A philosophical examination on the instability of being visible and the anxiety for existence in J. P. Sartre and F. M. Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Mihayloviç Dostoyevsky, one of the important thinkers of the 19th century, dealt with the issues regarding the existence of human beings in the axis of the social and historical conditions the period he lived in. In this context, when we look at Dostoyevsky's works, it is possible to encounter the mentality of the period and existential themes in the lives of each character he created. Especially in the Notes from the Underground, he conveys the existence of human beings to the reader with all its contradictions. In the work, as a refusal and resistence the life and thought of the underground people are examined in the face of the mind and the laws of nature, where human emotion and will are considered unimportant. Thus, the life of the self and the other expressed genuinely in the Notes from Underground may provide us a distinct analysis of the dimensions of human existence while it is discussed within the context of Sartre's phenomenology of the gaze. Jean Paul Sartre reveals the philosophy of existence by analyzing a distinct understanding of being. Sartre discusses the presence on the axis of being-in-itself, being-for-self and being-for-others. The prominent concepts in the discussion are alienation, absurdity, freedom and nausea. Then, the understanding of being for the other creates an important debate regarding the existence of the self and the other. Sartre also tries to analyze the debate of self and the other with the phenomenology of gaze. Therefore, reading Dostoyesky's Notes from Underground together with Sartre's above mentioned analysis enables us to form a distinct critical understanding. Such an understanding is the principal aim of this work into which we would like to delve.