Starting this off with a transcription of a comic that I may or may not post (captions will be designated with apostrophes, dialogue with obvious quotation marks):
‘Deep in an unnamed Russian forest in an abandoned shack’
“Well gentlemen- Do you know why I’ve gathered you all here.” I say as I stare at a beautiful portrait of myself. It pans to the three philosophers sitting at a dining table. Kurt Andersen and Julian Baggini are tied to their chairs, both shaking mildly. Nigel Warburton is not, calmly eating dinner. Andersen and Baggini are silent.
“You had leftovers?” Burton asks unperturbed.
“Exactly!” I swivel around quickly, pointing at the two silent victims- ignoring Burton. “I’ve brought you here to write my midterm!”
The fear from the others has completely flown out of them, being replaced by obvious irritation seen in their wasted time.
“You know out of the 5 times I’ve been kidnapped this has been the least professional I hope you know. At least have the common courtesy to cut off a finger or something.” Baggini says as he stands out of his chair. He had untied the rope binding him with little effort. Andersen does not get up as he did not learn how to untie knots as a child, a very true fact that I will continue to confirm to this day. I sprint towards the door and hastily lock it before the one person attempting to flee makes their escape. (Comic ends here.)
“Please- I can only stretch this bit for so long! I can’t make the word count like this!” I beg. Baginni crosses his arms. “Just two questions, and then you can leave.”
He sits back down. “Fine. Two questions.”
I sigh and wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead. “Nigel, my dear friend, would you care to start us off?” He shrugs.
“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?” (From this point onward, I will refer to this as- the first question.)
“I’d say so. I mean, obviously, it isn’t you know, black and white.” He puts down his fork. “But I think when philosophy is thought about and sought in earnest, it will benefit the majority of people. At the very least, on an individual level. The exceptions to this plus really tend to come into play due to our own unwillingness to explore thought we don’t agree with already. Take for example, Friedrich Nietzsche. His thoughts already lead him to the idea that strong should take priority over the weak. It wasn’t that far of a stretch for his sister to go ‘through her brother’s notebooks, picking out lines she agreed with and leaving out anything that criticized Germany or didn’t support her racist viewpoint. Her cut and paste version of Nietzsche’s ideas, published as the Will to Power, turned his writing into propaganda for Nazism, and Nietzsche became an approved author in the third Reich.’” (Warburton, 175)
“Exactly. Maybe philosophy could help people if they were willing to genuinely rely on it. Rather than just pretend to invoke it to prove some bias or want they already had.” Andersen interrupts. “I mean think about Esalen ‘religion’. It ‘developed and popularized a wholesale reinvention of psychology and medicine and philosophy driven by a suspicion of science and reason and an embrace of magical thinking.’ (Andersen, 178) They can call it a philosophy, but it wasn’t genuine thought. Just another thing people wanted to hear.”
“Well hold on a minute,” Warburton says holding up a finger, pausing to take a sip of his drink. “I just meant that your own personal biases play into how you interpret philosophy. Not that people are outright intending to misuse it, rather that it clouds your judgement in ways you don’t quite notice. Though maybe that’s what you meant. Either way it makes it easier to misuse it or rather just use it to harm others. I guess there’s no correct way to use it. Anyways, even though I think that Nietzsche’s ideas had flaws, I do believe they still were important in our discussions of selfishness- and as you said religion.” I nod.
“Baggini, you’re being quiet. Thoughts?”
“I mean, there’s not really much I can add. In my opinion, this is surface level. Of course, it's not black and white. It doesn’t really add much to the genuine discussion to state it- it feels like more a formality. My honest thoughts are strongly yes. Philosophy does help us better understand each other and ourselves. The extreme differences in how humans can approach things I believe necessitates that we throw ourselves into other people's philosophies. “Most people do not consciously articulate the philosophical assumptions they have absorbed and are often not even aware that they have any, but assumptions about the nature of self, ethics, sources of knowledge, the goals of life, are deeply embedded in our cultures and frame our thinking without being aware of them” (Baggini, xii) However, while we may always be tinged by our western upbringing, we can always expand our horizons beyond that scope and become closer to others.
I tap loudly on a clock I have set on the table, though it’s not clear where I got it from.
“Anyways... this isn’t going anywhere...” I sigh. “...Stealing a question from the lad William James, what do you all think this world is going to be? What is life eventually to make of itself?”
“Easy question. Humanity will destroy itself and then this speck of life will be engulfed by our sun.” Anderson nods. “Maybe will be outlived by tardigrades, but I can’t think of much else.”
“Ever the optimist and pragmatist as always.”
Andersen coughs. “I mean my book is called fantasy land. Being realistic is kind of what I do for a living Just being honest, based on the path we’re on- or rather have always been on, I don’t think anybody should be surprised if that’s our outcome. But you know, don’t give up. “While our Fantasy land tendencies were present from the beginning, the current situation was not inevitable, because history and evolution never are. (Andersen, 440)”
“Yeah, I’m more inclined to jump on the idea that we will improve. Or rather that humanity will continue to go on. Changing slightly, but hopefully improving with hindsight. Whatever happens, I think it’ll be different.” Warburton states. Baggini nods.
“Our world is such a vast, complex and beautiful place, I can’t see it not improving either. I-”
The clock I have on the table rings.
“Well. It would seem we’ve run out of time.” I sigh and take a bow. “Thank you for your help. You’re free to go.”
Baggini is out the door almost instantly. Warburton hi-fives me and then follows him out. I throw down some spark powder and disappear from the room. Andersen is still tied up and begins to tear up.
“Guys...? Please don’t leave me here.”
END
As Consolation for not having the finished comic please enjoy this drawing of Garfield. Feel free to pretend this is who was asking the questions.
You really don't have to kidnap a philosopher to get him to talk.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Nigel "Burton"?
I hope you weren't really sweating the word-count.
"I guess there’s no correct way to use it." But you just pointed out how incorrectly Nietzsche's sister used his philosophy.
"...there’s not really much I can add" - philosophers rarely say this.
"the current situation was not inevitable, because history and evolution never are" - and that's why Andersen would not say this is an "easy question"
Glad you had fun with this assignment!