Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-184-213 Research Article Articles Dostoevsky and Kant: Two Paths to God Krinitsyn Alexander B. red@rusklassika.ru 25 12 2025 7 4 184 213 F. M. Dostoevsky I. Kant moral laws faith free will a priori causal categories Criticism of Pure Reason The Brothers Karamazov Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This article compares the philosophical perspectives of I. Kant and F. M. Dostoevsky in their religious aspects. It examines Dostoevsky’s attitude toward Kant’s a priori categories, the two thinkers’ discussions of the possibility of proving the existence of God and immortality, and questions of anthropology, the existence of free will, and the interrelationship of faith and morality. It demonstrates how Dostoevsky’s characters “rebel” against the boundaries of reason and knowledge established by Kant, and strive to transcend a priori categories in their search for God. This is reflected both in the novels’ themes and in their poetics. Dostoevsky’s characters seem to “deny” space and time in order to transcend the limits of human cognition. Kant’s moral law calls for conscious adherence to rules, duty, and the categorical imperative. Dostoevsky understands human freedom as voluntarism, a violation of rational laws. The justification for this for Dostoevsky’s characters is the higher idea they attain. If, for Kant, God and immortality are justified by the presence of moral law in man, for Dostoevsky, it is important to love Christ not only as “good,” but also as a person. 1. Asmus, V. F. Immanuil Kant [Immanuil Kant]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1973. 532 p. (In Russ.) 2. Vil’mont, N. N. Dostoevskii i Shiller: Zametki russkogo germanista [Dostoevsky and Schiller: Notes of a Russian Germanist]. Moscow, Sovetskii pisatel’ Publ., 1984. 280 p. 3. Golosovker, Ia. E. Dostoevskii i Kant: Razmyshleniia chitatelia nad romanom “Brat’ia Karamazovy” i traktatom Kanta “Kritika chistogo razuma” [Dostoevsky and Kant: The Reader’s Reflections on the Novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and Kant’s Treatise “Criticism of Pure Reason”]. Moscow, Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1963. 102 p. (In Russ.) 4. Drobnitskii, O. G. “Teoreticheskie osnovy etiki Kanta” [“Theoretical Foundations of Kant’s Ethics”]. Filosofiia Kanta i sovremennost’ [Kant’s Philosophy and Modernity]. Moscow, Mysl’ Publ., 1974, pp. 103–151. (In Russ.) 5. Zolotarev, A. V. “Idei kantovskoi moral’noi filosofii v tvorchestve F. M. Dostoevskogo” [“The Ideas of Kant’s Moral Philosophy in the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky”]. Solov’evskie issledovaniia, no. 4 (60), 2018, pp. 73–89. (In Russ.) 6. Lipke, Sh. “Obraz geroia v chuzhom mire v tvorchestve F. M. Dostoevskogo: gnoseologicheskii vopros I. Kanta” [“The Image of a Hero in a Strange World in the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky: The Epistemological Question of I. Kant”]. Kul’tura i tekst, no. 4, 2021, pp. 45–59. (In Russ.) 7. Mekhed, G. N. Problema absoliutnosti morali v etike I. Kanta i F. M. Dostoevskogo [The Problem of the Absoluteness of Morality in the Ethics of I. Kant and F. M. Dostoevsky: PhD Thesis, Summary]. Moscow, 2013. 22 p. (In Russ.) 8. Osmolovskii, O. “Eticheskaia filosofiia Dostoevskogo i Kanta” [“The Ethical Philosophy of Dostoevsky and Kant”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura, no. 12, 1999, pp. 216–230. (In Russ.) 9. Sabirov, V. Sh., and O. S. Soina. “Metafizicheskie i antropologicheskie osnovaniya etiki F. M. Dostoevskogo” [“Metaphysical and Anthropological Foundations of F. M. Dostoevsky’s Ethics”]. Solov’evskie issledovaniia, no. 2 (42), 2014, pp. 186–203. (In Russ.) 10. Skomorohov, A. V. “Problema ob”iasneniia zla: ot Kanta k Dostoevskomu” [“The Problem of Explaining Evil: From Kant to Dostoevsky”]. Filosofiia i obshchestvo, no. 4, 2019, pp. 123–134. (In Russ.) 11. Cherkasova, E. Dostoevsky and Kant: Dialogues on Ethics. Amsterdam, Rodopi Publ., 2009. 132 p. (In English)