Me: Thank you Mr. Warburton, Mr. Andersen, and Mr. Baggini for attending this meeting. I have read some of your work gentlemen and that is why you are all here today. To answer a question I am about to ask. After reading your work, I am quite curious on how you will all answer this question about life and philosophy. Do you think philosophy can help people learn to respect truth, facts, reality, and one another, and to reject falsehood, superstition, selfishness, polarization, partisanship, and mutual hostility based on differences of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, belief, etc.? If so, how? If not, why not?
Warburton: Yes, but it can only help so much because influence can be good and it can also end badly. Humans are born good but living in major places and cities can drive a person away from being good. Jealousy and greed came from living together and competing for social status. If left alone, people will have no influence on each other and they would just do good for themselves.
“Left to our own devices, living in a forest, we wouldn’t cause many problems. But takes us out of this state of nature and puts us in cities and things start to go wrong. We become obsessed with trying to dominate other people, and with getting other people’s attention. This competitive approach to life has terrible psychological effects and the invention of money just makes it all far worse.” (LH106)
Baggini: I'll take a crack at the question! I have faith that the whole world can benefit from learning philosophy, but only to people who are open minded. Philosophy can give us so much information about life and all the different ways to live life. If people are willing to learn, they can understand and respect so much about other peoples realities and traditions. "By becoming philosophical explorers, we can build a more complete picture of the world and a more objective understanding by taking in multiple perspectives"(338). We should understand that others will have different opinions and allow that to gain more knowledge about their differences.
Me: Last, but not least, Mr. Andersen. What are your thoughts on this matter?
Andersen: I do not know if philosophy can help with all of those matters you listed, Randy. I was taught that I should think for myself instead of believing in something without proper knowledge. The media can trick people into shaping their lives after fantasy. “We stop registering the differences between stimulated and authentic, real and unreal” (Fantasyland 9). This can produce a false sense of reality and eventually become delusional. There is thing called a cocktail effect. "Cocktail effect concerning chemicals in the environment and drugs in the brain, where various substances “potentiate” other substances” (Fantasyland 10). Philosophy can be the resolution to this cocktail effect. However, it can only be resolved if people are willing to listen and learn from philosophy. Which can be very difficult to persuade people to do. If everyone can put down their phones and have a cleanse of the media, then it would be very favorable and advantageous to everyone.
Me: Wow! You guys met my standards at to mark. Even over the mark! This was a great learning experience for me and I could not be any more appreciative for you three. Thank you for taking time out of your day to come and speak to me. If I were to answer my question, I do think philosophy can help people in the long run when it comes to living life. Philosophy can be up in the air sometimes, but if you speak to the right people, you will gain knowledge that will be beneficial for you.
"Jealousy and greed came from living together and competing for social status" - That's Rousseau's view. Hobbes thought it was just the reverse.
ReplyDelete"The media can trick people into shaping their lives after fantasy" - Or do people trick themselves, by not questioning and thinking for themselves? "Media," after all is only a medium.