Irrational Underground Man
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The numerous ways of interpreting Notes from Underground
- The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of arbitrary
- The Underground Man choosing against his best interest
- The Underground Man's allusion to Napoleon
- Determinism and free will
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
Summary"I am a sick man" are the opening words to Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella Notes from Underground. For the narrator, the Underground Man is both figuratively and literally sick - his liver hurts but he will not receive treatment from doctors. Indeed, only a 'sick man' would choose to let his liver rot. Yet there is a strange philosophy embedded within the Underground Man's words: through irrationality, spitefulness and arbitrariness he will pronounce his existence. His purpose for existence is his freewill.
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