| Introduction: Tolstoy was a Russian novelist, moral
philosopher, and religious reformer. |
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a. He made the Russian realistic novel a literary genre that
ranks in importance and influence with Classical Greek tragedy and Elizabethan drama. |
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b. He stressed the ethical and moral side of Christianity. |
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(1) The Sermon on the Mount especially impressed him: the
doctrine of love. |
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(2) He condemned capitalism, private property, and the
division of labor. |
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(3) He was an early champion of the non-violent protest and
the doctrine of passive resistance. |
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c. Tolstoy was very much interested in childhood education
and self-improvement. |
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(1) From the time of college on, he acquired the life-long
habit of keeping a diary or journal of this thoughts, plans, and actions. |
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(2) He followed a rigorous course of self-study throughout
his life. |
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(3) Some of his followers tried to build utopias on the basis
of his ideas. |
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d. His views on living life as simply as possible led to
problems with his wife after he put all his works in the public domain. He died at a
railway station on his way to spend his remaining years at a monastery. |
TOP |
| 1. Explain
"an arrest of life." What happened to Tolstoy? |
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a. Here is a person who had everything going for him: a great
author, wealth, and respect of the nation. These, he says, held at bay any question of the
meaning of life. |
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b. Note how Tolstoy describes his life in almost exactly the
same terms as Russell's practical man: |
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"...what to me was the only truth, that it was necessary
to live in such a way as to derive the greatest comfort for oneself and one's
family." |
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c. An arrest of life: he did not know how to live or
what to do. The significance of life had lost all meaning. |
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(1) The same questions: Why (do this)? Well (so what if I
do)? and then (what if I don't)? In part, the questions are reminiscent of the expression,
"Is that all there is?" |
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(2) To say that Tolstoy was merely suffering a "mid-life
crisis" would be to commit a psychologism. |
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(3) Tolstoy did not know how to live or what to do. Also, he
expresses a sense of "beingness towards death." (Cf., the "time of
life curve" in the notes on Camus.) |
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(4) Notice, as well, Tolstoy expresses Camus' sense of being
"undermined": "I felt that what I was standing on had given way..." |
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(a) Yet, he was in full command of his mental powers. |
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(b) Again, Tolstoy predates Camus' sense of the Absurd: "...my life
is a stupid mean trick played on me by somebody." Tolstoy could not find any sensible
meaning to a single act or to his whole life. |
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(5) "The Well of Life"--story from the Mahabharata:
shows our predicament graphically. |
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(Note the drops of honey (authorship and family) are what Camus will
later call, "eluding" from life.) |
TOP |
| 2. What is
"the truth"? |
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(a) Cf. the description of "truth" above. |
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(b) "The truth" is simply that fact that I will
die. Death is the truth. |
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(c) I remember reading a novel in college with the ending to
the effect: rich, poor, handsome, ugly, they are all equal now (having had lived in a past
century). |
TOP |
| 3. What does
Tolstoy say about art? |
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(a) Art is an adornment of life, a decoy of life, a
diversion, a way to elude life. (The idea is that a decoy is something which entices or
lures us into a trap.) |
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(b) Art and poetry are an imitation of life: a representation
of reality rather than reality, itself. (Compare this idea to Plato's theory of the good.) |
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(c) Consider the mundane example of the difference between
seeing a movie instead of living your own life. Do you stand up, walk out of the movie,
and say, "I have my own life to live"? |
| 4. Does
science give meaning to life? Do the working people? Rational people? Philosophers? |
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(a) The fact that I am part of the infinite destroys all
meaning. Consider the levels of phenomena of the world and how they can be used to explain
what we are. |
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physics--reality is made of
fundamental particles and forces |
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chemistry--reality is made from the
interactions of atoms constructed from the fundamental particles and forces |
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biochemistry--reality is made from
interactions of carbon-chained atoms |
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biology--we are composed of these
complex molecules (an interesting pile of molecules in a certain form) |
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psychology--our minds are chemical
reactions in the brain |
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sociology and politics--social
forces are no more than complex events composed and reducible to those same fundamental
particles and forces in physics. |
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(b) The immense time-periods in recounting the story of
existence from the "big bang" diminishes the meaning and significance of life as
well. Consider the chart in the left-hand margin. My existence is not really noticeable in
the enlarged scale dating from Homo
erectus. |
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Big Bang: 12 to 15 billion years ago |
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Formation of the earth: 4.5 billion years
ago |
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Homo erectus: 1.7 million years
ago |
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Neanderthal Man: 20,000 years ago |
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Farming: 10,000 years ago |
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Mesopotamia: 5,000years ago |
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My life: 70 years |
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(c) The answer of science then is that human life is
incomprehensible and is part of the incomprehensible and infinite universe. |
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(d) Consider, for example, our place in the vastness of the
universe. If it were possible to travel at the speed of light, then it would take us... |
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11 hours to get to the planet Pluto, |
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4 years to get to the nearest star, |
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100,000 years to cross our own galaxy, the
Milky Way, and |
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10 to 13 billion years to get to the
farthest galaxy. |
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(e) Thus, Tolstoy believes the answers given by science are
all identities (e.g., equations and explanations); science is the belief that there
are no answers outside the complex relations of material processes. |
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(f) Insofar as philosophy is rational (c.f., our definition
of philosophy
at the beginning of the course), the answer to the question of the meaning of life is
indefinite. Tolstoy believes this analysis is true for all rational persons. |
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(1) Tolstoy believes this analysis is true for all rational
persons. |
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(2) Rationality does not give insight into the meaning of the
universe. How can anyone explain the finite in terms of the infinite? |
TOP |
| 5. In what can
one find the meaning of life? |
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(a) Tolstoy believes that only irrational knowledge or
faith makes it possible to live. He particularly cites the faith of the working people. |
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(b) Faith, alone, can give life meaning. To live humanly is
to believe in something beyond proof. |
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(c) Note particularly that, although Tolstoy was a Christian,
he is not proselytizing for that religion. He points out that the superstitions of
religion are not essential to that faith. |
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(d) The faith that Tolstoy characterizes is faith in the
relation of the finite to the infinite. He states that real faith is that which alone
gives meaning and possibility to life. |
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(1) Reflection, arts, and sciences are mere pampering of
appetites. |
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(2) The meaning given to this life is "truth." |
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(3) Note how the definition of "truth" has changes
throughout the essay: |
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Truth1 was the attempt to live comfortably. |
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Truth2 was the fact of death. |
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Truth3 is faith. |
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| Recommended background information: |
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Eugene Kamenka, "Tolstoy, Count Leo Nikolaevich,"
in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Paul Edwards, New York: Macmillan, 1967,
Vol. 8, 146-149. |
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http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=06BBF000 |
Philosophy 102: Introduction to Philosophical
Inquiry
