Theory of Evolution and Dostoevsky
Charles Darwin’s paradigm-changing work titled On the Origin of Species was first published in 1859 (Tanghe)1. In this book, he puts forward “a theory of evolution by the means of natural selection”. Darwin’s theory was a major scientific breakthrough that impacted not just our theoretical understanding of biological sciences but also how we think about our own existence and presence in relation to the world around us. Evolution very quickly became a popular talk of contention, debate, and scientific marvel not just in the United Kingdom where it was published but all around Europe, including Russia (Katz)2.
Notes from Underground
The first Russian translation of Origin of Species was published in 1864 by S. A. Rachinsky, around the time Dostoevsky was finishing up Notes from Underground (Vucinich)3. However, undoubtedly, the talk of the book and the ideas the theory of evolution brings up preceded the publication of the full Russian translation in the Russian literary circles. Specifically, published in 1864, we see the underground man in the Notes from Underground strongly challenging a rather simplistic and misinterpreted version of Darwin’s idea:
“As soon as they prove you, for instance, that you are descended from a monkey, then it's no use scowling, you just have to accept it.” 4(Dostoevsky 12)
The underground man rejects the theory of evolution in no uncertain terms because, to him, it is too straightforward, simplistic, and does not account for the individual selfhood and complexities of a human (Holquist)5.
Crime and Punishment
The dialogue between Dostoevsky's characters and the theory of evolution becomes apparent again in Raskolnikov’s theory of the so-called ‘extraordinary man’. In his thoughts about his theory, and in his explanations to people, he talks about a mechanism of “natural selection” in which “ according to the laws of nature, by the crossing of races and types” a ‘genius’ can be born (Katz). However, it is important to note here that this argument is also the place of birth of eugenics and even in the isolated context of the book this specific argument is a misguided perception of the theory, and I believe most readers of Crime and Punishment feel this way as well.
Dostoevsky on Darwin
In an article titled “One of the Contemporaneous Falsehoods” published in the Diary of a Writer, Dostoevsky talks about Darwin:
“Please note, gentlemen, that all of these high European teachers, our light and our hope -all those Mills, Darwins and Strausses - sometimes consider the moral obligations of modern man in a most astonishing manner.” 6(Dostoevsky 140)
In this passage, Darwin is clearly described as a valuable figure, being a leader and a thinker but his ideas are immediately connected to Nihilism as studying the theory of evolution was associated with the young nihilists that Dostoevsky was so passionately disliking at the time.
References
- Tanghe, Koen B. “On The Origin of Species : The Story of Darwin’s Title.” Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, vol. 73, no. 1, Mar. 2019, pp. 83–100. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2018.0015.
- Katz, Michael. “Dostoevsky and Natural Science.” Dostoevsky Studies, 1988, http://sites.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/09/063.shtml.
- Vucinich. Science in Russian Culture. 2: 1861 - 1917. Stanford Univ. Press, 1970.
- Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground and the Grand Inquisitor. Translated by Ralph Matlaw and Constance Garnett, Plume, 2003.
- Holquist, Michael. Dostoevsky and the Novel. 2016.
- Dostoevsky, The Diary of a Writer. Translated by B. Brasol. New York: George Braziller, 1954