Religion, Revolution and the Person

3 Credits

What does it mean to be a ‘person’? How does the person relate to other people, to society, and to God? Some of the greatest writers, philosophers, poets, and artists of the Russian nineteenth century considered the questions of the revolutionary transformation of society and the restoration of faith from the standpoint of the individual person. For them, not just philosophy, but also literature, poetry, and visual art were paths to understanding the self and its purpose in the world. By considering questions of identity and appearance, activism and contemplation, reason and irrationality through seemingly prosaic themes such as fingernails, overcoats, and simple arithmetic, this course will reveal a variety of perspectives of the nature and value of human personality and ask students to reflect on their own approach to the person in the modern age and in relation to Western tradition.