[gruseom]

Dostoevsky isn't talking about the "dangers of science" as such. He even goes out of his way to make that clear in the last sentence.

Seems to me more like he's interested in what happens when the intellect runs amok and is unbalanced by other aspects of human nature. Although I haven't read this story, that would be consistent with the rest of his work (Crime and Punishment, for example, which now that I think of it really goes into the dark side of "nerdiness").

Edit: Rereading the passage, I don't think that's really what's going on here either. This character seems naive and almost helpless, and the tone is more compassionate than critical.

[ii]

Read the story.

Edit: I agree that he isn't talking about the "dangers of science". It's more like "Nerd in the city"