Lev Shestov’s experience of absolute despair in 1895 was the devastating loss of his first great love, a young woman he deeply cared for, who died suddenly. This event had a profound and irreversible impact on Shestov’s life and thought. The grief and despair he experienced from this loss became a central influence on his philosophy, shaping his exploration of themes such as suffering, mortality, and the limits of human reason.
This personal tragedy drove Shestov to reject the optimistic, rationalist philosophies that sought to justify human suffering through universal principles or systems of thought. Instead, he emphasized the singular, existential anguish of the individual and the need to confront life’s irrationality and absurdity. This despair, which never healed, underpinned his lifelong rebellion against deterministic philosophies and his search for faith beyond reason.
