English Explanatory Dictionary

Anna Karenina principle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A notion stating that the success of an endeavor depends upon the fulfilment of several essential conditions, and a deficiency in any one of these factors dooms the endeavor to failure, meaning there are many different ways to fail.

Word forms

Anna Karenina principle

Etymology

Referring to Leo Tolstoy's 1877 novel Anna Karenina, which begins: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Popularized by American scientist Jared Diamond (born 1937) in his 1997 non-fiction book Guns, Germs, and Steel, in which he uses it to illustrate why so few wild animals have been successfully domesticated throughout history.

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