Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky – Vasily Perov (1872).
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Dostoevsky’s sudden recovery from his gambling mania is an example of how a chance happening can change everything
Only about 10% of people with a gambling problem ever seek treatment.
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Treatment has a high success rate. Getting problem gamblers in the door – and getting them to complete a full course of therapy – is another matter.
A so-called smart building. What will become of our free will when choices are made for us by technology embedded in the building?
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Having the ability to decide either to do something or not, and to act accordingly, is a basic definition of freedom. Smart buildings challenge this freedom.
A statue of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in Moscow.
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If Dostoevsky insists that one cannot shy away from horror and tragedy, Tolstoy would contend that people must act upon what they see.
A Trump supporter climbs scaffolding in an effort to breach the U.S. Capitol.
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What would happen, the Russian novelist wondered, when people lacking any semblance of ideological or moral convictions rise to power?
It’s a mad world, but some listening to some of the world’s great thinkers might help you make sense of it.
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How to deal with a world that is going a bit off-kilter? Some classic texts can give a few pointers.
Dorothy Day with publisher Robert Ellsberg.
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The founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day, led a life full of paradoxes. An expert explains how there’s much to learn from her life - especially how to see beauty in the least.
The Railway Depot furnace at Kaserne, Johannesburg in 1971. Banned and confiscated books and magazines were burnt weekly.
Wits Student
South Africa has a history of burning books. The ashes of burnt books tell of the barbarism to which a society can descend.
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America’s answer to Kafka and Dostoevsky gets real at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Dostoevsky’s infamous novel reflected a wave of reaction against economic liberalism, not unlike that which has occurred during 2016.
Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, by Vasily Perov (1872).
Vasily Perov/Wikimedia Commons
When penning his novel ‘Demons,’ Fyodor Dostoevsky was influenced by political turmoil in Russia. But his impulsive, crass antagonist bears a striking similarity to the GOP’s candidate for president.