On Life

by Leo Tolstoy

41 chapters6h 24mEnglish1902

About this book

What is the "good life" for us mortal beings? Two months spent recovering from a severe injury allowed Tolstoy to develop and organise his thoughts on the subject. On Life is his philosophical answer where love, religion, and morality come together to ground us in reality. - Summary by Cao Yuqing

Chapters (40)

1Chapter 1 The essential contradiction inherent in human life

410

2Chapter 2 Humanity has recognized from the earliest days the contradiction of life...

544

3Chapter 3 The errors of the Scribes

315

4Chapter 4 The doctrine of the Scribes substitutes the visible manifestation of man's animal existence...

438

5Chapter 5 The false doctrines of the Pharisees and Scribes no more explain the true meaning of life...

578

6Chapter 6 The division in the consciousness of the men of our time

405

7Chapter 7 The division of consciousness proceeds from the confusion of the animal life with the human

447

8Chapter 8 The division and the contradiction are only apparent: they are the consequence of false doctrine

339

9Chapter 9 The birth of the true life in man

373

10Chapter 10 Reason is the law recognized by man, in conformity with which his life must be perfected

378

11Chapter 11 False direction of knowledge

584

12Chapter 12 The cause of false knowledge is the false perspective in which objects appear

541

13Chapter 13 The possibility of understanding objects increases not in proportion to their manifestation in time and space...

655

14Chapter 14 The true human life is not that which is lived in time and space

536

15Chapter 15 The renunciation of the wellbeing of the animal individuality is the law of human life

452

16Chapter 16 The animal individuality is the instrument of life

317

17Chapter 17 Birth by the Spirit

205

18Chapter 18 The demands of the reasonable consciousness

640

19Chapter 19 Confirmation of the demands of the reasonable consciousness

622

20Chapter 20 The demands of the individuality appear incompatible with those of the reasonable consciousness

330

21Chapter 21 What is required is not renunciation of our individuality but the subjugation of individuality to the reasonable consciousness

601

22Chapter 22 The feeling of love is the manifestation of the activity of the individuality subjected to the reasonable consciousness

601

23Chapter 23 The manifestation of the feeling of love is impossible to men who do not understand the meaning of their life

1014

24Chapter 24 True love is a consequence of the renunciation of the welfare of the individuality

583

25Chapter 25 Love is the sole and complete activity of the true life

478

26Chapter 26 The efforts of men, directed to the impossible amelioration of their existence, deprive them of the possibility of living the one true life

421

27Chapter 27 The fear of death is only the consciousness of the unsolved contradiction of life

606

28Chapter 28 Carnal death destroys the body limited in space and the consciousness limited in time...

844

29Chapter 29 Men fear death because they have restricted life by their false conception, taking a part of life to be the whole

439

30Chapter 30 Life is a relationship to the world. The movement of life is the establishment of new and loftier relationships...

425

31Chapter 31 The life of men when they are dead does not cease in this world

717

32Chapter 32 The dread of death proceeds from man's confusion of his different relationships to the world

581

33Chapter 33 The visible life is a part of the infinite movement of life

694

34Chapter 34 The incomprehensibility of the sufferings of earthly existence proves to man more convincingly than anything...

1240

35Chapter 35 Physical sufferings constitute an indispensable condition of the life and welfare of men

690

36Conclusion

164

37Appendix I

324

38Appendix II

263

39Appendix III

210

40Appendix IV Mr. H. W. Massingham on "Life"

996

On Life

About this book

Chapters (40)

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