Besides defining the differences between the brothers, their arguments represent Levin's own struggle for meaning as he strives to discover the "key to life" first through science, then philosophy, finally concluding that the answer lies in living a "natural life," that is, seeking a universal identity of his soul and that of nature. Koznyshev's emptiness and sterility derive from his dependence on intellectual processes, while Levin's "salvation" derives from his emotional commitment. The exultant feeling of health and peace Levin achieves from mowing prefigures his anti-intellectual solution to life's ultimate meaning.
Levin's "materialism" is based on his confidence in the importance of individual needs. Education, for instance, means nothing to him unless it furthers one's emotional development and deals with increasing one's awareness of basic life goals. For him, peasants do not require education since they understand the basic relation between an individual and his purpose in life. To Koznyshev, education is important for its own sake and must be universally applied so that everyone has intellectual tools with which to understand the complicated problems of an advanced society.
