F. M. Dostoevsky: the metaphysical meaning of “crime” and “punishment”

There is no more important task for a person than self-knowledge. An appeal to the work of Dostoevsky, who devoted his life to unraveling the infinitely complex mysteries of the human spirit, is eternally relevant. Based on the analysis of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” reveals the metaphysical, existential, ethical meanings of the categories “crime”, “punishment”. The stages of spiritual degradation of the criminal revealed by the Russian writer are broadcast. The condition under which metaphysical existential punishment is impossible is determined. Dostoevsky in his novel affirms the optimism of Orthodox soteriology. The methodological basis of the article was a combination of metaphysical and dialectical approaches, in the context of isolating the eternal constants of a person’s spiritual sphere and establishing dialectical connections as objective conditions for the development of a person. The methodological base was a set of methods: hermeneutic, analytical, synthetic, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, generalization, induction, analogy.