In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky writes, “You have needs, satisfy them. Don’t hesitate. Expand your needs and demand more.” He calls this “the worldly doctrine of today.”
But true to the depth of the great writer, he acknowledges the trap we fall into when we pursue a life of singular materialism.
“The result,” Dostoevsky writes, “For the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”
So boiling that down to its metaphysical essence, Dostoevsky was basically suggesting that the popular bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins,” is a lot of twaddle.
But materialism is our inheritance from about 500 years of science bent on eradicating anything to do with spirituality – which they termed superstitious – from their theories.
I don’t think this was a step up. In the end, a materialistic philosophy narrows our perspective to where mere survival becomes our primary objective.
Transcending Einstein and Materialism with Keppe’s New Physics, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.