For my second paper, I would like to discuss the role of moral responsibility in The Brothers Karamazov. The novel tracks the evolution of Ivan, whose doubt in God relieves him, he believes, of all responsibility for the actions committed by others. This logic is deduced by his believe that since there is no God, and hence no afterlife, the concept of morality has no grounding. Therefore people are justified to act in whatever way they want. This conclusion lies at the core of Ivan’s character and directly conflicts with the teachings of Father Zosima, who asserts that every person shares at least some responsibility for the sins of others because all actions are interconnected. In my paper, I would like to explore the role of cause and effect, or causality, a concept of long-lasting philosophical interest, because it connects with the existence of God. For example, what kind of world allows for the existence of causal relations? Is it one subjected to a creator or to random occurrence? Dostoevsky acknowledges the relationship between causality and Christianity, as the murder of Ivan’s father, Fyodor Pavlovich, is illustrated to be a direct effect of Ivan’s influence, the realization of which is a turning point in Ivan’s character.
For this paper, I plan to focus on two scenes in the novel: The scene that includes the poem of the Grand Inquisitor, because it reveals what is wrong with Ivan’s prioritization of society over the individual, and the scene of Smerdyakov’s confession, because it reveals Ivan’s struggle to accept partial guilt for his father’s murder.