The Analysis of the Problem of “To have or to Be” in the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky and E. Fromm’s Social Philosophy

For the first time in the research literature on Dostoevsky, the author considers the novel Crime and Punishment and the novel Notes from the Underground through the prism of the conceptual dualism of the existential orientation of the individual to the antagonistic modes of ‘to have’ or ‘to be’ proposed by E. Fromm. The author argues that the main character of Notes from the Underground is, perhaps, the only living personality of this work who tries not to lose his authentic Dasein in a world consisting of ‘schizophrenic’ social robots focused on the values of consumer society, preferring to have and not knowing how to be. Within the framework of the comparative comparison of the “lawyer-pragmatist” P. P. Luzhin and Sonya Marmeladova from the novel Crime and Punishment, the rejection of the non-existence of possession in the main character of the work, her selfless being in compassion and care for her neighbour, is clearly demonstrated.