The Idiot The Idiot The Idiot (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal "The Russian Messenger" in 1868–9. The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince (Knyaz) Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the
A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World is a work by Christian theologian, reformer, author, and pastor Jonathan Edwards that was started in the mid-1750s but not finally published until after his death in 1765. This dissertation was published concurrently with "The Nature of True Virtue", and the two works have much in common, specifically the assertion that God's aim in creating the world was not human happiness but his own glory. Edwards argues against the people of his day that claimed that human happiness