Recent Freedom Fund virtual reading group Exploring the theme of joy in Leo Tolstoy’s novels anna karenina. For Tolstoy, happiness is not a final state that a person can reach. This is an ongoing process of discovery through trial and error. This is similar to how many economists view the market.
For example, one of F.A. Hayek’s most famous articles is “Competition as a discovery procedure” Israel Kerzner of New York University dedicated his work. career A way of thinking that views the market as a process rather than an outcome. George Mason University economist Rosolino Candela I will explain Kerzner sees markets as “a process of discovery, error correction, and learning.”
Tolstoy’s characters anna karenina Each goes through the Kerznerian process of pursuing happiness. The title character, unhappily married Anna, begins an affair with a dashing military man named Vronsky. Parallel to their story are the young man Levin, modeled after Tolstoy himself, and the kind-hearted and sensitive debutant Catherine (often referred to as Kitty). The novel follows their lives and the lives of their families and those around them.
For many of the characters, part of the process of finding happiness is deciding where to live. They move back and forth between the city and the countryside, with varying results. The country is a perfect fit for Levin, who has an idyllic romantic bent. Time spent in the city strengthens it for him.
Anna and Vronsky are more comfortable in Moscow or St. Petersburg, talking in salons, going to the theater, dancing at balls, and they do not do so well in the countryside. People have different preferences when it comes to markets and happiness.
However, Anna and Vronsky’s affair is a scandal in their high society. While the male Vronsky is largely accepted by his old friends, Anna is shunned by the typical double standards of the time, and is lonely and isolated. Anna and Vronsky move abroad for a while to escape social condemnation, and then move to a mansion in the country.
Like entrepreneurs, they try new things in this environment. While in Italy, Vronsky discovers his artistic talent, but is disappointed to find that his paintbrush skills are limited to that of a copyist who transcribes what he sees. A true artist, like the one he and Anna meet and paint her portrait, can instead create an original interpretation and reveal hidden qualities. Vronsky noticed this and put down his pen.
Anna struggles to start a charity school in her country estate, but she cares more about the children than the daughter she has with Vronsky. She also misses the son she left with her husband.
Many of these experiments in pursuit of happiness fail, just as most new businesses fail. Anna’s journey ultimately ends in suicide. Vronsky ultimately becomes a disfigured man, last seen on a train on his way to volunteer in the Serbo-Turkish war.
Levin, the stand-in for young Tolstoy, is the character whose happiness process is most successful. This is because, after failing over and over again, he eventually found a middle ground. He begins the book as an enthusiastic rural romantic who idealizes peasants and their way of life. He then leans in the opposite direction, almost disdainful of the peasants who can’t seem to make good decisions on their own.
During this period, Levin was working on a book on the political economy that favored an agricultural economy run by experts. Just as an entrepreneur stops producing a product that loses money and switches to another product that people value more highly, he never finishes it and abandons it for other, more fulfilling purposes. I will.
A lifelong religious skeptic, Levin, near the end of the book, becomes overwhelmed with religious zeal, which he finds as unsatisfying as his earlier skepticism. Only at the very end does he find peace by moderating his new enthusiasm and replacing it with a quiet, contemplative faith.
Levin’s wife Kitty tends to accept the characteristics of those around her and seeks happiness by choosing the right company. After a period of unhappiness and subsequent unhealthy imitation of a young woman she meets at a resort, Anna discovers that she is at her best when surrounded by family and like-minded friends.
each character of anna karenina Like all market players, we go through various discovery processes. Like the market, this process won’t go perfectly for everyone. anna karenina.
Happiness and finances are not the same thing. But their underlying processes have enough in common that once we understand a little about one, we can use it to better understand the other.
frank knightThe great economist from the University of Chicago wrote in “Ethics and Economic Reform” on page 55 of this collection: freedom and reform“Calling a situation hopeless is realistically the same as calling it ideal.” The problem with perfection is that it cannot be improved upon. If you think about it, this is a depressing thought. Knight was writing about markets, and the same thing applies to happiness.
That’s why it’s important to think of both markets and well-being as processes. Just as markets cannot reach perfect competition, no one can be perfectly happy. But in both cases there is always room for improvement and always room for optimism.
The essence of economics is not money, efficiencyor maximize utility. It’s about how people find ways to get along with each other, and how they don’t. No wonder that insight applies so well to the pursuit of happiness. As Tolstoy notes, the pursuit of happiness works in the same way.
Ryan Young is a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.