Notes from Underground Essay -- Book Review, Dostoyevsky

One word that has come to represent the mid-18th century discretion move ment is Reason. The French philosophes believed that reason could provide critical, informed, scientific solutions to favorable issues and problems, and essentially improve the hu public condition. Russian author Fyodor Dostoevskys Notes from underpass is one of the most famous anti-Enlightenment novels for its rejection of these very notions. Through this novel he showed what he believed were gaps in the idea that the mind could be ceased from ignorance through the drill of reason, and the rejection of the idea that humankind could achieve a utopian existence as a result.The story revolves around the thoughts and rants of an unnamed char snatcher that we shall refer to as The Underground Man. In Dostoevskys time, the term man or men referred to all humankind, and the Underground Man seems symbolic of what could happen to mankind should the everlasting application of reason take over. Dostoevsky seems to b e making the statement that modestness is indeed useful for analyzing situations but is ultimately damaging to the self if pore on constantly. Reason does not, as many Enlightenment thinkers believed, free man but instead takes something away from the essential human existence. It reduces us to something that batch be scientifically explained, forcing us to lose a fundamental fade of what makes us human in the process All human actions get out then, of course, be classified according to these laws mathematically, like a logarithm table, up to 108,000 and entered in a special almanacwith such precision that there leave alone no longer be any actions or adventures in the world (24). The Underground Man suggests that the one most advantageous advant... .... This complexness causes him to doubt every single decision and make any subject of action impossible, which is why he believes only narrow-minded people who are not able to question their actions are the only ones who can act with confidence. Taking all this into consideration, it seems impossible that excessive reason and consciousness will eventually lead to progress it will do just the opposite, when victimisation the Underground Man as an example. One can find some(prenominal) anecdotal support in Notes from Underground that this is an anti-Enlightenment novel far as well as much to be included in this short book review. make up from the few examples listed here and through the Underground Mans preaching throughout, it is easy to see the explicit rejection of the Enlightenment notion that reason would free mans mind of ignorance and set humankind on a path to a utopian existence.