V. Dostoevsky and the Meaning of “the Meaning of Life”

Abstract

It appears innocent enough. In the conversation leading up to the famous metaphysical challenges in the “Rebellion” chapter of The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan responds to his brother Alyosha’s assertion that we must all love life. “Love life more than its meaning [smysl ee]?” Ivan asks. “Certainly,” Alyosha answers, “love it before logic, as you say. Certainly it has to be before logic, and only then will I understand the meaning [smysl poimu].”1 Today we take no notice of the English phrase “meaning of life,” or its Russian equivalent (smysl zhizni), so widespread has its use been for so long, and we’re unlikely to think a Russian author in the 1870s was doing anything unusual when he used it, just as we’re unlikely to pause, when we read it, to wonder what it means. But what does it mean here, in this dialogue? Ivan is distinguishing life itself from the meaning of life, apparently insisting that to love one is not the same as to love the other. He understands his brother to be placing a higher value on loving life itself than on loving the meaning of life, suggesting that the meaning of life—or at least a concern for it—somehow falls short of just plain life—and