SOURCE: “Beauty and the Beast: Vasilii Rozanov's Aesthetic and Moral Ideal,” in The Russian Review, Vol. 57, No. 1, January, 1998, pp. 72-86.

In the following essay, Khanin argues that both Rozanov's moral and aesthetic ideals are rooted in “altruistic empathy” rather than a sense of moral duty.

My ideal is tranquility, nobility, purity. How far away I am from it. 

Vasilii Rozanov, Opavshie list'ia (1913)

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings? 

Diogenes

Vasilii Rozanov (1856-1919), a philosopher-turned-journalist and a proto-existentialist writer, is frequently compared to the autistic, disgruntled, and acrimonious protagonist of Notes from the Underground. Like the Underground Man and similar Dostoevsky characters, Rozanov flaunts, in a deliberately provocative manner, his low instincts and crudely physiological appetites. In defiance of established morals, aesthetic canons, and taste, Rozanov writes pungent descriptions of his own “repugnant” physique and “sickening” manners: “Wide open protruding eyes, licking my lips...