Chapter 25 - The Mechanized World

Summary

The chapter offers a reassessment of Tolstoy’s views on the role of science and technology in human life. Both in his time and in current scholarship Tolstoy has often been charged with being a Luddite. While indeed critical of some modern technologies, such as trains, Tolstoy was enthusiastic about others, such as bicycles, photography, and phonographs. Tolstoy’s attitude toward his era’s unprecedented technological advances might seem contradictory, but, as this chapter demonstrates, his acceptance of some modern technologies and rejection of others was in fact consistent with his philosophy of life and the place of creativity in it. When approached holistically, Tolstoy’s writings evince his thoughtful and sophisticated understanding of modern technology that presages some of the most influential theories of technology developed in the twentieth century.