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Fyodor Dostoevsky
1821–1881
Russian novelist whose books are read as works of philosophy as well as fiction.
What they got right
He tested big ideas by letting his characters live them out to the end, showing the hidden assumptions and where they lead.
Skill it shows
Identifying assumptions
Practise this skillAlso: Evaluating arguments
…as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death.
Worth knowing
He was a novelist, not a methodical reasoner. Scholars widely note that his journalism and letters contain strong Russian nationalism and antisemitism. The line 'If God does not exist, everything is permitted' is a paraphrase and does not appear word for word in his novels.
Try it yourself
Take a plan that sounds perfectly logical (e.g. 'people always act in their own interest'). Imagine someone living by it for a year. What does the plan quietly assume about people?