Death as a problem of the philosophy of G. Hesse and L. N. Tolstoy

Annotation

The purpose of the article is the need to comprehend the perception of death in G. Hesse's novel “The Game of Beads” and the works of L. N. Tolstoy, the story “Three Deaths” and the novel “War and Peace”. The images of the Magician (“The Game of Beads”), Matreshka and Fedor (“Three Deaths”), as well as Platon Karataev (“War and Peace”) are taken for analysis. The necessity to review the philosophical and anthropological perspectives of the thanatology of the selected authors is substantiated and a number of significant conclusions are drawn. Firstly, both writers were significantly influenced by the philosophy of Lao Tzu. At different periods of their lives, both thinkers turned to one of the main sources of Taoist philosophy, the Tao te Ching. Secondly, the perception of death of the chosen thinkers largely overlaps with each other, namely: both Tolstoy and Hesse perceive a person as part of something larger, therefore, dying, he continues to live in other people. The possibility of this succession is largely due to the need and opportunity for a person to pass on wisdom and innermost things to those who will remain after him. Due to the fact that a person passes on the most important things to others, his death does not become a catastrophe, it is rather commonplace and not significant on a global scale. Human death is not a tragedy, but just a part of the natural course of things. In addition, the importance of the unity of man and nature is noted, and hence the perception of death as a primarily natural process. The main methods used in this study are textual, philosophical-anthropological and comparative analyses.

Keywords

• philosophical anthropology
• Hesse
• thanatology
• death
• Tolstoy
• symbolism
• sacrifice
• Taoism
• philosophy of literature
• Lao Tzu
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Contribution of the authors

Kholodnova K. N. – scientific guidance, development of the research concept, substantiation of the purpose of the article, writing a part of the text dedicated to Lev Tolstoy, revision of the text, final conclusions; Erlich M. V. – the idea of the study, writing a part of the text dedicated to G. Hesse, revision of the text; final conclusions.

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