Thoughts about good and evil in Joseph Conrad's “Heart of darkness” and in the works of Friedrich Nitzsche and Sigmund Freud: an experience of historical- philosophical comparison

The paper examines the main historical-philosophical and worldview parallels that can be found when considering the problem of good and evil in human nature on the example of comparing of J. Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and the philosophical heritage of S. Freud and F. Nietzsche. It has been revealed that with all the differences in the worldview and the variety of creative approaches to the solving philosophical problems, the views of these thinkers on human nature had been largely identical. These views proceeded from the idea of a person as a dual being, the deep essence of which is determined not only by the introduced social, but also by deep natural, biological components. Moreover, the social in the human nature does not at all mean unconditionally positive and good, and the natural world does not at all bring with it an evil principle into the human essence. There is no good or evil in the natural world. The ethical and axiological coloring of this or that phenomenon is always given by the person himself. The main findings of the study can be used in general and special courses on the history of philosophy and foreign literature.