I hated this signature from my professor. Philosophical problems are the source of moral contradictions! If all my problems are philosophical, then I'll be a walking hypocrite!!!! I'll lack consistency and I'll have the integrity of silly putty!!! Oh NOES! More on this later.
May all your problems be philosophical (and good luck),
- Martin
The other day, I was having afternoon tea with my flatmate and our discussion turned the corner to philosophical banter. Philosophy has always been my bible --the genesis of Plato, the psalms of Aristotle, the gospels of Rand, the revelations of Nietzsche, and so on. It's been my bedrock of rationale. I know all too well the face people reserve for philosophy majors. It's goes kinda like "ah... riiiiiight." However, I always feel that the major was an advantage, not a handicap. Aside from acts of impulse and intuition, deliberate action is a result of thought, and thoughts are rooted in philosophical rationale. Anyway, this is not what I want to write about.
The question that came up during tea was about why humans are here. In the same manner as polling questions, whenever you ask 'why' questions on human existence, you are framing the answer to be in the realm of morality. The purpose of human existence is a tired question like the genre of self-help books. There are too many answers leading into each and every direction (and everybody is an expert). Young people will typical espouse hedonism as the answer to human existence. Pleasure via drugs, alcohol, sex, clubbing, etc. HBO, MTV, and Snoop Dog have done a good job documenting pop culture. Other young people of my generation who haven't paid tribute to the Olympians of Hedonism fall into other minority sects. You have Hipsters, Goths, Emo kids, and the indie cherry-pickers of culture. The common denominator I've seen so far is an attempt at finding things to be meaningful.
I feel like the type casted republican yuppie when I write this-- I'm very much a disciple of self-responsibility and personal ambition. That's explains my distaste for government acts of paternalism; however, I'm not so naive anymore to think all people can manage their own lives well. Maybe this is why nanny states and government paternalism is justified. Anyway, I digress again.
Pondering questions of human existence seems to become more trivial the older we get. The demands of everyday life begin to take priority. How do I afford transportation, shelter, a family, and god willing, kids? My father did an excellent job as a provider. Not once did I ever have to worry about money when I was growing up. He's raised me through 2 recessions and I couldn't tell if we were in a recession at all. My parents married in 1978, and they just celebrated their 30 year anniversary last summer. My dad who promised my mom that he'd take her to Niagra Falls 30 years ago, finally took her there with my two brothers. Is this quest of finding a transcendent personal nirvana really all that or is the act of celebrating your 30th anniversary more meaningful? I vote for the latter.
I realize that hoping that 'all your problems [are] philosophical' is a very parental thing to say. It's anti-ascetic and anti-transcendent. It posits that it's better to live abundantly than to find this philosophical or spiritual nirvana. However, we should keep in mind that Elvis died abundantly taking a shit. I think he was happy?
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