and spontaneous, but realistic. People's social status and living environment are different, and their understanding of life and concept of beauty are also different. He emphasized the cognitive and educational functions of literature and art, and resolutely opposed "art for art's sake". The main tasks of literature and art are to "reproduce life" and "judge life"; The highest purpose of literature and art is to become a textbook of life. He believes that the characteristic of art is "not an abstract concept, but a living fact to express ideas", and the book also has some biases, such as insufficient attention to the value of artistic beauty. Another paper, A Survey of Russian Literature in the Period of Nikolai Nikolai Gogol, systematically discusses the changes and development of Russian literary criticism, refutes the criticism of Nikolai Nikolai Gogol School by liberal scholars, and thinks that Nikolai Nikolai Gogol is the first person to write along the "critical tendency"; Ostrovsky, Grigorovic, Turgenev and Tolstoy gave a positive evaluation and incisive analysis of their creative ideas and artistic achievements.
Novel creation
Chernyshevski's major achievement in literary creation is the novel What to Do? This work is an outstanding masterpiece of Russian realistic literature in the19th century. The story revolves around three lines: free labor, women's liberation and secret revolutionary activities. It is pointed out that only struggle can change people's bad luck, and the "fiancee" is used as a metaphor for revolution. The hero Rakhmetov embodies the characteristics of Russian revolutionary democrats. He traveled all over Russia, got close to the people, worked as a lumberjack, sawworker, stonemason and tracker, and finally became a professional revolutionary and a "special person". I'd rather live a very simple life in order to exercise my revolutionary will and devote myself to my ideals. The novel expresses the new idea of women's liberation and free love through the love triangle between Vera, a new woman who longs for freedom and independence, and Ropov and Gilchad Novo, a common intellectual. Through Vera's new sewing workshop and her four dreams, she promoted utopian socialism. Novel structure is novel and unique, narrative is often accompanied by political narrative, and metaphors and hints are often used to express a new generation of revolutionary activities. After the novel was published, it aroused widespread repercussions in Russia and many other countries, and educated generations of young people and revolutionaries.
Philosophical thinking
Chernyshevski inherited and developed the thoughts of Russian revolutionary democrats belinsky and herzen, and was deeply influenced by Feuerbach. He believed that Feuerbach's works played a decisive role in the formation of his world outlook, and he still claimed to be a faithful follower of Feuerbach until his later years. Chernyshevski adhered to the basic position of materialism and solved the relationship between thinking and existence, spirit and matter according to Feuerbach's philosophy. In his view, the world is unified, "everything that exists is material"; All things and phenomena in nature are unified forms of material existence, and their similarity lies in that they are all material. He resolutely opposes dualism in philosophy and denies the existence of any "spiritual entity" that does not depend on matter and nature. Based on natural science, especially physiological materials, he proved that there is only one unified nature, and pointed out that two different phenomena in human body, the so-called material phenomenon and the so-called moral phenomenon, are not contradictory to the unity of human nature. Everything that happens and shows in the human body is carried out according to his true nature. Chernyshevski regards natural science as the basis of that part of philosophy that studies human problems, and thinks that people seen by philosophy are the same as those seen by medicine, physiology and chemistry. On this basis, he put forward the humanistic principle in philosophy. His theory has played a certain role in refuting idealism and dualism, but it cannot clarify the relationship between the development of human consciousness and the historical practice of human society and scientifically explain the social essence of human beings. Lenin pointed out that the "humanism" advocated by Feuerbach and Chernyshevski is narrow, and it is only an inaccurate and superficial expression of materialism.
Philosophical theory
Chernyshevski criticized Kant's agnosticism and subjectivism from the viewpoint of materialism. He is convinced that human beings have the ability to know the world, and all objects and their properties in nature can be known. With the development of science and the passage of time, people can recognize those aspects that have not been fully exposed by historical movements and ignored by us in many objects. He has been exposed to the role of practice in cognition and thinks that practice is an extremely important criterion for judging all controversial points in science, but his understanding of practice has not completely got rid of the limitations of old materialism. Chernyshevski resolutely refuted the subjective interpretation of knowledge. He emphasized the objectivity of the laws of nature, acknowledged the objective causality and inevitability of nature, and thought that the laws of human understanding and thinking were not only subjective, but reflected the real existence form of objects. He profoundly exposed the harm of Kantianism and various positivism to the development of science.
Chernyshevski's materialist philosophy basically belongs to Feuerbach stage, but he attaches importance to dialectics. Chernyshevski, like Feuerbach, sharply criticized Hegel's idealism mistakes, but did not abandon dialectics like Feuerbach, but fully affirmed the great contribution of Hegel's dialectics to the development of philosophy. He thinks Hegel's principle is powerful and broad, but the conclusion is narrow and small. In his view, the essence of dialectical method is to observe the object from all aspects and explore the truth from the struggle of various opposing opinions. He believes that there is no abstract truth, and the truth is always concrete. Everything depends on the situation and the conditions of place and time. Only by examining all the circumstances arising from a particular fact can we make a positive judgment on this fact. He explained some natural phenomena and historical events from a dialectical point of view, pointing out that the development of nature and history is carried out by denying the old form and by leap and qualitative change. However, he did not thoroughly implement dialectics. For example, he proposed another method in economic research, the so-called "hypothesis method". This "hypothetical method" requires putting aside all specific historical situations and conditions, simplifying the problem as much as possible and thinking abstractly. This method runs counter to the concreteness of truth required by dialectics, so that his theory itself contains contradictions.
Aesthetic ethics
Chernyshevski creatively applied Feuerbach's materialist philosophy to aesthetics and ethics. He criticized the idealistic essence of Hegel's theory that "beauty is an idea" and put forward the important proposition that "beauty is life", and thought that "everything that can be seen in it should live like this according to people's understanding; Anything that shows life or reminds us of life is beautiful. " On the basic aesthetic issue of the relationship between art and reality, he insists that real life is higher than art, and the purpose and essence of art is to reproduce life. In ethics, Chernyshevski believes that human nature is neither good nor evil, but becomes good or evil because of different environments. He believes that the decisive factor that dominates people's behavior motivation lies in interests. How to do something that is more enjoyable and more in line with one's own interests, people will do it, and the starting point is to give up smaller interests or satisfaction in order to obtain greater interests or satisfaction. He advocates "reasonable egoism", based on a correct understanding of individual interests, and emphasizes that the overall interests are higher than local interests, and the interests of all mankind are higher than everything else.
Political Views
Chernyshevski was a staunch rebel of the czar's feudal absolutism and serfdom. From the standpoint of revolutionary Democrats, he called it a "scandal" and resolutely opposed bourgeois liberals to compromise and surrender to the czar system. He called on the peasant masses to "take up the axe" to overthrow the rule of the tsar and the decadent serfdom, and seize the land for free by revolutionary means. Lenin said that Chernyshevski's works smelled of class struggle, and fully affirmed his historical achievements in exposing and criticizing the betrayal of liberals. Chernyshevski is also a profound critic of the capitalist system and "one of the earliest socialists in Russia". He opened fire on the capitalist exploitation system and advocated socialism based on large-scale machine production. However, what he preached was still utopian socialism. He fantasized about the transition to socialism through the old peasant village cooperatives, and thought that the special road of Russian development could avoid capitalism and confuse the peasant democratic revolution with the socialist revolution. This made him one of the founders of Russian populism. These erroneous views negatively hindered the development of Russian revolution and the spread of Marxism in the future.
Chernyshevski's view of social history contains materialism, but he is still a historical idealist. He did not understand the decisive role of material lifestyle in social life, but regarded knowledge as the basic force to promote historical progress. In particular, he regards eternal humanity as the highest standard to measure everything, and thinks that the material and moral conditions of human life dominate the economic laws of social lifestyle, and the purpose of people's research is to clarify the degree to which they adapt to the requirements of "humanity". This view of historical idealism made him never overcome the fundamental defects of the old materialists. Lenin pointed out that due to the backwardness of Russian life, Chernyshevski did not rise to the level of dialectical materialism, and it is impossible to do so.