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The Possible in the Work of Mikhail M. Bakhtin

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible

Russian philosopher of dialogism, responsible deed (postupok), and carnival, Mikhail M. Bakhtin (November 4 (16), 1895, Oryol, The Russian Empire − March 7, 1975, Moscow, the USSR) worked with the literary material of masterpieces by Dostoevsky, Rabelais, Goethe, Gogol, and so on. Bakhtin did not directly introduce the notion of the possible in his writings. However, the terms “possible,” “possibility,” or “impossible” in many of their variations were highly used by Bakhtin throughout of his writings. Some, or, maybe, even the most, of these uses were mere functional, reflecting a way of articulating his ideas or a way of talking. However, others apparently represent important philosophical conceptualization, which I want to discuss in this essay.

I have abstracted five distinct philosophical conceptualizations of the notion of “the possible” in Bakhtin’s work. The first one is purely negative, “the empty of responsibility possible,” as a form of “theoriticism” criticized by Bakhtin (1993...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here and further, in quotes of Bakhtin, the italics are original by the translator, and the bold is mine.

  2. 2.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Savinkov

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Eugene Matusov

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  1. Eugene Matusov
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Correspondence to Eugene Matusov .

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  1. The centre for the Science of Learning and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Ingunn Johanne Ness

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Matusov, E. (2020). The Possible in the Work of Mikhail M. Bakhtin. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_40-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_40-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    The Possible in the Life and Work of Mikhail M. Bakhtin
    Published:
    19 August 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_40-3

  2. The Possible in the Work of Bakhtin (Michail M.)
    Published:
    24 April 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_40-2

  3. Original

    The Possible in the Work of Mikhail M. Bakhtin
    Published:
    15 November 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_40-1

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