Levin asks Koznyshev to prove to him philosophically that education is good when it comes to the peasantry.Levin gives his main reason for not caring about "the common cause." Why should he build schools that neither he nor his children will ever use, and that the peasants don't want to attend? Not only do the peasants not want to bother with education, but schooling makes them useless for their actual jobs.Koznyshev asks how there can be any doubt about the usefulness of education? If it's good for Levin himself, why wouldn't it be good for the peasants?.What's more, Levin doesn't see the point of either medicine or schools.
He knows he's about to be pushed into admitting that he doesn't care about "the common cause." Levin replies that the kinds of reforms Koznyshev is talking about seem impossible in a district of three thousand square miles, with its bad weather and seasonal work. Levin's feeling unable to defend himself and offended by his brother's questions.Either Levin can't see all the good that he could do, or else he's unwilling to give up his time to do it. He's half-listening and thinking more about the plowing in his fields, which seems to have stopped prematurely. What's more, these issues don't concern him directly.
Levin thinks to himself that he never said he loved the peasants.How can Levin turn his back on the peasants he claims to love? Koznyshev points out that Levin's district is in bad shape: they contribute taxes that pay local council salaries, but there are still no public schools, medical care, midwives, or pharmacies ("dispensaries," as he calls them).Levin and his brother have an extended discussion about Levin's failure to stay on the District Council and try to improve living conditions (i.e., schools, health care) for those in the district.
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