Thoughts on Crime and Punishment Book 2 Chapter 4

Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin enters the apartment after arriving in Petersburg in search of Raskolnikov. He is quite shaken and disgusted by the site of the apartment and the disheveled look of Raskolnikov and Razumikhin. They disagree from the start and are hostile to each other.

Luzhin - 

Luzhin demonstrates quite a modern and atheistic opinion and understanding of the world around him. He introduces this modern wave by describing a movement away from the past. 

“But it is my personal view, if you like, that something has in fact been done: useful new ideas have been spread, and some useful new books, instead of the former dreamy and romantic ones; literature is acquiring a shade of greater maturity; many prejudices have been eradicated and derided… In short, we have cut ourselves off irrevocably from the past, and that in itself, I think, is already something, sir…” 

A fascinating passage to read from the perspective of Dostoevsky as an author. His understanding of the beginnings of the progressivism that will eventually usurp traditionally russian values and give birth to the soviet union 60 years before it actually happened. 

Luzhin continues… 

“If up to now, for example, I have been told to ‘love my neighbor,’ and I did love him, what came of it? What came of it was that I tore my caftan in two, shared with my neighbor, and we were both left half naked, in accordance with the Russian proverb which says: If you chose several hares at once, you won’t overtake any one of them. But science says: Love yourself before all, because everything in the world is based on self-interest. If you love only yourself, you will set your affairs up properly, and your caftan will also remain in one piece. And economic truth adds that the more properly arranged personal affairs and, so to speak, whole caftans there are in society, the firmer its foundations are and the better arranged its common cause. It follows that by acquiring solely and exclusively for myself, I am thereby precisely acquiring for everyone, as it were, and working so that my neighbor will have something more than a torn caftan, not from private, isolated generosities now, but as a result of universal prosperity. A simple thought, which unfortunately has been too long in coming, overshadowed by rapturousness and dreaminess, thought it seems it would not take much wit to realize…”

This is observably quite a well articulated and substantial argument for a self-interested approach to life, however, it is misguided. This perspective is founded on the premise that looking out for oneself over each other will yield a more fruitful community with greater opportunity for all, due to the fact that there will be a higher number of well-preserved individuals. The issue with this is two fold. The first being that time has proven that self-preservation alone is not enough for man to function at a productive level. Man is so often lazy and forgetful, especially without the accountability of loved ones to care for and especially a higher power to believe in. The second being that humans have an intrinsic desire for purpose beyond one's self, and to act solely in self interest, though often natural, is to act against that desire. The result is an unfulfilled life, a feeling of waste, and a disgust and hatred for oneself. Which in the end, is what the enemy wants. Acting solely in self-interest will not create a higher performing society, it will be quite the opposite. Love thy neighbor.