Contributed by
"William E. Emba"
Part I
involves an unnamed rather crazed and unreliable narrator
(generally known as "the Underground Man") raving and rambling
against life, the universe, and everything. A few times, he
rails at the scientifically established fact that free will is
an illusion (because everything follows mathematically from
initial conditions) and that responsibility thus does not exist.
In particular, the Underground Man particular tries to think
through the consequences of the eventual discovery of the
ultimate formulas that describe all forthcoming human action.
Part II is the actual story, regarding the sequence of events
that made the Underground Man the man he is today. His narration
is still unreliable, but is primarily concerned with the events
in question (and no mathematics).
An unidentified translation is online at
http://eserver.org/books/dostoevsky-underground/
Mathematically minded passages are in part I, sections VII and
VIII of the above. (Unfortunately, various translations differ
in regard to the subdivisions, and even the paragraphing, so
it's not possible to give absolute references.)
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