[lit-ideas] Re: Dr. Feelgood and the Interns
- From: Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Robert Paul)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 22 Aug 2004 18:21:25 PDT
Andy Amago writes:
>For an illustration that understanding one's life is a question/s with
answer/s, I refer once again to the movie I saw last night, House of Sand and
Fog. In that movie, the motives of the Colonel were transparent. The Deputy
Sheriff's actions were, by contrast, bizarre but very imaginable. He and the
lead character (actress Jennifer Connolley) would have done well to examine
their motives. As to whether philosophy would have helped, I read somewhere
that Russell Bertrand was depressed to where he was contemplating ending his
life. Then while walking on a beach he began to consider life, and it gave him
enough purpose, shall we say, to keep going.<
Many philosophers, from Socrates to Wittgenstein have at one time or another
considered suicide; but so have many ordinary people. Why is it relevant that
Russell was a philospher? If there's an argument here that philosophy will
answer some question or other--or that there is even a question here to be
answered--I've missed it. Philosophers don't treat every question as a
philosophical question, for not every question is. (Here, I find myself in
surprising agreement with Donal McEvoy.)
'[Russell] began to consider life, and it gave him enough purpose...to keep
going.' Yes, and one could equally well think about one's family and friends or
how pleasant it was to walk on the beach, as opposed to being immobilized in a
frozen lake. As an example of how philosophy can settle questions about the
meaning and purpose of life, the case is, I think, underdescribed.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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