Dostoevsky’s imaginary challenge to sacrifice a child in return for paradise on earth?

Question

Can some one explain this for me please ,came across it in a book with no explanation.

Answer 1

This question comes from the book "The Brothers Karamosov", where two brothers are talking about Theodicy(justification of god). The older brother Ivan is a European educated Russian and his brother Aliosha is a monk that has just gotten out of a monestary. Ivan essentially rejects philosophers such as Hick(1920-present) how claim that evil and suffering are a necessary part of the world and that at the end of time all will be revealed and those who suffered will be able to say "it was worth it". In the brothers Karamosov, this is pointed to when Ivan brings up a newspaper article that speaks about a little child being ripped to shreds by dogs because the boy was a serf and his land master got upset and set his dogs on him for no other reason than to punish insolence. Ivan concludes his thoughts that if the sacrifice of this child is what is needed for eternal paradise, he wants no part of it and thus rejects god. However he goes on to say that, "by any means i wish to help humanity", essentially he will do anything, including injustice, to improve humanity, this is where "the ends justify the means" comes in.

I Hope this helps answer your question

Answer 2

That was a truly excellent dialogue from the 'Brothers Karamazov'. I put a good link to the dialogue below. Here's a relevant exerpt:

"If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? It’s beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, and why they should pay for the harmony. ... Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn’t grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old. ... I understand, of course, what an upheaval of the universe it will be when everything in heaven and earth blends in one hymn of praise and everything that lives and has lived cries aloud: ‘Thou art just, O Lord, for Thy ways are revealed.’ When the mother embraces the fiend who threw her child to the dogs, and all three cry aloud with tears, ‘Thou art just, O Lord!’ then, of course, the crown of knowledge will be reached and all will be made clear. But what pulls me up here is that I can’t accept that harmony. ... You see, Alyosha, perhaps it really may happen that if I live to that moment, or rise again to see it, I, too, perhaps, may cry aloud with the rest, looking at the mother embracing the child’s torturer, ‘Thou art just, O Lord!’ but I don’t want to cry aloud then. While there is still time, I hasten to protect myself, and so I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It’s not worth the tears of that one tortured child who beat itself on the breast with its little fist and prayed in its stinking outhouse, with its unexpiated tears to ‘dear, kind God’!"

Or, in summary, the character Ivan argues that he can not concieve of any kind of true justice which would call for the death of innocents (children, in this case). Quite the contrary... he argues that anything that takes such measures must be defined as IN-justice, and perhaps evil besides, no matter what reason may be provided.

The end does not justify the means. Even one child is not worth the price of universal harmony and heaven for all.

Answer 3

The question that Dostoevsky asked was, in effect, "would it be moral to commit a greivous crime (murdering an innocent child) in exchange for an unimaginable benefit? (Paradise on Earth.)

To put it in simpler terms "Does the ends justify the means?" Is is moral to commit a lesser crime in return for a greater benefit?

Answer 4

I just wanted to add to what said above. This book was recommended to me in a manner "You don't know anything about this life until you read "Brothers Karamazov" " It made me to get it and read it. Now, after I read it again and again, I learnt about life and I experienced it on my skin, I can tell that nothing made a greater impact on me, as a person, more then this book. It makes you grow, it makes your heart and soul get bigger, if you know what I mean.

Answer 5

Television is produced to the lowest common denominator - i.e., the average IQ of the general public, whereas a e book is written to the best common denominator

Answer 6

I love watching TV, I really like the animal shows, the medical shows and the courtroom and Judges shows

Answer 7

It's the same thing, and it may be inspired by it, than the sacrifice of Abraham in the Bible. So ask your pastor or whoever what is the SYMBOLIC meaning of that.

Answer 8

Strange man with weird ideas...sorry can't help. Crime and Punishment a good book but not for the faint hearted.

Answer 9

Apparently, Dostoevsky was a muslim...