DE Weekly: Benatar, the Asymmetry Argument, & Camus’s Rebel
Earlier this week, I came across a post on social media from a so-called “anti-natalist,” someone who believes that it is wrong to have children, and that we should not do so. Their reasons, they claim, are philosophical. “When you bring someone into this world,” this person wrote, “you are introducing them to a lifetime of pain and suffering.” The conclusion they draw from this is that it is morally wrong to procreate.
I wish this view of humanity was a one-off. Alas, that is not the case; there have been whole philosophical treatises written on the subject aiming to advance the anti-natalist view.
DE Weekly: Mortality, Psyche, & Kierkegaard At a Graveside
The English word “psyche” comes from the Greek psyche (𝜓𝜐 𝜒𝜂′), meaning soul, self, life, mind, or inner being. It derives from the word psucho (𝜓𝜐 𝜒𝜔), meaning “breath” or “to breathe.” This is because the psyche, that is, the soul, is the animating energy behind the self in each person.
In the modern day, I wish we would treat the words “psyche” and “soul” in the English language as interchangeable. They should be, in fact; after all, when one feels one’s soul is lacking in something they seek a psychologist.
DE Weekly: Aestheticism, Wilde, & The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return’d to me, And answer’d: ‘I Myself am Heav’n and Hell.’” This poem from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is repeated in a film I watched this past week, the 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The poem is read throughout the movie by the film’s namesake, Dorian Gray. Sitting for a portrait painted by his friend Basil Hallward, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a man who lives only for pleasure, and suggests to Dorian that men should pursue only their sensual pleasures.
DE Weekly: Sartre, Being-for-Others, & the Invisible Guest Theory
Every now and then, interesting conversations arise on social media, allowing for philosophical perspectives to interject and offer insight into the topic. I came across just such a conversation this past week when I saw people discussing the “Invisible Guest Theory.” As I tend to do, I immediately thought about how existential philosophy applies to this theory.
The Invisible Guest Theory suggests that people in social situations, such as a party, are too preoccupied with themselves and their own insecurities to pay any attention to anyone else; in effect, they are thinking entirely of themselves and have no time or attention to focus on or judge you.
DE Weekly: Camus, Absurdism, & Revolt
One of the first names mentioned when one discusses the great philosophers of Existentialism is Albert Camus. There are those, however, who say that Camus was neither a real philosopher nor an Existentialist. One such person who claimed to believe both of those things was Camus himself.
“Why am I an artist and not a philosopher?” Camus wrote in his Notebooks, 1942–1951. “Because I think according to words and not according to ideas.”
DE Weekly: Existence, Essence, & the Cosmic Lottery
Every now and then, I come across a post online, usually accompanied by a graphic of some sort, that says something like, “If you were born in North America, remember that you had a 3.04% chance of being born there. How lucky you are!”
The same graphic contrasts this claim by saying the chances of you being born in Asia was 49.69%, and your chances of being born on the African continent 34.87%.
DE Weekly: Regret, Sunk Cost, & The Wrong Train Theory
There is a metaphor for life often attributed to a Japanese proverb which is called the “Wrong Train Theory.” The proverb goes something like this: “If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station. The longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.”
The Wrong Train Theory suggests that if you are on a train that you thought was taking you where you needed to go or wanted to be, but you realize after a time that you’ve boarded the wrong one, you should get out at the very next stop.
DE Weekly: Modernity, Reality, & My Dinner With Andre
“I’ve lived in this city all my life. I grew up on the Upper East Side and when I was ten years old, I was rich, I was an aristocrat, riding around in taxis, surrounded by comfort, and all I thought about was art and music. Now, I am 36, and all I think about is money.”
These words are spoken by Wallace Shawn, playing a fictionalized version of himself in the 1981 film My Dinner With Andre.
DE Weekly: The Hurt Locker, Cereal, & the Burden of Choice
Jean-Paul Sartre made famous the Existentialist idea that, as humans, we are “condemned to be free.” By this, he meant that we did not choose to be alive, but once alive, we are responsible for the choices we make. Even not choosing to choose is a choice.
This level of absolute personal responsibility––what Sartre called our radical freedom––often leads us to anguish and dread. The overwhelming weight of being the one responsible for your choices is terrifying, on some level; in the end, we are the one true author of our life.
DE Weekly: Maritain, Personalism, & Existence and the Existent
Today, I am going to introduce a philosopher I have not written about in this newsletter to date, whose name is Jacques Maritain. Born in 1882, Maritain was a twentieth-century philosopher and theologian who revitalized Thomism, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Maritain used the philosophy of Aquinas to address modern issues, drawing from Aquinas on issues such as the dignity inherent in every human person, and emphasizing a God-centered approach to politics and ethics.