Abstract
Nietzsche describes the shift that occurred in Western thinking from the "enchanted" to the "disenchanted view of Nature" as the greatest "event" of our time. When acknowledging the gap in between Dante's depiction of Nature as a "canvas upon which symbols and images are painted" (Barrett) in the Divine Comedy and Nietzsche's claim that Nature is "now brutal and senseless", one can hardly deny the prominence of such a fundamental "event". It is no surprise then that Dostoyevsky, commonly deemed as the most profound author of his time, was also particularly concerned about this Modern outlook on the world. This outlook mainly stemmed from five centuries of historical drift towards rationalism, development of science and decay of Religion, and led man to adopt an objective and enlightened view of the world. Although divergent to many extents, Friederich Nietzsche's and Fiodor Dostoyevsky's observations on the "disenchanted" view of nature are similar to the extent that they both see nihilism as well as the "temptation of re-enchantment" as the two main outcomes. In this brief essay, I shall state my accord with these two analyses of the phenomenon by evincing their historical validity and contemporary relevance.
