Examples Of Nihilism In Notes From Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky

Medicine for Nihilism

An old aphorism states: Ignorance is bliss. This truism is apparent throughout ancient and contemporary society. In the book titled, Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky engages with nihilism. The story reveals how an intelligent man who was once captivated by Russian romanticism ends up living in an allegorical underground where he is tormented by his indecisiveness between the many options of life. His indecisiveness consists of a dichotomy of opposites: Peace versus strife, melancholy versus joyfulness, and good opposed to bad. This can be displayed through showing that intelligence leads to an overactive consciousness. An overactive consciousness can lead to a struggle between opposites that may lead to indecisiveness and nihilism. The man from the underground demonstrates that being intelligent and perfectly honest with oneself leads to nihilism, and ignorance may be the antidote.

After he recognizes this relativity, it leads him to an overactive consciousness. The underground man would consider one ignorant when they comprehend relativity but choose to disregard it and lie to themselves and the world. The man from the underground is a clever individual who understands that being intelligent leads to an overactive consciousness. He states,

I want to tell you, gentlemen, whether you care to hear it or not, why I could not even become an insect, I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect. But I was not equal even to that. I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness-a real thoroughgoing illness. (Dostoevsky