Page 16 - GALIET BENEATH THE ICON: The Lamp Dostoevsky´s Kirillov IV

form is the “Good” and can only be attained by knowledge and understanding and not opinion or belief. This would mean that if the little girl did not like her rape it would be because she did not know it was good; something totally immoral, repulsive, and quite inconceivable. There is a natural instinct of transgression and rejection in most of us when learning of such a despicable act.
The moral question then becomes whether it is just or unjust to violate someone or to kill oneself or someone else, a moral notion that the nihilists and rational egoism obviously want to transcend. To this conundrum, Kirillov adds that if mankind knew they were all good, naturally and inherently, people would stop “raping little girls” or doing evil because they would see themselves solely as the source of the good. Kirillov is confident that a shift of consciousness would be imminent were all of humanity to “know” of their goodness and act according to that which is the good. Kirillov is also certain that he “who teaches that everyone is good, will bring us about the end of the world:”16 or paradise on earth. Stavrogin, astounded at Kirillov’s answer, responds by saying that “who taught it (the good) was crucified.” Kirillov does not hesitate to add that the new Christ will be Man-God. Since Kirillov’s philosophy of the good dwells on Platonic ideals of goodness (with its due implications), it demands of Stavrogin to mock Kirillov by
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