Cornerstone To Rodya And Nietzsche's Theories example essay topic

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "Dostoevsky, the only one who has taught me anything about psychology". The two writers share many similarities and differences. Dostoevsky clearly had an effect on the thinking of Nietzsche. The two would be considered both philosophers and psychologists. Both writers became prominent in the late 19th century in Germany and Russia respectively. Dostoevsky was noted for his Russian literary classics and would be responsible for a flowering of late 19th century Russian literary culture.

His Russian contemporaries include Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Dostoevsky's most famous works include The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. Nietzsche is most famous for his philosophical works such as thus spoke Zarathustra. The two writers have many similarities in their philosophy. They both see a changing role in religion. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky also differ sharply on some other aspects of life.

One of these being the differing views on the role of the fatherland. Nietzsche's beyond good and evil and Dostoevsky's crime and punishment are two works that can be compared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities of the two geniuses. The two men offer great insights in these books on morality and the affect it can have on the actions of the individual and the society as a whole. Dostoevsky's crime and punishment, is set in Tsarist Russia in the 19th century.

Rodya Raskolnikov, the main character, is a student at a University in St. Petersburg. By the early stages of the novel, he has dropped out of school and is left in his one room shanty, to ponder his own philosophical questions. He is poor, hungry and desperate for money. He begins to sell some of his possessions to a pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, to gain money for his basic survival. He begins to see the poverty and desperation of St. Petersburg at this time. Rodya would begin to look at Alyona as a source of this problem.

Alyona, in Rodya's eyes, was profiting off of the poverty and misery of others by buying off their possession at unreasonably low prices. She would then horde the money for herself while the people outside of her own apartment starved to death. Raskolnikov decides to murder the pawnbroker for the sake of humanity. His plan is not deeply thought out in advance and it runs into trouble when Lizaveta, Alyona's sister walks in. Rodya has to take the irrevocable step of murdering her. Originally, just Alyona is to be murdered and the she would be robbed.

The reasons for this will be explained later in the following sections of the novel and this essay. Rodya has now committed the terrible deed of murder. He now begins to try to reason out the murder through philosophy. This philosophy he uses would be considered very Nietzschean by any standards. While sorting out the ins and outs of why he has done this, he falls into a catatonic sickness. For days the only person to visit him is his fellow student Razumihin.

Rodya, in and out of consciousness, mutters things about the murder. No one, however, can understand what he is saying. Eventually, Rodya comes to and is forced to go to the police chief, Porfiry. Porfiry would prove to be a worthy adversary for Rodya and would be instrumental in Rodya's later admission of guilt. He would begin to suspect Rodya almost immediately through his own pure instinct. At this point in the story there is no evidence that points to Raskolnikov as being the assailant.

The novel begins to slow down in pace at this time. New characters are introduced and subplots begin to develop. These subplots include Rodya's sister, Dounia and her attempt at marriage with a rich senator named Luzhin. Dounia had worked for a friend of Luzhin, Marfa Petrovna. Marfa was a rich woman who owned an estate.

Dounia was a domestic servant on the estate. Living there also was Svidrigailov, Marfa's husband. They were married because Marfa saved this man from people he owed money to. The marriage was not based on love but rather this special deal that Marfa had struck up. Svidrigailov would make advances at Dounia frequently and one day Marfa had come upon him doing this in the garden.

Marfa, however, believed it was Dounia's fault and she was fired and was made into a public disgrace. When the events showed it was Svidrigailov faults, Marfa would apologize and to sweeten the deal she would marry Luzhin, a rich and powerful man. Luzhin agreed to this consortium because it would put him in control of Dounia. She would look to him as her savior and would be at his mercy economically.

This would not come to be. Dounia would be given money by a deceased Marfa. On top of this, Svidrigailov would offer her a large amount of rubles not to marry Luzhin. Svidrigailov had ulterior motives for this, as one shall see later. The most disapproving of the marriage would be Rodya. He saw the union between his sister and Luzhin as an attempt by Luzhin to control her.

Rodya also believed she was sacrificing her life to help strengthen the economic situation within the Raskolnikov family. Rodya didn't want the money of Luzhin to grant his way through college. Rodya would meet Luzhin, Razumihin, Dounia and Rodya's mother. At this meeting Rodya would show his disapproval and insult of Luzhin. Dounia would agree with Rodya's analysis and break off the marriage.

The next major character in the story would be the exact opposite of Nietzsche's superman, Sonya. Sonia is a destitute woman living with an adopted family in St. Petersburg. She turns to prostitution to earn extra money for the family. Rodya would meet her when a horse drawn carriage kills Sonya's guardian father. Rodya donates the last of his money to Sonia's family for a funeral. Sonia and her "mother" see Rodya as an angel sent from heaven to help them.

Rodya would grow close to Sonia and eventually they would begin to fall in love. Sonia is also responsible for the conversion of Rodya form atheism to Christianity. The tow would argue about her existence of god, cornerstone to Rodya and Nietzsche's theories. Rodya would convert would she read him the story of Lazarus.

Rodya would feel compelled to confess his crimes to the girl. Rodya got a reaction he didn't expect from Sonia. She didn't become disgusted with him as he expected. She instead professed her love for Rodya and told him to repent.

Sonia tells Rodya to repent before god and the people of Russia he has sinned against. She proscribes an exact description of what Rodya should do on page 314:" Stand up! Go at once, this very minute, stand at the crossroads, bow down, first kiss the earth, which you have defiled and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer!' then god will send you life again. Will you go? Will you go?" She convinces Rodya she will follow her love to the end of the earth to be with him, this would include Siberia, the place of his imprisonment. At this point in the story, Rodya decides it is time to give himself up.

In the meantime, Porfiry, the detective, has been hounding Rodya in belief he is the murderer. His nephew, Razumihin, cannot even comprehend the notion. Porfiry relies on his instinct to decipher whether or not the suspect is guilty. On the first meeting between Porfiry and Rodya, Porfiry lays the heat on thick when Rodya only wants to retrieve his pledges from the deceased pawnbroker. Rodya had been sick and delirious the days following the crime and it is almost as is Porfiry sensed this in Rodya and began the attack. The two would exchange philosophical arguments as the days progressed towards Rodya's confession.

The day before Rodya would confess Porfiry would share some shocking news. "No, it was you, you Radian Romanov itch, and no one else". This is the stinging indictment Porfiry gave Rodya without any solid evidence. Porfiry says this after an overzealous man has already confessed to the crime.

Porfiry knows Nikolai, the man who had confessed, was lying. Nikolai confessed because he is a devout Christian who needed to confess to something to purge himself of all impurities. Rodya is shocked at this point. There is no evidence to even suggest that Rodya has committed the crime except for his inner guilt and his confession to Sonia.

Porfiry begs Rodya to surrender immediately to lessen his sentence. It is clear only to three people of Rodya's inner suffering: Rodya, Sonia, and the brilliant detective Porfiry. By the end Rodya turns himself in to Porfiry. He has second thoughts about doing it. He sees that Sonia is with him a few steps behind watching his every move to insure he will go through with his confession. "It was I who killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister, Lizaveta, with an axe and robbed them".

With that confession Rodya was sentenced to a lenient seven years of hard labor in Siberia. In Siberia he would be picked on and beaten for his standoffish intellectual. However, he did have Sonia by his side as she made good her promise to follow him to Siberia. Raskolnikov original motives for killing the pawnbroker were beyond good and evil.

The term beyond good and evil would be central to Friedrich Nietzsche's book. Rodya would prove to be at times very nietzschesque, while at other times his weaknesses would have made even Nietzsche convulse. Central to Nietzsche's philosophy is the concept of the superman of over man. The superman is one who is not constrained to the morals set by society. The superman makes his own morals and values. The only set morality for the over man would be the doctrine of will to power.

Nietzsche discusses the concept of will to power frequently in beyond good and evil. The will to power is the source of life according to Nietzsche. Self-preservation is second to the will to power as virtue of prowess. In section 13 of beyond good and evil, Nietzsche writes; "a living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength- - life itself is will to power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results". For Nietzsche the will to power is life and the driving force behind all actions. With the dawn of this concept, acts that were once viewed as holy or charitable could now be called disgusting and loathsome.

For example, pope urban II calls for the first crusade in 1905. Was this a holy act of retaking the lands of Christian heritage of an attempt to extend papal authority for Urbans own personal use? The will to power would say urban II calling of the first crusade was purely an extension of Urbans own will to power. Rodya would also exhibit his will to power in the novel, crime and punishment. Dostoevsky would masterfully write the psychology of man whose power was his intellect and agitation for social and political change. Rodya's will to power is his intellect.

He was a brilliant college student in St. Petersburg before his money ran out. He was a man who could change the world, he could help the poor masses of mother Russia, and he would have an impact similar to napoleons. This was at least the outlook of Rodya, maybe even his close friend Razumihin or his mother. Rodya needed money to continue on.

He could have received financial assistance from Luzhin if he allowed the marriage between the two to go through. Rodya was too proud to do so and he would not allow his sister to make such a sacrifice for him. Rodya would turn to his own philosophy to help him survive through the winter. The philosophy of the axe is where Rodya would head. Rodya's idea of a superman had been brewing in his head for quite a long time. It appears in the story that Raskolnikov wrote an article in college about how superior men were above the law and could commit atrocities for the advancement of society.

Porfiry, the detective, comes across this article and the two debate the validity of this philosophy. On page 211 Rodya perfectly sums up his idea about crime and what Nietzsche would come to call the superman: "The only difference is that I do not contend that extraordinary people are always bound to commit breaches of morals, as you call it. In fact, I doubt whether such an argument could be published. I simply hinted that an "extraordinary" man as the right... not the official right, but an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep... certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps of benefit to the whole of humanity)". Rodya would also give examples of people who have in the past overstepped the moral boundary of society to better humanity as a whole: "Then, I remember, I maintain in my article that all... well, legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, solon, Mahomet, napoleon and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed-often of innocent person fighting bravely in defense of their ancient law-were of use to their cause. It's remarkable, in fact.

That the majority, indeed, of these benefactors and leaders of humanity were guilty of terrible carnage". Rodya's philosophy is very much like Nietzsche in this respect. For both Rodya and Friedrich, they see the will to power, the will to create a new law, a new world order, much more important than self-preservation. History provides hundreds of martyrs who prove that the will to power is the driving force behind life.

For example, Jesus allowed himself, without resistance to roman authority, to be crucified for the sins of humanity. He was Nietzsche's superman. He put his own will to power ahead of the need for self-preservation. Jesus is Rodya's superman because bloodshed occurred to create a better, more holy society. Rodya would tell Sonia that he wanted to be napoleon. He viewed killing the pawnbroker as ridding the world of an old, useless wretch.

What may have been the cause for Rodya's uncontrollable guilt was his slaughter of Lizaveta, the innocent sister of the pawnbroker. She was a holy woman who was friends with Sonia. This act was inexcusable to Rodya. His theory of himself being a superman went down the tubes and so did his hope of living a life without repaying his sins. Nietzsche world have probably laughed at Rodya's attempt to be a superman. Rodya had his goal, he had found his will to power and he failed.

Rodya may have made a difference but when he fell into the trap of Christian morality he fumbled and fell. This is a stumbling point between Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. Dostoevsky appears to praise the simple folk. He glorifies the role of the simple, pious Russian peasant. Nietzsche looks to the superman as the great person of society.

For Nietzsche, piety is not the heroic means to achieve change. Dostoevsky exalts Sonia. He praises the actions of a god-fearing prostitute who is able to break Rodya's will to power. She is most responsible for seeing that Rodya turns himself in. Nietzsche is not one to cozy up to external prohibitions. Rodya follows some of these external laws when he looks to societal, governmental laws instead of his own morality.

If Rodya had continued to follow his own morality he could have considered himself (and Nietzsche would have also) a true superman. Nietzsches book, beyond good and evil is broken into several chapters, each pertaining to a different topic. Each is a criticism to a problem in society at the time of Nietzsche's existence. Nietzsche was never one to shy away from criticizing himself (see Nietzsches Ecce Homo), his friends (see Nietzsche contra Wagner), or philosophers in general. The first chapter of beyond good and evil, appropriately named the prejudices of philosophers", deals with the problems philosophers encounter and the error in the way they deal with these problems. Nietzsche would have delivered a harsh criticism of Rodya in the novel, crime and punishment.

Nietzsche deals with the dual concepts of truth and knowledge in beyond good and evil. He believes that truth is unattainable, and knowledge cannot exist; only understanding exists. Nietzsche hates closing a door on a subject, he is a philosopher who will take an established, well-liked belief and rip into it with his philosophical fangs so to speak. To door never closes on understanding. He believes that you can never fully understand a certain subject and then claim you have final knowledge. This is something churches and organized religions attempt to do and this is why the brunt of Nietzsches attacks fall on the church.

Anyone who claims to be infallible is ignorant and disgusting in the eyes of Nietzsche. Rodya may have been guilty of having these preconceived notions about his crime and what he could achieve with killing Alyona the pawnbroker. Rodya believes that Alyona is worthless, that her existence is only parasitic and thus she should be destroyed. Alyona was partially responsible for Rodya's miser.

He had to sell some very important items to make ends meet. Rodya would see the watch his father gave him to obtain some money to eat with. Rodya believed on the other hand that he was righteous. Rodya had helped Sonia's surrogate family bury the deceased father who had been killed in a horse and buggy accident.

Rodya was much more valuable to society than Alyona had ever been. Of course Rodya felt guilty after murdering Lizaveta who was an 'innocent' person. Would the superman have let this get in the way of his progress? It is debatable whether or not Nietzsche would have agreed with the killing of Lizaveta but it is conceivable that Lizaveta was an obstacle impeding the way of the superman. However, Rodya does not take into consideration that perhaps Alyona is fulfilling a purpose on earth.

Rodya takes what Nietzsche calls in section 19, "a popular prejudice and exaggerating it". Rodya makes Alyona out to be someone who is proud of the fact she takes money from the poor to help feed her self. Rodya paints the portrait of an old woman, hoarding the riches of St. Petersburg's lower classes. Rodya claims to know the ultimate truth about Lizaveta. Truth is something that is always to be held in perspective to the person judging the "truth". Nietzsche consistently criticizes those who claim to know the truth.

Nietzsche critiques the Stoics in section 9. Nietzsche stings the stoics for narrowing down the truth in to small maxims. Nothing is that simple to the point where you could write it in one sentence or even a paper. Rodya attempts to write his truth about certain extraordinary people being able to overstep the law. Rodya made the presumption he was an extraordinary person. In the end he was not extraordinary for his guilt led him to confess to the crime that at one point could have helped humanity.

Rodya's attempt at claiming he knew the truth was certainly wrong. He didn't take into consideration that there was a possibility that he was not the extraordinary man that he thought he was. Dostoevsky only began to insert Rodya's philosophy after Lizaveta and Alyona were killed. Rodya fell victim to his own weakness, which had never been factored into his philosophy. Nietzsche would have condemned Rodya for falling prey to his own half-contrived philosophy and thus he could not fulfill the role of superman. Another break between Nietzsche and Dostoevsky appears in the chapter of beyond good and evil entitled "people and fatherlands".

Nietzsche attacks the ideas of nationalistic culture citing the fact that not every German believes or understands the philosophies of his German philosophical forefathers. He doesn't glorify the culture of Germany, his homeland. Nietzsche attacks German literature in section 246 of beyond good and evil. Here he writes: "What torture books written in German are for anyone who has a third ear! How vexed one stands before the slowly revolving swamp of sounds that do not sound like anything and rhythms that do not dance, called a 'book' among Germans! Yet worse is the German who reads books!

How lazily, how reluctantly, how badly he reads! How many Germans know, and demand of themselves that they should know, that there is an art in every good sentence-art must be figured out if the sentence is to be understood". Here, Nietzsche attacks his homeland and the intellectuals of Germany. His stinging criticism offers insight into the fact that he was not anti-Semitic, as the later regime would use his work as an engine of Nazi culture. Nietzsche did not put the German culture on a platform higher than the rest of the world. Any anti-Semitic remarks in his own works were placed there posthumously by his sister who formed the Nietzsche archive in Wiener Germany.

It was not until the 1950's did the great Nietzsche scholar, Walter Kaufman purge these remarks from his works. For Dostoevsky there is a much differing opinion of homelands. He glorifies the soil of mother Russia. The masses of Russia are what Rodya is trying to help. When he commits his crime for the benefit of humanity, he is primarily concerned with the immediate people of St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky and his character Rodya are fundamentally interested in the Russian nation not an international harmony.

Nietzsche on several occasions praises the amalgamation of culture and the mixing of European culture. Rarely, if at all does Nietzsche call for the protection of the German culture of people of Germany. Dostoevsky is a nationalist and sees the soil of Russia as sacred. Rodya kisses the earth in St. Petersburg to symbolize his love and reverence for the fatherland he has sinned against. Dostoevsky even innately slanders the German culture.

Lizaveta and Alyona were German. Rodya frequently refers to Alyona as "that German pawnbroker. In stark contrast, Nietzsche praises the culture of Germany's enemy of the day, France. Nietzsche says of France: "Even now France is still the seat of the most spiritual and sophisticated culture in Europe and the foremost school of taste-but one has to know how to find this 'France of taste (section 254)". Nietzsche continues to ramble on about how France has resisted germanization and they will for good reason thumb their nose at bourgeois democracy. It has only been sixteen years since the Franco-Prussian war in which German and French nationalism clashed and produced a fundamental hatred of their respective cultures until the middle of the Cold War.

It can also be noted that in other books written by Nietzsche, he sees that Russia will soon play an important role in global affairs. Dostoevsky, a Russian chauvinist, also would concur. One of the most enlightening chapters of beyond good and evil is the chapter entitled "What is Noble?" This is a categorical affirmation of Rodya's theory of extraordinary men. The chapter begins with a quote pertaining to the history of noble thought and action comes from. In section 257 Nietzsche states: "Every enhancement of the type of 'man' has so far been in the work of an aristocratic society-and it will be so again and again-a society that believes in the long ladder of an order of rank and differences in value between man and man, and need slavery in some sense or another". The quote shows Nietzsche's attitude that change has come from the upper rungs of the social ladder and will continue to do so for some time.

Nietzsche has blamed Christianity for keeping the lower classes in a state of contentment with their lower rank in society. Christianity (and democracy) gives off the idea of equality and satisfaction you " re your earthly order so in the afterlife one will be rewarded. Rodya also believes in a certain order of nobility. What is noble for Rodya is intelligence and philosophical thought. Because he is an intellectual superior he can commit crimes. He is above the law; equality does not pertain to Rodya or the superman.

There is no slave-morality in Rodya's mind. He is the master of his own destiny, as Nietzsche would have liked to see. Rodya can be considered a true philosopher in Nietzsche's terms. "A philosopher-is a human being who consistently experiences, sees, hears, suspects, hopes and dreams extraordinary things; who is struck by his own thoughts as from outside... (section 292)".

This quote from Nietzsche is good news for Rodya. Rodya would not have lost all the respect Nietzsche may have held for his character. With the jail term he has received he has fully understood his own philosophy. He now knows what it is like to kill someone who is a wretch. Rodya was always thinking analytically even after the crime had been committed and he was going in and out of delirium. Rodya sees, hears, suspects, homes and dreams of the aftermath of his crime.

Although his dreams and hopes differ from the actual outcome of the crime he has still gone through the process of being a philosopher just as Nietzsche would have liked it. For Nietzsche the end does not justify the means. The process is what is important for Nietzsche. The process was followed exactly like Nietzsche had put it in section 292. The outcome was just a bit different than Rodya would have preferred or what the superman would have achieved. Rodya maybe the ultimate Nietzsche philosopher in literary terms, his only problem was his weakness for the woman he loved, Sonia.

Central to Nietzsches philosophy is the idea of balance between Dionysian and apollonian elements of life. Nietzsche is referring to the Greek gods Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus is symbolic of letting go; he is a symbol of ecstasy and abandonment. Apollo is what Nietzsche views to be the opposite.

Apollo represents light and order. Apollo is synonymous with discipline while Dionysus is mysteriously chaotic. In order to live a meaningful existence, one must balance to two elements. If you favor the Dionysian element too much, the spiral into decadence will void the quest to become extraordinary. Apollonian favoritism will lead one to live a harsh, rigid life and it will easier get burnt out on your quest for attaining the superman plateau.

Rodya almost always acts in a Dionysian fashion. While he follows the steps of a philosopher to the letter, he gives no time to enjoy life or enjoy the Dionysian elements of living. Raskolnikov over analyzes the situation sometimes. At one point during an interview with Porfiry he says, "I believe you wanted to question me about the murder of Lizaveta and her sister?" immediately, Rodya is worried why he inserted the "I believe" into his question. It is over frivolous items like that, that Rodya spends a lot of his time obsessing over obscure details such as this. Rodya frequently experienced mental collapses in the book.

This is due to his lack of a Dionysian element to his life. Rodya is almost 100% geared towards the murder of his sister's marriage. He drinks very infrequently in the story. Whenever Rodya is just lying down he is philosophizing in his head. Rodya fits the mold that Nietzsche lays out as a problem of society. He is not anti-Nietzsche because of it, but yet he fits a rather common problem identified by the German thinker.

The subject that sums Nietzsches book up is morality. Every other concept of Nietzsche flows from his radical ideas of morality. Dionysian and apollonian conflict, will to power, superman and the ideas of the fatherlands all revolve around the issue of morality. For Nietzsche, morality is not necessarily a bad concept. It is morality dictated by an outside source such as the church, which angers Nietzsche.

The church, specifically the Christian church, created the concept of slave-morality. Is Rodya guilty of falling prey to this slave mentality? The answer is double-edged. While Rodya repentance is based on religion and redemption, it is doubtful that Rodya would have even let the religious argument surface if it weren't for Sonia. It is clear to the reader that Rodya is deeply affected by his love for the girl. She is the one who read him the story of Lazarus.

While Porfiry questions whether Raskolnikov believes in god, Rodya is able to brush this aside and concentrate on the argument on hand: whether or not there are extraordinary men. Rodya's new found piety is on account that he has fallen for Sonia very much so. Sonia, not the bible, causes him to take up a slave morality. It is hard to tell whether or not Rodya even believes the prophecy of Sonia and her vision of damnation for Rodya if he were not to repent. Rodya's morality is learned through encounters with Sonia. Without Sonia, Rodya would have never confessed for any religious reason.

In section 186 of beyond good and evil, Nietzsche explains that many philosophers have tried to find a rational basis for morality. He says that eventually "morality was excepted as a given". Rodya underwent a change for morality. He went from the Nietzsche like philosophy of extraordinary man to the slave-morality of Sonia's faith. Rodya was thinking rationally when he was planning the murder. He laid out the reasons why he was killing Alyona, he rationalized that she was evil and that the world would benefit from her death and he fathomed the consequences of his actions.

When he was read the story of Lazarus, he did not contemplate rationally how a mortal man could be raised from the dead. With Sonia's morality, he enters a world of ir rationalism and blind faith. There aren't any rational lines Rodya could have taken up in defense of his conversion. The only things driving Rodya were two emotions. The first emotion was his love of Sonia; the second emotion was a fear of the unknown. Sonia convinced Raskolnikov that Satan himself would punish him.

Rodya enters the realm of irrational morality. It is clear that Dostoevsky had an impact on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. As this essay began with "Dostoevsky, the only one who as taught me anything about psychology", it shall end with it also. Nietzsche was considered one of the fathers of psychology and Dostoevsky had an impact on him and this course of thought. The two authors, however, conflict in other arenas of the psyche.

They see eye to eye on some problems such as morality but they both have different ways of resolving the problem. For Nietzsche it comes through the superman whereas for Dostoevsky it comes through religious faith and Russian nationalism. Rodya is a testament to what may go wrong with the morality of the superman. Rodya is also a symbol of someone who does not follow Nietzsche's path to becoming a superman and this is reason alone for his failure.

The two writers are an ominous prediction of what was to come in Europe. For Dostoevsky, Russia did become a global powerhouse with the creation of the Soviet Union. For Nietzsche, man partially left behind Christianity. Christianity did lose a great amount of power with the creation of a more secular society. Papal authority battles state authority and it is papal doctrine that seems to be coming up on the shorthand of this battle. Nietzsche's sentiments were echoed after the two world wars.

His philosophy was the harbinger of existentialism. 20th century philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre compounded many of Nietzsche's ideas. It is clear from crime and punishment as well as beyond good and evil that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky share many views while on others they could not be more rigidly divided. In all, one fact remains. These two great men continue to have a resounding affect on European and global culture, whether society likes it or not.