The philosophical problem in Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'

Abstract

Crime and Punishment may be regarded as a grim, and thoroughly modern, dramatization of the Hellenic ideal of self-knowledge. But during the centuries separating Dostoevsky from Plato this ideal of self-knowledge had undergone a sardonic sea-change: Porfiry' s method of interrogation recalls the Socratic dialogue in many ways, but the resemblance is essentially superficial. A new and demonic note informs the cut-and-thrust of Porfiry's arguments, and impurity of motive energizes his ruthless shredding of Raskolnikov's psychological defences. His interrogation is no disinterested investigation of the truth: Nietzsche was the faithful pupil of Dostoevsky in his recognition of intellectual rigour as the spiritualization of the sadistic nerve