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Philosophy and Literature (Who are we? (Objects / The Other Within the…
Philosophy and Literature
Who are we?
Body
Just as fundamental as the mind and the other half of the mind/body binary, body becomes a foundational topic for almost every single one of these authors in their quests to discover and articulate who we are.
Form
Thought experiments
Third-Person, Third-Person Plural
John Locke (1632-1704)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
In contrast to Descartes' cogito argument, Locke says we only have ideas in our minds through sensations (empiricism) or reflection.
Locke focuses on the body side of mind/body dualism. He is not unconcerned with the mind, but his emphasis on the body places him directly in line with the body concept.
He ties identiy or the self to space and time: we only exist insofar as we persist through time.
That being said, Locke did not say we are
only
memory
Inanimate objects not the same when atoms change. However, humans are because of memory.
Consciousness not only memory, also our present and future. Entagnlement of these temporalities gives us
moral agency
A severed finger changes our relationship to it
Prince and Cobbler throught experminet illlustrates how Locke thought consicousness could transcend the body (prince wakes up as cobbler, still same person)
Tabula Rosa
Born into the world blank. We are written on through sensory impressions.
Feeds into the person as an idea of a body with no self--a body as a blank slate.
Tabula Rosa and Gregor Samsa
I want to argue that Grergor is what Bureaucracy makes of a type of Tabula Rosa.
Gregor can hardly act on his own volition. Gregor, after his metarphosis, only has things happen to him, as the tabula rosa does. He slowly learns to respond to these sensory inputs.
A mark is left on him in a very literal way by his father, which kills him.
This is a stretch but there's a certain, appropriate thought experimentness to it.
Person
The person stands distinct from the self.
Its the vessel for the senses to etch themselves on.
Death
The end of the body influences all of Existentialism
Existentialism
The philosophical ideology developed by Sartre and others.
Sartre refers to it as a way for philosophers to live and that the layman misappropriated its tenets.
Everything stemming from here ultimately leads to Sartre
Anguish
The person who recognizes the global consequence of their actions lives in constant anguish.
They must act in a way that all humanity can replicate and remain aware of this burned at all times.
Forlornness
Sartre's forlornness speaks to the state of humanity after its realization that God was made-up. After having put its hope and worry into God, humanity is forsaken and required to figure out life on its own.
Despair
By despair, it seems Sartre simply means that the existentialist feels much of the world beyond their control.
The task becomes, then, to commit to what the existentialis has within reach, to plan, and to act in a way in accordance with one's plans.
Form
Thought-experiment
'Real life' examples
Humor
Defensive / Declarative
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
The Humanism of Existentialism
In
The Humanism of Existentialism
Sartre enemurates why Existentialism is a "harsh-optimism." He writes in response to critics who say it's taking one thing out of your pocket and putting it in the other.
That is, Sartre tries to ground his philosophy as the only possible way to create meaning without human-design. The humanism comes in because we ought to, sort of like the categorical imperative, act out of an agony of whether or not everybody could live up to the moral code we represent with our lives.
Sartre must be mentioned alonside the events of WWII when after the deaths of so many millions, humanity longed for some hopeful way forward.
Sartre connects to "The world" branch, which is an branch of "the other" because his project tries desperately to situate individuals withing some collective, global responsibility.
Most famous thought experiment the student he has who wonders whether staying with mom or going to fight in the war the right thing to do.
Hero
Sartre believes in every individual's capacity to choose their own destiny.
We must always be planning and executing our plans--this is the act of the hero. Their imagined future becomes their reality.
Freedom
To Sartre, freedom is an individual's ability to align their plans and actions.
Humans arfe "condemned to be free"
Quietism and Determinism
In response to the accusation of detachment, Sartre says existentialism is the most hopeful way to construct meaning in the world and the only viable one.
Urgency
An existentialist must act with urgency to accomplish their projects.
The anguish, despair, and forlornness push the existentialist to the brink of action at all times which allows for their freedom. This idea contrasts determinism which fixes one's life to a certain outcome.
Realm of Facticity
Somewhat analogous to Locke's modes, the realm of facticity simply catalogues the features of objects in the world.
The realm of givenness
Realm of Transcendence
One of Sartre's most famous ideas, transcendence goes 'beyond what is' and rejects determinism.
Objects / The Other
Within the Body Mind Dualism of early modern philosophy, the self was rather limited (Locke, Descartes). However, Proust and Kafak expand the possibilities of the self by opening it up to the influence of other people and objects.
The other is connected to mind, body, and the self.
Form
Third-Person Narrative
Free Indirect Discourse
Thought Experiment
Literal and Metaphor
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
The Metamorphisis
Kafka is placed directly in the way of "objects / other" because his short story experiments with, in some sense, what the self is as an object or an other and not a self. Rather, what a person is with no self (to use Locke's language).
Gregro Samsa wakes up one day to find his body transformed into some ambimgious (Kafka never specifies) bug-thing. He then tries to make sense of his new limiations and ends up being killed by his own father.
It goes above the mind and body because the object / other opens up the limitations of mind and body dualisms--while including them.
Metemoprhisis literalizes Locke's body skepticism (is Gregor still Grergo (the Prince still the prince) in a different body?)
Form
First-Person Narrative
Phenomenological
Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
Swann's Way
Proust aligns with object / other, though he could perhaps have been body, because of the role on involuntary memory.
The text begins by showing the amorphous state the senses are in during and around sleep. Form this Proust launches into a reflection on his past at an old home in Combray.
La scène des petites madelenes embodies this idea well--so much Combray detail comes back to Proust because of object association
Which is to also say, the role of the sense is pivotal in Proust. The mind cannot retrieve the past on its own
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy's connection to the impersonality of "object / other" and "animal" seems important to emphasize. Bureaucracy is the 'inhuman' mass of people or 'the animal' mass of people.
Family
In both Proust and Kafka, Family as a conglomerate influence on a person becomes inescapable in order to answer the question, "who are we?"
Alienation
Not only is Kafka the author of Alienation, Gregor Samsa is the epitome of the self become other.
The World
In contrast to defining the self's 'essence,' Sartre was instead focused on trying to ground the self in the world, both the world as an object and our relation to others in the world.
Race
W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963)
The Souls of Black Folks
Primarily, Dubois gives a historical account on the condition of the black soul. The black soul, to Dubois, was an Aristotelian composite made up of appetite, reason, and spirit
That is, Dubois discusses being black in America and the historical weight to the reality. This, of course, makes aligning him with Race which is in turn connected to the other and person.
Dubois perceived dissonance between his soul and the material world. And he meant to further democracy between the two.
Double consciousness, having a split internal self, was a key contribution from Dubois, along with his Veil concept
Dubois' self participates in the social; they cast ballots and have a say
Having to be asked to then go out and compete in the world, with such a heavy burden, is ludicrous, "A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world."
Veil
Dubois uses the veil metaphor often to describe the feeling of being black in America.
He sees himself as the same as those around him, but he feels blocked off from access to the world in the way white people access it as if covered by a veil, "alike, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil"
Double Consciousness
One of the key ideas in Dubois
The burden put onto the 'black man' creates a certain way of seeing the world
Double Consciousness
The concept takes precedent in Peele as well as Dubois
Too, Peele gives us a depiction of the double consciousness of whites in the film: their sneakiness, their lies, their subtle manipulation.
Form
Film
Jordan Peele (1979-)
* Get Out
Get out
follows the life of Chris Washington as his GF brings him to her family's cabin
Her family attempts to restrain Chris after auctioning off his body to a white person
The movie falls into the Race and Other branches because Peele explores the ways Blackness is fetishized and demonized
Peele works with many of the same ideas found in Dubois
The Sunken Place
Chris describes himself as living from the sunken place throughout the movie, an analogous concept to Dubois' Veil
Form
Though experiments
Analytics
Charles W. Mills (1951-)
"But what are you
really?
"
The chapter we read from Mill's book
Blackness Visible
tries to consider race from a metaphyscial perspective.
Mills gives us ten different problem cases that trouble our understanding of race.
The attempt to do this grounds race in a type of social metaphysics
Perhaps Mill's most meaningful thought experiment comes in his "quace" idea where he argues the realitivity of race while showing how the historical baggage of it makes the contruction of it impossible to detach from.
Social Ontology
Mills' tries to depict the influence race has on the question of how to be in the world, especially as it pertains to the social.
Racial Constructivism
Mills' advocates for this, that we move toward Race thought of as a construct, a "quace."
Quace isolates the historical baggage of race and shows how influential, like gender, the construct is on day-to-day life.
Brain in a Vat
Like Kafka makes literal Locke's prince and cobbler, Peele makes literal the idea of being a brain in a vat.
Photography Eyes
In Peele, the idea of second sight manifests in Chris's ability to shoot photography.
They are, his eyes, auctioned off to white people.
Second Sight
The burden of the veil, to Dubois, gives people a second sight that white people don't have.
Mind
A distinct essence according to Descartes
Cogito Ergo Sum
Foundationalism
Descartes thinks of knowledge like building a house metaphor
Nietzsche an anti-foundationalist!
Form
First Person
Reads like a diary
Countless thought experiments
René Descartes (1596 - 1650)
Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
Descartes' focuses on the mind within his discourse and tries to prove the self's existence independent of the corporeal objects (hence its closest connection to mind).
His discourse asks three hyperbolic questions of skepticism: what if everything a sensory illusion? What if everything is a dream? What if an evil-genius maliciously tries to confuse us about everything we assume true
Famous for
Cogito Ergo Sum
which notoriously translates, "I think therefore I am." Although, our edition translates, "I think; I am."
A rationalist and foundationalist who believed the Cogito functioned as the base for the rest of his proofs (the initial axiom to prove all his others; influenced by Euclid!).
Cogito
Sartre uses the cogito to suggest the state all humans operate in
He rejects the grammatical "I" the cogito claims
Epistemology
There are many different epistemologies in this section, but I find naming a few of the key ones is helpful
Schools of thought
These schools of thought manifest out of these writers and are retroactively applied. Nonetheless they help define the tasks and goals of each author's text/work.
Empiricism
Belief in the ability of senses to give reliable data about reality
Descartes specifically attacks Empricism
Locke a large proponent of Empiricism
Skepticism / Doubt
Although Descartes is not a full blown skeptic, insofar as he believes in the possibility of knowledge, his text depends on a deep doubt of object world around him and finds its foundation for its proofs in his
cogito ergo sum
Challenges traditional canons of authority (like Nietzsche!). Specifically, attacking Aristotle!
Locke's two types of knowing
Sensations
Reflection
Rationialism
Rather than trusting the senses to prove existence, Descartes depends entirely on cognitive function. This school of thought would later take on the label Rationalism, which contrasts Empiricism's emphasis on the senses.
Memory
For Descartes, could not be trusted
For Locke, a necessary component to the self. Gives us moral accountability
For Proust, a way to relive the deaths we've died (his project is an act of necromancy)
Personal Identity
A lot of Locke's work related to defining what makes the self.
That being said, Forensic Identity, an accountabillity of the self at the hands of the law, serves a big puprose in Locke as well.
Voluntary Memory
This concept exists on this map in contrast to involuntary memory which is crucial for Proust.
However, it's clear there's a Lockean utility to the idea: the forensic self, our self-identity, comes from a recalled memory to Locke
Involuntary Memory
In many ways, our memory is at the mercy of the senses and the objects we encounter that stimulate our senses.
The past
Whether to Proust or Locke, the passage of time is fundamental to their work.
God
Mind is a finite, derivative substance that comes from God's infinite.
God is the formal reality. God -> Substances -> Modes
God is just as brilliant of a literary technique as the malicious evil-genius (desptie Descartes' conviction of God's existence) in that God's Formal reality creates substances which create modes. That is, a formal idea (God) creates substances in the same the evil-genius disproves everyhing.
The Self
Many of these writers seek to answer what the basic unit of the self is, whether of the mind or body.
For descartes, the emphasis comes from the mind.
*Locke, despite his empiricism (i.e. bodily emphasis), places a great emphasis on the mind, whether it be the memory identity is informed by or the process of reflection by which we kmow things.
Solipsism
Of course, solipsism is used colloquially without the cartesian parameters of the cogito. But, Descartes comes closest of all the listed philosophers to a complete solipsistic world view.
Women
The self and the other merge in this category
Beauvoir argues woman is the lesser of the man/woman binary and is therefore made other
the self captures the gender construct that woman becomes, without depending too heavily on Butler language, although we'll get there.
Becomes
"one is not born, but becomes woman"
this idea similar to Sartre's
transcendence
in that one self-fashions themself a certain way
Prefaces butler's gender acts
Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986)\
Le Deuxième Sexe
Beauvoir enumerates the subjugation of women within the Men/Women gender binary. In addition to the work she does to show how women are made into 'others' she lays out a plan to liberate women.
Her plan mirrors, in ways, Sartre's realm of transcendence.
Lays out the independent, dependent idea of binaries: one binary must always be the independent and absolute while the other depends on it and is relative. Women, Beauvoir argues, have inhabited the dependent, relative side of the binary.
Alterity
Woman is absolute otherness
Although 'the other' is already a category, Beauvoir underlines the significance of alterity in women
Man coincides with the tacit norm of Universality; the development of this idea in her writing her most influential idea.
There is no "before women were subjugated by men"
Universal vs Particular
Beauvoir's exploration of men as the universal norm emphasized the distinctions between the universal and particular.
Specifically, the way categories like "women" become overlooked by universals, thereby becoming particulars, and are subjugated in the process.
Independent / Absolute : Dependent / Relative
This is, more or less, Beauvoir's rule of the binary
One state must always be the independent, absolute state, the second must be dependent on the first and meaningful as it relates to the other (why it's called relative)
Recognition
The "I" is not a given thing.
Consciousness comes through recognition of others
Intersubjectivity
Recognition demands reciprocity
Reification
Women have not rebelled because they live dispersed among men
By reifying these ideas the possibility of women having the ontological precedent to free themselves from the relative binary becomes possible
This type of life equates to Sartre's realm of transcendence.
Act
Act comes out of Beauvoir's women because Butler articulates gender as a social and historical act we all perform
Therefore, to be 'man' or to be 'woman' is to perform a certain set of acts.
Judith Butler (1956- _
Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory
Butler stems directly from Beauvoir's "Women" branch because Butler uses many of Beauvoir's ideas, but Butler then performs a post-structuralist deconstruction of gender as a whole.
This deconstruction shines light on the historical performativity involved in men's repression of women.
Butler posits that gender, as opposed to being a mode of a body as part of some mind body dualism, is a social and historical act.
The emphasis for butler lies in the performance of gender
Humans constantly perform according to the gender constructs their born into and face punitive measures for acting outside those contstructs
No Metaphysics of Substance
In contrast to Descartes or Locke, Butler argues that we're not made of some intangible substance but instead, the self is really a conglomerate of social and historical acts and their meanings.
Historicity of the Body
Sort of similar to Sartre, Butler argues there is a history to the Way we consider gender and therefore certain action are indicative of historical gender realities.
The Animal
The individual as animal will come up again (Nietzsche), but we see it first in Gregor Samsa
How should we live?
Duty
The necessity of action born out of respect for moral law
State
Antigone asks whether the state deserves one's duty more than the gods and tradition
Categorical Imperative
Never proceed in such a way except that my principal action maxim could become law.
The idea that one must follow a certain moral code, always, despite one's feelings is Kant's greatest contribution.
Form
Philosophical Discourse
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Obviously Kant cannot be close enough to
duty
Like Descartes and epistemology, Kant wants to discover the fundamental unit (Groundwordk) of (the metaphysics of) morals
In this text, Kant lays out the reasoning for his infamous Categorical imperative, on articulation of which is: Never proceed in such a way except that my principal action maxim could become a law.
He seperates the morality of an action from one's intent and instead posits that we each ought to come up with rules to guide our actions that can work for all humanity. This is what connects Kant to a priori and deontological ethics.
On top of separating ourselves from intent, we are to act always with the categorical imperative in mind
Duty for Kant contain the idea of good will--that we do a thing not because of consequences, but out of our power of rational moral chioce. Reason is also an empahsis for Kant.
Deontological ethics
Something is right or wrong based on the rules surrounding it, not the action itself
In contrast to consequentialist ethics which say something is right or wrong in terms of what the good or even or happiness or sadness it produces (its consequence)
Eichmann
Lieutenant Colonel for the Nazi regime. Found in Argentina
Eichmann uses a misunderstanding of the categorical imperative to justify his action as part of the Nazi Regime
From
Journalistic
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
Eichmann in Jerusalem
Arendt follows the trail of Adolf Eichman who, captured in Argentina, is tried in Jerusalem for his Nazi war crimes.
Arendt's piece considers who in the wake of WWII is truly responsible for charging Eichmann: an international court? The allies? Jerusalem? (Jerusalem does)
Arendt is connected to the duty branch and the categorical imperative branch because Eichmann shows how grossly wrong the misappropriation of philosophy is, especially when coupled with a deep conviction of duty at all costs.
The Banality of Evil
The subtitle of Arendt's work argues that common people, with no bad intentions, are most susceptible to be manipulated in the worst of ways.
The dependence of evil on thoughtlessness
The banality of evil has two connections to the who are we side: one to Kafka's bueraucracy (Eichman idlesness is an example of the evils bureaucracy is capable of; the other, Sartre, because Sartre warns agains the use of his exestentialism by non-philosophers. Eichman misusing the categorical imperative demonstrates the danger of "banality," or common people, misappropriating philosophy
Form
Film
Surrealism
Documentary
Joshua Oppenheimer (1974-)
The Act of Killing
The Act of Killing
follows around executioners who murdered thousands of people during the Indonesian genocide of communists.
The film falls directly in line with the imagination branch not only because Oppenheimer calls it "a film of imagination" but because the atrocities we witness simply must belong to a cognitive function other than reason.
Of course, the film also connects to the duty branch. The main character, Anwar, etc, acted in some sense out of a duty to their political party in their anti-communist efforts.
But, theirs a great (and grave) focus on how films from the west inflate the imaginations of the gangsters and make genocide seem okay to them.
Free men
The executioners in the movie constantly refer to themselves as free men which they say is the definition of gangster.
Choice
Choice, indeed, has been the theme in the ontological questions each work has looked at (and perhaps just of ontology).
It is such a broad word it is almost pointless to make it a keyword.
However, in a haunting way,
The Act of Killing
explores whether we have the choice to act differently and whether we have the choice to move on when we've acted wrongly.
Mercy
The problem of mercy and when to adjudicate becomes a theme in the play
Divine
Antigone, likewise, explores whether the divine demand one's duties more than the state (while this and state could be made a single branch, keeping them separate gives each more flexibility)
Form
Theater
Greek Tragedy
Play
Sophocles
Antigone
(496 BCE - 406)
Antigone
follows Creon and Antigone as Antigone buries the body of her dead brother Polynices against Creon's orders.
The play is primarily concerned with the question of duty, whether to state or tradition (for example, the gods), hence it's connected to the duty branch.
Instead of arriving at an answer, the play's tragic ending suggests there is no clear cut way to divide one's allegiances.
Ultimately, it is my opinion that Antigone gets the best of Creon and is the hero of the play, which is why, I think, the play is named after her.
Self
Morality and Reason
For Kant these ideas were inseparable, and they bound one to a categorical imperative
a priori
Kant concerned with a person's 'prior to experience' relationship to their actions
Good Will
Kant essentially believes a person is good to the degree that they embody good will
A person with good will acts out of a consideration of duty rather than of consequences
rational moral choice
Ought
Ought in humans is born out of imperfectness
Imagination
The role of imagination in every day life becomes dauntingly obvious in
The Act of Killing
and from then on becomes a theme our authors approach head on
Pain / Pleasure
I want to argue that the interplay between the imaginative and good & evil create both felt pain and pleasure and perceived pain and pleasure.
Form
Essay
Defense *like Sartre
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Utilitarianism
Takes up the project in full belief that we've not gotten very far in defining morality.
In this piece, Mill argues against what he deems misconception of utilitarianism and articulates the philosophy as the minimization of pain (or opposite of happiness) and maximization of pleasure.
Mill most closley tied to good and evil because of his happiness binary. But I also included the imaginative because of its later understood importance in what we conceive of as more or what makes us happy.
Argues Justice based on feelings of happiness
Very influence by Bentham and both were considered 'progressive' philosophies for their time.
Consequentialist
Through promoting the happiness of everyone, we promote the morals of everyone.
Happiness is the end through which we achieve morals
Form
Parable/Short Story
Surrealism
Thought Experiment
Ursula Le Guin (1928-2018)
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Guin's story explores a society where utilitarianism is made literal (as a parable)
For the ultimate pleasure of everybody, all the pain in inflicted on a single child held in captivity.
This story connects to pain/pleasure because it explores this theme through a consequentialist lens more than any other theme
It is connected to the imaginative branch because the whole story is hypothetical/allegorical/a parable.
From
Personal/Informal
Humor/Irony
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Beyond Good & Evil
Nietzsche's work seeks to redefine all preceding philosophy as not a will to truth but a will to power.
Nietzsche aligns with the imagiative and good/evil. One of his main argument is the importance of the imaginative in daily life, along with a hope for philosophers to get beyond the confines of moral philosophy
Using his philological training, Nietzsche accounts for the historical emergence of good and evil and imaginatively casts a new generation he calls the 'maybe' philosophers.
Trying to break out of restrictions of canonical tradition
Wants to change the world from a metaphor to be explained into a text to be interpreted
Philology
Nietzsche constantly references and is trained in a study of the history and evolution of language(s).
Value
Nietzsche wants to know and frames much of Beyond Good & Evil around, "How did we get to the framework and values we have today?"
Deconstruction/Reconstruction
Although Nietzsche is better known for his deconstructive work, his profound ability to deconstruct begs us to consider where philosophers dissemble and when and where they assemble ways to live
Dogma
Perhaps more than anything, Nietzsche's pushes back on claims of unfounded certainty (what an idea!).
Plato's realm of forms and Christianity take the most heat (Christianity just Platonism fior the people)
Artists and Philosophers of Tomorrow
Nietzsche views the two as allies, as both participating in the most imaginative way to lie (truth-tell).
Will to Power
Nietzsche famously reframes the accepted idea of philosophers' will to truth as really a will to power
• The idea being that philosophers thought they were 'searching for truth' but really their instincts are manifesting a will to power in philosophy
Heaven / Earth Dualism
Nietzsche, in getting away from platonism and christianity, also hopes to prevail over the heavens / earth dualism.
Nobility
Essentially, those who've dominated or subjugated a ruled class assume the distinction of 'noble' to their values.
Slave Morality/Master Morality
Nietzsche posits that all of human history can be for the most part broken into two different moralities: master morality conquers and determines values; salve morality wants affirmation and projects evilness on the morality of master.
One of the more obvious connections here is to Beauvoir's Dependent/Independent binary.
Self-Deception
Far from having only bad connotations, Nietzsche tries to show the role of self-deception in our day-to-day lives.
With such an understanding, we are prompted with an opportunity to fuse our life together with better lies.
Good & Evil
Most clearly defined in Nietzsche (Good comes from what master morality deems good, evil from the feelings slave morality projects onto master morality)
Nonetheless, the theme seems fundamental in all the questions each of the 2nd half texts ask. That is, good and evil, for all of these author (even Nietzsche who says we should go beyond it), is always at the root of "how should we live?"
Habit
and
the past
are inseparable to Proust. He sees habit as an anesthetizing force
