Fyodor Dostoevski
Philosophy 151
Winter, 2004
G. J. Mattey
A Utopian Vision
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Notes from Underground (1864) was written
in response to N. G. Chernyshevsky’s What
is to be Done (1862)
This book was in turn a response to a
nihilistic character in Turgenev’s Fathers and
Sons (1862)
Chernyshevsky portrayed a utopian society
populated by beautiful, healthy people and
symbolized by a crystal palace
A Sick and Spiteful Man
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The narrator begins by declaring himself to
be a sick and spiteful, as well as distinctly
non-beautiful, man
Dostoevski states in a footnote that this
person is a representative of a type that must
exist in present society
He adds that in the first part of the work, the
narrator tries to explain why his own type is
an inevitable product of his society
A Spiteful Official
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Our narrator writes at age forty
He has probably had liver disease since age
twenty, but he refuses to see a doctor
He was formerly a government bureaucrat
He tells us that he was rude to his clients and
took pleasure in his rudeness
Yet he admits paradoxically that he was not
really spiteful, but only amusing himself at
the expense of his clients
Opposite Elements
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What caused the narrator’s spite was the
recognition that even in his most extreme
moments, he could not be spiteful
Many elements contrary to spite have always
been in him, though he has suppressed them
This is the basis of his sickness
If treated like a child, he might be appeased
or even touched, though he would be
ashamed of this
Characterless
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To be spiteful or kind, a rascal or honest
man, a hero or an insect, is to have some
kind of character
Character is possessed by people of action,
who are limited in intelligence
Intelligent people, conversely, can not be
anything: they can have no character
This is the narrator’s “spiteful and useless
consolation” for his wretched existence
Underground
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Having worked as a collegiate assessor, the
narrator quit when he came into a small
inheritance
His living conditions have deteriorated
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His dwellings are wretched
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His servant is ill-natured, stupid, and smelly
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The climate is bad for his health
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It is too expensive for him to live where he does
But he is not going away
Too Conscious
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To be too conscious is an illness
Human beings only need a quarter of the
consciousness of an intelligent inhabitant of a
sophisticated city
This claim is not directed at the “man of
action,” since to be ill is no source of pride
Absurdly, the narrator (as do others) prides
himself on his illness
The “Sublime and Beautiful”
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In the presence of what was called the
“sublime and beautiful,” the narrator thinks
ugly thoughts and does ugly deeds
His so doing did not seem to be accidental to
him, but rather his normal state
At first he was ashamed of his abnormality
But he came to cultivate it, to the point where
it brought him “real positive enjoyment”
The Last Barrier
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The narrator is writing to try to explain his
enjoyment in his degradation
The enjoyment of degradation is rooted in
natural laws that govern the over-acute
consciousness, so that there is no blame
One feels that one’s degradation is horrible
but cannot be overcome
Or, if it could be overcome, one would do
nothing to overcome it
The Enjoyment of Despair
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The narrator is hyper-sensitive
He supposes that he would find enjoyment
from being slapped in the face
He would find enjoyment in his despair, his
“consciousness of being rubbed into a pulp”
He is always to blame due to:
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His cleverness
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His lack of magnanimity
No Response
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Even if the narrator had had magnanimity, he
would have suffered from his sense of its
uselessness
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He would not not forgive the assault, since the
slap was a consequence of a law of nature
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He would not forget the assault because it is
insulting, even if it is the result of a law of nature
Nor could he have exacted revenge, since he
could not have brought himself to carry it out,
even if he had wanted to
The Direct Person
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In general, one who seeks revenge devotes
his whole being to it
He charges against his opponent like a
raging bull with its horns down
The only thing that can stop him is a wall
The narrator envies such a man, despite his
stupidity
The direct person appears to be the normal
person
A Mouse, Not a Man
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Confronted with the direct person, the hyperconscious person regards himself as a
mouse
No one asks him to view himself in this way
He may be a mouse of acute consciousness,
but he is not a man
He seems to have been born from a testtube, not from nature
The Mouse in Action
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How does the mouse react when insulted?
He may accumulate more venom than the
natural man, who stupidly looks at his
revenge as mere justice
He creates a web of doubt and indecision
and then retreats into his mouse-hole
He becomes absorbed in cold, malignant,
everlasting spite, which is magnified with the
passage of time
If he acts at all, he only hurts himself
The Stone Wall
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Confronted with the impossible, people of
strong nerves stop their bellowing
The impossible, the stone wall, is the
violation of the laws of nature
“Twice two is a law of mathematics. Just try
refuting it”
Although the narrator does not have the
strength to knock the wall down, he is not
reconciled to it because it disgusts him
Enjoyment in a Toothache
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If enjoyment is found in despair at not being
able to overcome the stone wall, may it be
found even in a toothache?
People with toothaches moan malignantly
The moans express the aimlessness of the
pain: no one is responsible
The educated man will moan only to amuse
himself, thereby annoying everyone else
Ennui
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A person who finds enjoyment in selfdegradation has no self-respect
The narrator used to get into trouble where
he was not to blame
He took offense on purpose
Later he felt remorse and a sick feeling in his
heart
The reason of these ingrained pranks was
inertia, ennui
Primary Causes
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“Men of action” are able to act because they
mistake secondary causes for primary
causes
But a person of reflection will recognize that
primary causes are unattainable, due to an
infinite regress
The laws of nature thus dissipate anger
So his only motive for revenge is spite: the
desire to beat against the wall so as to
perform some action or other
Golden Dreams
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The narrator might have done nothing from
laziness
Then he would have been able to respect
himself
He could have been a sophisticated sluggard
and glutton, who drinks to the health of the
“sublime and beautiful”
He would be an “asset,” which is rare in the
current negative age
Self-Interest
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It is a commonplace that if people were to
know what is to their advantage, then they
would act only according to them
But this is naïve innocence
Historically, humans have always acted
against their own interests because they
have disliked the beaten track
What is to one’s “advantage” may be
something that brings him harm
Advantage
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Advantage has been understood in terms of
statistical figures and politico-economic
formulas
The advantages are supposed to be
“prosperity, wealth, freedom, peace—and so
on”
Yet one advantage is left out invariably
“The most advantageous advantage”
motivates people to flout all laws and all the
other “advantages”
Logical Exercises
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The most advantageous advantage breaks
down all logical and social classifications
All the systems of human “interests” are
rendered nothing more than logical exercises
The “predilection for systems and abstract
definitions” lead to distortion of the truth
The claim that civilization softens us is
refuted by continual bloodshed
Which is Worse?
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We think that bloodshed is abominable, yet
we still engage in it
We may not be more bloodthirsty, but our
bloodthirstiness is more vile
Is not the present situation worse, because
we should know better?
Is it really the case that our problem is that
we have not yet shed some old bad habits?
The Crystal Palace
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Modern thinkers claim that human actions
are the outcome of laws of nature
Humans are mere “piano-keys”
Once this is known (it is claimed) human
society will calm down and proceed on a
scientific basis
The “Palace of Crystal” will be built, and we
will live in the halcyon days
Revolt
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If such a “rational” society were to develop, it
would lead to boredom
People would revert to cruelty because they
would find life frightfully dull
Someone will come along advocating the
destruction of the beautiful palace in favor of
“our own sweet foolish will”
He expresses the fact that people in the end
act simply as they choose to act
The Most Advantageous
Advantage
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The narrator’s thesis is that capricious action
is the most advantageous
It cannot be classified within a system,
because it works against the system itself
Theorizers have postulated that human
beings want a rational choice
But what they really want is an independent
choice, wherever it may lead
Piano Keys
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The narrator’s inclination to be skeptical
about the origin of choice is opposed by the
results of science
If choice is reduced to a formula, then desire
will come to an end
Human beings will be transformed into piano
keys without free will
The advocate of science accepts this
conclusion
Reason and Will
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The narrator is “over-philosophical” due to his
forty years underground
He allows that reason is an excellent tool for
that rational side of man, which is “one
twentieth” of the capacity for life
Will, on the other hand, manifests all of
human life
We assert our will, stupidly, in order to assert
our personality and individuality
Moral Obliquity
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The worse defect of the “ungrateful biped” is
his moral obliquity and lack of good sense
All of history is proof of this
It is monotonous because it is the chonicle of
fighting and more fighting
All the products of the most disordered
imagination have come to pass
“The only thing one can’t say is that it’s
rational”
Never Enough
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Even if men lived in the most rational of
societies, with all their needs fulfilled, they
would still play some nasty trick out of sheer
ingratitude or spite
The reason is that they must prove that they
are free and not piano-keys
They will launch a curse upon the world
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The ability to unleash a curse is what separates
human beings from other animals
Coincidence
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It can be objected that human freedom can
be preserved despite the total predictability of
human action
Human will may freely coincide with the laws
of rationality according to which we act to
promote our interests
But this is no kind of freedom
Free willing is something that cannot be
tabulated in advance
Reformation
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The narrator states that he is joking
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But he has serious questions
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Is it desirable to reform people according to
science and good sense?
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Why do people need reformation?
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Is not “reformed” behavior sometimes not to
people’s advantage?
The answers of the reformers are only
suppositions, which “may be the law of logic,
but not the law of humanity”
Creation and Destruction
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Human beings have a creative side
Even the most stupid practical person gets
more out of the acting than out of
accomplishing the end of acting
It may be that humans love chaos and
destruction because they are afraid of
attaining their end
Our lives do not begin and end with the antheaps we construct
Afraid of the End?
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Human beings go to great lengths to attain
mathematical certainty
But it may be that humans are afraid of
attaining it, just as the narrator is
When the end is attained, there is nothing
else to look for
Humans absurdly do not like what it is they
have endeavored to attain, once they attain it
Suffering
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Why is it assumed that what humans seek to
attain is well-being
Perhaps they are just as fond of suffering
Perhaps suffering is just as much a benefit to
humans as is well-being
It is sometimes very pleasant to smash
things, whether it is good or bad
Suffering is the origin of consciousness,
which we will never renounce
A False Mansion
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The palace of crystal exists only in the
imagination of men of a certain era
The real situation is one more resembling a
hen-house or a block of apartments
Everything that has been constructed is
subject to ridicule
It would be good if there were something that
could not be ridiculed
We must at least hope for such a thing
The Underground Life
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Although the narrator envies the normal
person, he does not want to be normal
At first he praises the inertia of the
underground life
But then he retracts this and says only that
he desires something different which he
cannot find
And he says that the whole diatribe was a lie
As if I Had Readers
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The imaginary audience to which the narrator
has addressed his speech accuses him of
dishonesty
He responds that the audience itself is a
fiction—that his is writing only for himself
He is trying to be totally honest with himself
regarding his “early adventures”
To commit his thoughts to paper may be
helpful in this endeavor, as well as to get rid
of his oppressive thoughts of the past
At the Office
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The narrator describes his workplace
He hated his fellow-clerks, who were lowly
but did not care that they were
His attitude alternated between despising
them and feeling them to be superior to him
He could not look anyone in the face
He was conventional to avoid looking
ridiculous to those upon whom he looked
down
A Coward and a Slave
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The narrator was morbidly sensitive, as one
should be at that time
He was intelligent enough to know himself to
be a coward and a slave
To be a coward and a slave is was the
normal condition
No one is valiant: at the moment of truth
everyone will flee
Romantic
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The narrator was not always in a morbid
frame of mind
He would sometimes become skeptical and
indifferent
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He socialized with others
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He would reproach himself for being romantic
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But he would then be a realistic romantic, not
a transcendental European romantic
Solitude
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The dalliance with social life soon ended
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The narrator spent most of the time alone
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His main activity was reading, from which he
got pleasure, pain, and sometimes boredom
To overcome boredom, he plunged into petty
vice
His “justification” was that he was depressed
and had nothing in his surroundings that he
could respect
The Officer
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One night, the narrator passed by a tavern
and saw someone defenestrated
He went into the tavern looking to get thrown
out of a window himself
Instead, a military officer unceremoniously
lifted the narrator out of his way
He did not protest (for which he would have
gotten his wish), but instead resentfully
retreated from the tavern
Moral Cowardice
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The narrator asserts that he was not a
coward at heart, but a coward in action
His action was based on “an unbounded
vanity”
He was afraid not of a beating, but of his
actions being misunderstood by the rabble
The officer himself would have insulted him
before beating him and throwing him out the
window
Revenge
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For years, the narrator nourished his spite
and plotted revenge
He found out the details of the officer’s life
He tried to write a satire about him, but he
could not get it published
His “brilliant” plan was not to get out of the
way when the officer came toward him
But first, he had to borrow money to dress
himself half-decently
Brief Respite
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The narrator could not work out the courage
to carry out his plan
His nerve failed him just before the would-be
collision
He resolved to abandon the plan
When he was rehearsing the abandonment,
he chanced into the officer and rammed him
This made him feel avenged, and happy for a
few days, but it could not last
Escape
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The narrator learned to endure his sickness
But he also had a means of escape through
his dreams of “the sublime and the beautiful”
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He became a hero, not a “chicken heart”
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He was full of emotion and positively happy
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He fancied reality as opening up to him as
almost riding a white horse and crowned with
a laurel
Fantastic Love
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The narrator felt a love that exists only in his
fantasies, not in reality
He was triumphant over everyone, who in
turn recognized his superiority
Then he forgave them all
He fell in love, acquired a fortune, then gave
it away
But this is all “vulgar and contemptible,” as is
the attempt to justify himself through this
Plunging into Society
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The period of dreaming would last a few
months and would be followed by attempts to
be sociable
He carried this out by visiting his boss at his
home on the boss’s day off
But the scene there was stultifying, and the
narrator did not interact with anyone
He went home re-thinking his romantic
resolve to embrace all of humanity
A Schoolmate
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The narrator’s other acquaintance was a
schoolmate
He had hated his schoolmates generally
But he found in one of them “a certain
independence of character, and even
honesty”
They had had close moments, but those
moments were now an embarrassment
The schoolmate probably disliked him
Crashing the Party-Planning
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The narrator visits his schoolmate, who has
guests who are planning a party
They pay no attention to him, treating him
like a “common fly”
The narrator’s failure in life magnified the
hatred they had for him as a student
The guest of the party is a vulgar,
swaggering heir to a fortune, who “had been
favored by the gifts of nature”
Zverkov
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The schoolmate Zverkov was to leave St.
Petersburg, hence the going-away party
The narrator had verbally attacked in him
school when he was boasting about his
future sexual exploits
The attack was not out of sympathy for the
women, but because the other students had
applauded him
Eventually they parted on good terms
Crashing the Party
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The three schoolmates planning the party
decide on the place and the contribution
The narrator insists on being included,
claiming he is hurt by being left out
The schoolmates agree reluctantly to include
him in the festivities
The narrator questions his own motives in
agreeing to go
But he justifies it exactly because it would be
so unseemly for him to do so
Bad Memories
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Having agreed to attend the party for
someone he scorned, the narrator recollects
his school days
He was an orphan who had been sent to
boarding school by distant relatives
At school, he was mercilessly taunted by the
stupid other boys
They were not “real people” in contrast to his
dreaming: they knew nothing of life
Reaction
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The narrator did not desire the affection of his
fellow-students, but instead longed to
humiliate them
His weapon was to excel in his studies
He was no longer mocked, but he was still
hated
He wanted a social life, but it never worked
out
Once he had a friend, but he repaid his
affection by tyrannizing him
The Real Thing
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The narrator was quickened by the thought of
the party, though he was ill-prepared for it
He brooded over how it would go, but still he
thought it was “the real thing”
He dreamed of getting the upper hand over
these vulgar people
Yet he recognized that he did not really care
how it would turn out
Condescension
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The narrator was humiliated by arriving an
hour early because he was not informed of a
change in schedule
Zverkov greeted him with condescension
It startled the narrator to see the Zverkov
really believed he was superior to him
He was embarrassed to reveal the
circumstances of his employment
He starts to mock Zverkov’s speech
Drunk
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The narrator thinks it is an honor for the
others to be with him, while they think it is an
honor for him to be with them
He decides to leave, but he stays
He finally gets drunk and causes a scene by
condemning Zverkov’s type
He tries unsuccessfully to provoke a duel
He waits for them to address him, but they
ignore him
To the Brothel
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After dinner, the company retire to a sofa for
more drinking
The narrator walks back and forth between
his table and the stove
The revelers become even more drunk and
decide to go to the brothel
The narrator apologizes for insulting Zverkov,
but he replies that it would be impossible for
the narrator to insult him
Everything is Lost!
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The narrator borrows money to follow the
party to the brothel, to try again to humiliate
them
In his mind, he humorously contrasts this
reality with his romantic fantasies
He declares himself a scoundrel for making
fun of his situation
But he dismisses the thought because he
has committed himself to the act: “everything
is lost!”
“I’ll Give it to Him”
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The narrator resolves that upon entering the
brothel, he will “give it to” Zverkov
He will pull the hair of the prostitute who once
refused him and pull Zverkov’s ears
Although he will be beaten up, he will have
taken the initiative
Then the duel will finally take place
The plan, of course, was obviously absurd,
and he stops en route but goes on by fate
Liza
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The revelers have already left the parlor
when the narrator arrives
There, he meets a somber young prostitute,
Liza
The narrator declares himself happy to be
repulsive to her
After a very long silence, he begins to
question her
He tells her horror-stories about the ultimate
fate of the young prostitute
Sentimentality
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The narrator next paints a deeply sentimental
picture of the life that Liza left
He romanticizes the relation between father
and daughter
Liza points out that many fathers are eager to
sell their daughters
The narrator responds by saying that a
woman in a bad marriage should count her
blessings
Love
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The romantic theme is taken to even greater
depths
Love will overcome all quarrels between
husband and wife
“Love is a holy mystery”
It should abide after the the first phase of
marriage, culminating in a “union of souls”
Even the most difficult times will seem happy,
etc.
Bookishness
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Liza responds by telling the narrator ironically
that he speaks “somehow like a book”
In reaction, an “evil feeling took possession”
of him
He did not realize that her irony was covering
up her feelings
In an innocent persons, the feelings are kept
back out of pride
Worthless Love
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Now the narrator turns his rage against Liza,
doing his best to humiliate her
He says that in other circumstances, he
could fall in love with her
But in the brothel, he can only dominate her
Her love—her priceless treasure—is worth
nothing here
Any lover she had would have to share her
Consumption
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Liza’s ultimate fate is grim
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She will never be able to get out of debt
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She will move to more and more disgusting
brothels
Eventually, she will be sick from consumption
She will be abandoned in the filthiest corner
to die
No one will remember her
Despair
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The speech had its intended effect
The narrator had never before witnessed
such despair
He asks her forgiveness and gives her his
address
She fetches a letter from a medical student
“who knew nothing” of her plight
She wanted to show she was loved, though
nothing would come of it
Aftermath
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After leaving, the narrator is amazed by his
sentimentality and upset by the thought that
Liza might call on him
He repays his debt to his schoolmate, writing
a noble letter
He goes out into the busy street, wondering
what is wrong with him
He is worrying about Liza’s possible visit to
his shabby underground hole
New Dreams
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The narrator considers going to Liza to
explain himself and beg her not to come
But this made him wrathful and determined to
crush her
He reflects on how easy it was to turn her life
around with a few bookish words
After she does not come around to visit, he
begins to dream of saving Liza
He fantasizes telling her that he knew of her
love from the start
Apollon
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The narrator is distracted by the behavior of
his servant, Apollon
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This dignified, elderly tailor despises him
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His behavior toward him was tyrranical
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In turn, the narrator hated Apollon
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He resolved not to pay him his wages
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Apollon responded by ritually staring at him
Visitation
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In the midst of the narrator’s confrontation
with Apollon, Liza visits him
He is humiliated by his ragged dress and his
wretched dwelling-place
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Yet he professes not to be ashamed
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He becomes hysterical
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Liza begins to speak, saying that she wants
to get away from the brothel
Confession
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The narrator reveals to Liza that the real
object of his sentimental speech at the
brothel was her humiliation
He had no intention of saving her
He was only playing with words, and wished
that she and the others would go straight to
hell
He is an egoist who only played at being her
hero, and he is ashamed
A Worm
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The narrator blames Liza for his own shame
He has confessed to her the worm-like
baseness of his existence
He asks why she remains there, “confronting”
him
Then he realized that she, out of love,
realizes that he is unhappy
She rushes to him and embraces him—and
he responds by being ashamed
Mastery and Possession
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At this point, there is a reversal of roles
She is the heroine and he the humiliated
creature
He reacts in his usual way, by attempting to
dominate and tyrannizing her
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He wants to master and possess her
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He hates her
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And she rapturously embraces him
The Final Insult
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Liza finally understands what the narrator is
up to
She retreats behind a screen, crying
The narrator paces about, peeking in through
a crack
He was incapable of loving her because he
could only tyrranize and show his moral
superiority
That is even how he conceptualized love,
even in his dreams
“Peace”
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All the narrator wanted at this point was to be
left alone
He did not realize that she had come to love
him, not to hear his “fine sentiments”
“Real life” was again oppressing him, and he
wanted only the “peace” of solitude
When she was leaving, he tried to give her
money, which she threw away
This was the final act of cruelty
Remorse?
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The narrator pursues her fruitlessly
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He wanted to beg forgiveness
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Yet he realized that it was to no purpose
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He would only hate her tomorrow
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And he would try to dominate her
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He tried to rationalize his situation to say that
losing her would be better for both
“Which is better—cheap happiness or
exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?”
Oppression
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The narrator sums up by saying that the
writing the story is not so much production of
literature as corrective punishment
A novel needs a hero, but the underground
man is an anti-hero
But are we not all cripples like him?
Without books, we would have no idea what
to do
We do not know how to live and are
oppressed at being real human beings
Crime and Punishment
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Two years later, Dostoevsky published his
first great novel, Crime and Punishment
The protagonist, Raskolnikov, in some ways
resembles the underground man
Leading an equally humiliating life, he sets
out to do something real
He commits a terrible crime in the name of a
higher consciousness
Conscience
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The engine of the novel is the police
investigation of the crime
But the real theme is the gradual
development of Raskolnikov’s guilty
conscience
He is aided in his purification by the prostitute
Sonia
In the end, he embraced Christianity and
attempts to atone for his crime
The Idiot
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Another two years later, the second great
novel, The Idiot, was published
The central thesis is that a Jesus-like figure
would find it impossible to survive in modern
times
Thus the book is an indictment of modern life
as inhospitable to Christianity
The Possessed
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The third great novel came in 1871, three
years after the second
Here, Dostoevsky turns from the
psychological arena to that of politics
He portrays revolutionary reformers (as he
once was) as utterly misguided
The message is that only Christian faith, not
political change, can bring salvation
The Brothers Karamazov
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The final great novel was his last, published
in 1879
The Brothers Karamazov is a sweeping tale
of morality
The characters personify the main types of
human being
The religious
– The sensualist
– The rationalist
–
Doubt
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In one place, the characters try to come to
grips with the problem of evil
How could God allow the immense suffering
of children?
Children are completely innocent and not
deserving of any punishment
A possible answer is that Jesus has the right
to forgive everything, because of his own
innocent suffering
The Grand Inquisitor
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The most famous passage in the book
centers on an inquisitor in the Spanish
Inquisition
Jesus comes back to earth and is
incarcerated
He is told by the inquisitor that he has no
right to return, since the welfare of souls has
been turned over to the Church
Jesus’s error was to invite humans to love
him freely rather than enslaving them