On Life
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
‘On Life’ was published by the Fee Age Press in England; a publishing house set up to side-step the censorship of Tolstoy in Russia, and to give him an international voice.
So what is life? ‘Life is the sum of functions which resist death,’ says the scientist. But is it more than that, asks Tolstoy in ‘On Life’ - a philosophical and religious search for an understanding of life beyond scientific formulae.
For Tolstoy, the basic contradiction for humanity is this: people aim solely for their own well being, but discover along the way that their own well being depends also on the well being of others. A further discovery by such people is that decay, old age and death attend their every step. Such basic human truths are the context for Tolstoy’s search for happiness, in which Buddhist, Jewish, Stoic and Christian views are considered, as well as those of science. Tolstoy believes that fear of death is merely the consciousness of the unsolved contradiction of life; a sign of a carnal or animal mentality, which mistakenly takes part of life to be the whole. Tolstoy believes that individual well-being must be renounced and replaced by our ‘reasonable consciousness’, which points the way to true happiness, and brings human re-birth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This first annotated translation of an 1886 work from Tolstoy marks a significant achievement in studies of the author. The book remains a difficult one to characterize, as, according to Medzhibovskaya, it's "neither an abstract nor a technical philosophical treatise" but rather a "piece of literary nonfiction" in which Tolstoy argues that true happiness can come only through "reasonable consciousness," a kind of spiritual consciousness that transcends the merely physical. Along with a fresh translation, this edition boasts a thorough introduction, which describes the book's genesis in Tolstoy's recovery from a near-fatal infection at his country estate, places it in the context of philosophy's rise as a professional academic discipline in Russia, and traces its contemporary reception (it was banned in Russia but promptly translated into French and English.) Medzhibovskaya also includes a supplement that excerpts relevant sections of Tolstoy's own diaries and presents a selection of letters, lectures, and reviews about the text essential material for serious study. Though clearly aimed at Tolstoy scholars, this critical edition will be of interest to anyone attracted to Tolstoy's unique brand of spirituality.
