Dostoevsky: Notes From Underground & Rational Egoism

Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground is considered to be the first work of existentialism. It's a rebuke to the rational egoists of his day, specifically Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What is to be Done? What's the analysis? How do we interpret the book? And how did he predict the financial crash of 2008?

Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos:

Follow me on:

Sources:

Jackson, Robert Louis, Dostoevsky’s Underground Man in Russian Literature

Paris, Bernard. J., Dosteovsky’s Greatest Characters

Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground

Scanlan, James P. "The Case against Rational Egoism in Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground"." Journal of the History of Ideas 60, no. 3 (1999): 549-67. doi:10.2307/3654018.

Credits:

Music:

[ThenNow]

Thank you to:

Owen Pitcairn
Robert Moore
and E.V. Roske

For sponsoring this video on Patreon with pledges of $10+
It's a huge help and is the only way I can make these videos, so thank you!

I also have magnets to giveaway to $5+ Patreons and ALL supporters get early access to scripts, audio and upcoming research.

[williamkoscielniak]

Many years ago when I was in my early 20's, Notes From Underground was like my bible. It described my state of mind and inner turmoil so accurately that it was both frightening yet so liberating. He and Nietzsche seemed to be the only two people I was aware of that understood my psyche. I will always be indebted to both men.

[mattbenz]

Notes From the Underground was a denouncement of utopia in its entirely. It could easily be taken as an argument against both Chernyshevsky and Lenin's books called "What is to be Done". Dostoevsky simply didn't believe that humans were capable of utopia, and he went deeper into this topic in his book "Brothers Kazamov". In that book, he used the story with Jesus and the High Inquisitor as an allegory for the ending of the Garden of Eden story in the bible. The High Inquisitor admitted that the church was trying to rebuild the Garden of Eden by taking away the people's burden of knowledge of good and evil.

[samuelkawkabani]

An amazing summary of an extremely difficult novel; thank you.

[abdielgonzalez]

Another banger. Also with silently insidiously unconsciously masochistic

[ntokozomalunga]

Wow, what a wonderful video. Beautiful narrated. I didn't know how I never came across your channel before. Really great stuff man, thank you so much for your content. Please keep up the good work. 👏🏽

[benzur]

I’ve walked through streets named tchernechovski through most of my youth, but when I asked my teachers and parents who he was I got no more thorough answer than “a great leftist political thinker” now you’ve cleared a little bit about his ideology for me and it’s background, and with its glaring commonalities with its direct opposite I also understand abit of the very well known animosity between his socialist utopia and other communists’ ones. Thanks for tying it all in such a context, so even without full knowledge of few of those thinkers I can start connecting and contradicting between them as a prelude to reading them

[rusirumunasinghe]

Can't wait to get my hands on this book!

[wallykaspars]

That's why I like Dada and Surrealism. Also, much of L'Art Brut.

[antonkarlsson]

Love your stuff man, really great narrating and great analysing always

[jkam]

I love that you used clips from the movie from the adaption of HG Wells' Things to Come (which Wells worked on). I found that story tells the Underground story well (even putting the Utopian city underground). When the people of this utopia are excited by the man who wants to stop progress, the people who hear him become giddy about the idea of "smashing things up" and the more rational people were only able to succeed with seconds to spare.

[moonson]

I am the underground man its almost scary how closely I resemble him, his entire thought processes and ideals, to how he interacts with the people around him. I do not know how to feel about this, I need some light in my life

[ck]

These are the best video essays on youtube. disastrously undersubscribed.

[jkam]

Enjoyed the small clip from "Things to Come." That part of the film is such an interesting take on democracy and the power of charismatic voices to alter opinion or provoke violence.

[renatomartins]

Amazing analysis of the book although the argument of how it predicted the 2008 crisis could not be more wrong.

[admirallove]

Recently read this, here is something I have been thinking about: to what extent is man's obstinate irrationality the result of being confronted by the results of a rational understanding of himself? Does man still crave expressions of whim over objectivity if he remains ignorant of that objectivity?

Doestoevsky describes this rational moment of discovering the objective limits of human nature as encountering a brick wall, and there are two types of reactions to this encounter: that of the ordinary person who lacks the understanding that this wall represents a limit and is thus satisfied with bashing their head against it over and over again; and then that of Dostoevsky's character, who (arrogantly, or accurately?) considers themselves to be exceptionally intelligent, and is paralyzed by despair once they realize that the wall cannot be passed through, i.e. there is no transcendence of humanity.

If this understanding is correct, is it possible that Dostoevsky would find folly not just in expecting the masses to act rationally, but also that rationality itself when taken to its logical extremes produces the irrationality we should fear the most.

[eorobinson]

It’s seems fairly self evident, that rationalism and it’s expectations of individual capacity, is just a strand of enlightenment idealism—it’s (almost romantically) idealistic and lacks a basis in the grounded actuality of the contradictions/constraints of the human mind and by extension the social constructions that result.

[iARAVIND]

Great video as always. Would you consider making a video about the themes in some of the other works of Dotoyevsky like Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov?

[themaximus]

I just watched the collaboration video you did over on the caspian report, and I figured I'd check this channel out. Both this, and your neurobollucks video are really good. I'm a tad surprised you don't have more subscribers. Though, I suppose the market for informative youtube videos is a bit on the crowded side nowadays. Anyways, you've just won yourself over a subscriber, and I hope you do more colabs with shirvan and the caspian report in the future. You have a lovely voice by the way.

[nopasaran]

I like the second what is to be done better