Tolstoy on Happiness

I am finally in the home stretch of War and Peace. In an earlier part of the book Prince Andrei and Pierre muse about happiness and Andrei makes the wry comment that Happiness is seen as a negative reflection - i.e. you know when it is not there. Pierre, by this time in the book has been put in prison and almost executed for a foolish attempt on Napoleon. He begins to reflect on his friend's comments and starts to understand them - but in a different manner than Andrei intended them. Pierre, reflecting the best of Hayek or any other Austrian economist (subtle irony here) suggests that happiness is derived from the struggle for it. That people derive satisfaction not from material goods (which Pierre had plenty of) but from the pursuit of happiness. You can notice a change in Pierre here that is subtle but interesting. He drops his foppish attractions to all sorts of causes and begins to understand the true nature of happiness.

This section in the book returns to Tolstoy's discussion of authority. He expressly, in a long passage about Napoleon's orders and intentions in occupying Moscow, explains the concept of epephenominality (one of my students once described this obscure term as "Who'd a thunk it?"). All of the intentions of Napoleon both in terms of his own army and in terms of the occupation of Moscow seem to result in the opposite of the intended effects. He recounts, not unlike the contrasts he presented earlier about Pierre's lame efforts with his serfs, about how all of the things Napoleon intended do not happen.

This part of the book seems to be a way for Tolstoy to reinforce some of the best parts of his messages while concluding the story.