Historical Necessity and Individual Choice

War and Peace

The novel explores how personal decisions feel free while becoming part of historical processes that no individual can control.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Personal Motives Personal Motives from "War and Peace". Private Reasons for Public War Sovereigns, officers, and soldiers enter the war for different reasons: ambition, duty, employment, fear, or habit.

Personal Motives from "War and Peace". Private Reasons for Public War Sovereigns, officers, and soldiers enter the war for different reasons: ambition, duty, employment, fear, or habit.

Private Reasons for Public War Sovereigns, officers, and soldiers enter the war for different reasons: ambition, duty, employment, fear, or habit. No Single Cause Diplomatic explanations fail to account for the multiplicity of motives. Historical Pattern The novel begins treating war as the sum of countless personal choices.

Commands and Consequences Commands and Consequences from "War and Peace". Orders Do Not Control Events Napoleon Bonaparte and Russian commanders issue plans that are delayed, altered, ignored, or made irrelevant by circumstances.

Commands and Consequences from "War and Peace". Orders Do Not Control Events Napoleon Bonaparte and Russian commanders issue plans that are delayed, altered, ignored, or made irrelevant by circumstances.

Orders Do Not Control Events Napoleon Bonaparte and Russian commanders issue plans that are delayed, altered, ignored, or made irrelevant by circumstances. Apparent Authority The commander's will appears to cause movement only because successful orders are remembered. Invisible Conditions Time, distance, weather, morale, and local action determine what can actually happen.

The Flank March The Flank March from "War and Peace". Movement Without a Master Plan The Russian flank march to Tarutino emerges gradually from supply needs, French inactivity, and changing reports.

The Flank March from "War and Peace". Movement Without a Master Plan The Russian flank march to Tarutino emerges gradually from supply needs, French inactivity, and changing reports.

Movement Without a Master Plan The Russian flank march to Tarutino emerges gradually from supply needs, French inactivity, and changing reports. Retrospective Genius Later historians attribute the movement to deliberate strategic foresight. Novelistic Correction The movement is shown as a cumulative result of small decisions rather than a single design.

Collective Will Collective Will from "War and Peace". Individual Acts Become National Force Peasants, partisans, soldiers, and families act from immediate motives that together destroy the French position.

Collective Will from "War and Peace". Individual Acts Become National Force Peasants, partisans, soldiers, and families act from immediate motives that together destroy the French position.

Individual Acts Become National Force Peasants, partisans, soldiers, and families act from immediate motives that together destroy the French position. Unconscious Cooperation Few participants understand the historical meaning of their actions. Result A national victory emerges without a central plan.

Theory of Necessity Theory of Necessity from "War and Peace". Freedom and Necessity The epilogue argues that every human action combines conscious freedom with conditions imposed by time, space, and causation.

Theory of Necessity from "War and Peace". Freedom and Necessity The epilogue argues that every human action combines conscious freedom with conditions imposed by time, space, and causation.

Freedom and Necessity The epilogue argues that every human action combines conscious freedom with conditions imposed by time, space, and causation. Historical Science History should study innumerable individual tendencies rather than heroic explanations. Philosophical Balance Freedom is the content of life, while necessity is the form through which life becomes intelligible.

1805 during the War of the Third Coalition

1812 during the French invasion of Russia

September 1812 after the abandonment of Moscow

October-December 1812 during the People's war

1813-1820 in the second epilogue