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On Life

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

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Introduction (Richard Vogel)
Chapter 1 The essential contradiction inherent in human life (Arden)
Chapter 2 Humanity has recognized from the earliest days the contradiction of life... (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 3 The errors of the Scribes (Ian S. Carr)
Chapter 4 The doctrine of the Scribes substitutes the visible manifestation of man's animal existence... (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 5 The false doctrines of the Pharisees and Scribes no more explain the true meaning of life... (Tatiana Chichilla)
Chapter 6 The division in the consciousness of the men of our time (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 7 The division of consciousness proceeds from the confusion of the animal life with the human (marvinch)
Chapter 8 The division and the contradiction are only apparent: they are the consequence of false doctrine (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 9 The birth of the true life in man (jenno)
Chapter 10 Reason is the law recognized by man, in conformity with which his life must be perfected (Kerry Adams)
Chapter 11 False direction of knowledge (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 12 The cause of false knowledge is the false perspective in which objects appear (jenno)
Chapter 13 The possibility of understanding objects increases not in proportion to their manifestation in time and space... (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 14 The true human life is not that which is lived in time and space (pratibhanair)
Chapter 15 The renunciation of the wellbeing of the animal individuality is the law of human life (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 16 The animal individuality is the instrument of life (colleenomorrow)
Chapter 17 Birth by the Spirit (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 18 The demands of the reasonable consciousness (worldwideput)
Chapter 19 Confirmation of the demands of the reasonable consciousness (John)
Chapter 20 The demands of the individuality appear incompatible with those of the reasonable consciousness (ivobrkn18Harrop)
Chapter 21 What is required is not renunciation of our individuality but the subjugation of individuality to the reasonable consciousness (Michael Fassio)
Chapter 22 The feeling of love is the manifestation of the activity of the individuality subjected to the reasonable consciousness (John)
Chapter 23 The manifestation of the feeling of love is impossible to men who do not understand the meaning of their life (Paul Lawley-Jones)
Chapter 24 True love is a consequence of the renunciation of the welfare of the individuality (Tim Juang)
Chapter 25 Love is the sole and complete activity of the true life (Tim Juang)
Chapter 26 The efforts of men, directed to the impossible amelioration of their existence, deprive them of the possibility of living the one true life (Jesse Zuba)
Chapter 27 The fear of death is only the consciousness of the unsolved contradiction of life (Jesse Zuba)
Chapter 28 Carnal death destroys the body limited in space and the consciousness limited in time... (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Chapter 29 Men fear death because they have restricted life by their false conception, taking a part of life to be the whole (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Chapter 30 Life is a relationship to the world. The movement of life is the establishment of new and loftier relationships... (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Chapter 31 The life of men when they are dead does not cease in this world (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Chapter 32 The dread of death proceeds from man's confusion of his different relationships to the world (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Chapter 33 The visible life is a part of the infinite movement of life (czandra)
Chapter 34 The incomprehensibility of the sufferings of earthly existence proves to man more convincingly than anything... (Luke Hamilton)
Chapter 35 Physical sufferings constitute an indispensable condition of the life and welfare of men (Luke Hamilton)
Conclusion (Kerry Adams)
Appendix I (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Appendix II (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Appendix III (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
Appendix IV Mr. H. W. Massingham on "Life" (Jeffrey Allen Stumpf)
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