VIII. “If there’s no immortality of the soul, . . . everything is lawful”: On the Philosophical Basis of Ivan Karamazov’s Idea

Abstract

In its various versions, the popular formula “If there is no God, . . . everything is lawful” is presented in many of Dostoevsky’s works. It plays an especially significant role in his novel The Brothers Karamazov. It is commonly known that Dostoevsky determined “the main question which is asked” to be “the question of God’s existence” (PSS, 29[1]:117).1 As he confessed, that was the question that tormented him all his life. In the second book of Brothers Karamazov, Piotr Miusov recites the words of Ivan Karamazov, who claimed,