Underground Egoism
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date published 29/04/2008
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SummaryDostoevsky’s Underground Man is an attempt to offer an example of the true result of egoism, as opposed to the rational egoism of Western European Enlightenment literature. It became the intellectual fashion at this time to believe that natural law was the only law, and that if men acted according to what was in their natural best interests, society would be better off. With Notes From Underground, Dostoevsky sought to fight against the moral corruption of the Russian people by these naturalist European theories. The Underground Man is a true egoist who makes full use of the free will that the rational egoists deny, and because of that is shown to be morally reprehensible. I think it is a mistake to read the Underground Man as being in intellectual agreement with the rational egoists, with emotional contradictions. It seems to me that he feels his form of egoism to be truer and fuller than the form represented by the “good men” who (claim to) act according to the laws of nature. Even a man as sick and wicked as the Underground Man wouldn’t be believably human unless he had a moral conscience, even if he doesn’t behave according to it.
Table of Contents- He is fully isolated, and his self-solicitousness is apparent in his preoccupation with his own aims and satisfactions.
- All that being said, it is clear that the Underground Man acts strictly according to his will in the moment.
- Another case for his growth is a fair understanding of reality, despite his continued inability to interact with it properly.
- It is clear that his younger self was not nearly as conscious as his current self.
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