Existentialist tendencies in Mevlana and Dostoyevsky

Even though we can track the problem of existence until ancient philosophy the starting point of it becoming a philosophical understanding was in 19th century with Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. By the 20th century dostoyevski and kierkegaad is the dominant names in philosophy. They are the ones who gave soul to the two basis tendency in existentialism and those are theism and atheism. Even though Dostoyevski makes a mark at 19th centuries literal understanding he also explains a lot of ideas which are the inspirations of existentialist philosophy. On the other hand Mevlana who lived in 13th century is remembered as a mystic philosopher. In his thoughts about humans and God you can clearly see existentialist tendencies. When we compare existentialist ideas we can see that Mevlana represents the East and Dostoyevski represents the West. So in this thesis thats also a point we will be pointing out. In our thesis which we compare those two philosophers existentialist tendencies first we will discuss the basis concepts of the existentialist philosophy then in the light of those we will focus on the thoughts of Mevlana and Dostoyevski. Lastly we will compare both philosophers thoughts. And to explain that in the first part from kierkegaad to Satre a lot of philosophers thoughts will be mentioned in a detailed way. In this summary while discussing theist and atheist existentialists together its also important to point out the differences. In the second chapter of the thesis, Mevlana's ideas which are thought to be the fundamental to existentialism are explored. The same method is followed in the third chapter dedicated to Dostoyevsky. The last chapter is a comparative study of Dostoyevsky and Mevlana who is a prominent figure of our culture. Existentialist philosophy of both philosophers are explained together with the potentials of art, poetry and literature. Existentialism is a philosophy having some distinctive notions. This thought advocates that individuals must shape themselves by existing without hindered by anything else. Primary concepts are existence and essence. Therefore our starting point is Sartrean claim of "existence precedes essence". Man thrown into the world realizes his own essence. It can be argued that thoughts of Mevlana and Dostoyevsky is releated to such world view. So that both philosophers use concepts like individual, life, love, loneliness, death, freedom and god, while realizing existence. These concepts will be traced throughout the thesis. Key Words: Existentialism, Sartre, Mevlana, Dostoyevki, angst, alienation, essence, experimentalism, religion, belief, faith, divine love…