{"id":96,"date":"2016-09-12T10:12:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T15:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/?p=96"},"modified":"2022-08-10T12:39:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:39:30","slug":"galt-meet-zosima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/12\/galt-meet-zosima\/","title":{"rendered":"Galt Meet Zosima (3\/4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we will see, Fyodor Dostoevsky starts off very strong in <\/span>The Brothers Karamazov<\/span><\/i>. Almost as soon as the book begins, he has us contemplating God, faith, and the afterlife. This is an odd topic indeed for a whodunit centered around what bears a striking resemblance to a discombobulated family reunion. There are all sorts in the Karamazov family, and Dostoevsky leverages their variety well. It seems that for every vice, there is a man with it, and one for every virtue as well, though these can be more subtle in their nature. There is, however, one man of virtue who stands out from the rest. He mentors the eventual hero of the novel and is even a bit of a celebrity himself–Father Zosima. It is he that we find discussing God, faith, and the afterlife with Madame Hohlakov in the opening chapters of part 1 of the book, and it is his ethic which we will be looking at next.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that Zosima\u2019s ethic can be encapsulated in one word–altruism. It seems altruistic, but it is an altruism not so much focused on sacrifice for the other as on intentions. It\u2019s the hedonistic paradox aimed at self fulfillment instead of pleasure. One cannot fulfil the self by seeking to do so. The aim of one\u2019s actions cannot be toward self-fulfillment or they will miss the mark every time. One can fulfill one\u2019s self only by actively loving the other. We can deduce the majority of Zosima\u2019s ethic from two quotations. When Madame Hohlakov confesses her \u201clack of faith\u201d to Father Zosima, she wants proof, proof of \u201clife after death\u201d (55). Father Zosima responds, \u201c\u2018One cannot prove anything here, but it is possible to be convinced\u2019\u201d (56). \u201c\u2018How? By what?\u2019\u201d Madame Hohlakav asks (56). It is in the following response that we begin to see just how extreme Father Zosima\u2019s philosophy really seems, even among his fellow monks. He replies, \u201c\u2018By the experience of active love. Try to love your neighbors actively and tirelessly…And if you reach complete selflessness in the love of your neighbor, then undoubtedly you will believe, and no doubt will even be able to enter your soul\u2019\u201d (56). <\/span><\/p>\n

From these and many other remarks, it is clear that Zosima \u00a0seems to preach an ethic that is extreme indeed. An ethic that goes beyond self-fulfillment via active love, to active love alone. The self seems to get lost in the active love of the other. Indeed, Zosima says that only when you have reached \u201c\u2018complete selflessness in the love of your neighbor\u2019\u201d will you have faith without a doubt (56). But let’s see if we can shed some light on his underlying assumptions \u00a0by considering another of Zosima\u2019s teachings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Midway through the novel there is an entire section dedicated to Zosima\u2019s life and teachings. Here there is a subsection entitled <\/span>(i) Of Hell and Hell Fire: A Mystical Discourse<\/span><\/i>, where Zosima discusses what hell is and how one exists there (322). He describes hell as follows: \u201c\u2018The suffering of being no longer able to love\u2019\u201d (322). It is clear that Zosima believes the absence of the ability to love causes suffering, but what isn\u2019t quite as apparent is what Zosima must believe to make such a claim. He must believe that love itself, active love, brings joy and fulfillment.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we find then, and in Hell of all places, is that Zosima\u2019s ethic isn\u2019t quite what it seems. It\u2019s not a call to abandon the self. It\u2019s not a call to sacrifice one’s happiness for another. It\u2019s a call to come back to our roots and live as we were created to live. It\u2019s a call to the active love of another, with the benefit of self-fulfillment and joy. You see, we weren\u2019t created to be happy, we weren’t created even to seek it. We were created to love, and the former follows. This is at least what I think Zosima would say.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\"\"\n\"\"\n\"\"\n\"\"\n\"\"\n <\/map>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we will see, Fyodor Dostoevsky starts off very strong in The Brothers Karamazov. Almost as soon as the book begins, he has us contemplating God, faith, and the afterlife. This is an odd topic indeed for a whodunit centered around what bears a striking resemblance to a discombobulated family reunion. There are all sorts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,5],"tags":[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ayn-rand","category-ethics","category-fyodor-dostoyevsky","category-objectivism","tag-ethics","tag-father-zosima","tag-john-galt","tag-logic","tag-metaphysics","tag-objectivism","tag-philosophy","tag-religion","tag-selfishness","tag-selflessness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}