Halli Allgood
Oliver
Philosophy section 13
December 7, 2019
Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy was born September 9, 1828 in Russia. A writer turned philosopher who experienced much loss during his childhood starting with his mother before age 2 to his father, grandmother, and aunt only a few years later. Despite all the loss in his life at a young age he referred to his childhood as idyllic. He wrote Detstvo as a fictional and nostalgic piece about his childhood with is cousin, Tatyana or “Aunt Toinette” as he called her. He is known mostly for his works of “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. He was also known as a moral and religious teacher as one of his later works of nonresistance to evil, influenced Gandhi.
Tolstoy’s philosophy consisted greatly on religion. The religion he focused on was Christianity. Many of his principles consisted of rejection of the church, state, and private property. Though many people adored him for this it got him excommunicated in 1901 from the Russian Holy Synod. He saw religion as a connection to the universe and one couldn’t not go without a connection because that would be like someone living without a heart. In some way, even if they did not know they had a religion they had a connection to the universe. “The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me? ... It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person to exist without a religion than without a heart” (Tolsty 1879).
1828 Began the Tolstoyan movement that was based on the philosophy and religious views of Tolstoy. This movement moved not only through Russia but though all Europe. He felt that it was a mistake to have a movement named after him because he felt that people needed to follow their own principles rather than following his blindly. His views on religion were found in his Sermon of the Mount. In this text is his understanding of what it means to be a Christian which is summed up to five things. First, love your enemies, two, do not be angry, three, do not fight evil with evil (turn the other cheek), four, do not lust, and five, do not take oaths.
Quiz questions:
1. What works are Tolstoy known for?
2. Where did the Tolstoyan movement occur?
3. what are Tolstoy's 5 understandings to be a Christian?
4. what is the name of the fictional novel he wrote about his childhood?
5. Who did Tolstoy inspire?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolstoyan_movement
Posts I commented on:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/12/mackenzie-marsh-final-post-section-12.html?showComment=1575749794695#c6679098108260677497
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/12/12-report-by-victoria-cowan-william.html?showComment=1575750243630#c5437048420997044670
Posts I commented on:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/12/mackenzie-marsh-final-post-section-12.html?showComment=1575749794695#c6679098108260677497
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/12/12-report-by-victoria-cowan-william.html?showComment=1575750243630#c5437048420997044670
I really liked this article overall, because I like the aspect of religion in philosophy since religion in and of itself is a philosophy. Knowing that about Tolstoy made me interested about him as a philosopher which in turn made me even more interested in this piece.
ReplyDelete"It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion" - depends, of course, on how we define religion. Tolstoy was Christian, albeit a heterodox one, so if that's his paradigm definition then he must be claiming that everyone possesses some crucial elements of Christian belief whether they know it or not. That seems highly dubious. But if he just meant "a connection to the universe," well, we definitely all have that, inescapably.
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