the underground man from Notes from the Understand stands opposed to the rationalists’ opinion of enlightened self interest, which is defined by:
if you do bad actions, that means you don't understand your interests. all actions you do serve your self-interest.
he is born a man confused by the new age of rationalism and of skepticism, in a transitional world going from tradition, religion to science, and the discovery of free will
he argues that man will ‘kick over over all rational benefit and prosperity of utopia’. mans wants to live according to their ‘free will’
the underground man sees man as 'a perdominantaly creative animal condemned consciously to strive towards a goal' yet 'fond of destruction and chaos'
'perhaps the whole goal towards which mankind is striving in this world consists solely in the uninterrupted process of achievement - in other words, in life itself'