Hello Philosophy Society!
Discussion 1: The Right to Life
This week I was called to an emergency situation and could not attent the weekly meeting; someone close to me was considering suicide and called me on my way to the meeting. It is very important that we respond to situations where a person expresses the intention of self-harm and/or has a plan for self harm by calling 911. Be aware that this individual is not of sound mind and the most important thing you have with them is trust. If they are telling you that these are the kinds of thoughts they are having, it is a cry for help. You have a moral duty to them, yourself and humanity to make this person’s life a priority.
There is a practical issue we can face in these situations: If I am on the phone with someone who is in the process of self-harm, do I hang up to call 911? It is important to confirm the seriousness of the situation. Are they actually in the process of their plan? In my situation, I stalled the individual enough so I could drive to their location, then called 911. I arrived first, before the ambulance. I held the door open for the emergency responders and instructed the apartment security to get the master key so that the paramedics could have access to the unit. The person was alive but had cut themselves so the paramedics escorted the individual to the emergency so they could speak with a psychiatrist. I travelled to the waiting room and discussed the nature of suicidal motivation with them. Here is some of the dialogue:
Argument 1: Right to Suicide
Person: If I don’t want to live I can choose to kill myself. I have suffered all my life and it's not going to get better.
Achilles: In this society we have agreed that you don’t. You not wanting to live is a symptom of depression. The suffering you have faced is something to process into your personal narrative in a meaningful way. Finding a purpose in life is important and devoting yourself to that purpose makes life worth living. You decide what you are passionate about and it is up to you to create a life around that passion.
For traumatic events and experiences, we are required by our own human nature to make sense of them that does not place undue pressure on us. Some things are out of our control and other things we can prepare ourselves for the future. As a society, we have developed ways to give people the help they need when they feel the way you do. Together we can work with you to make sense of things and help find meaning in life.
You not wanting to live isn’t just about you. You have a family and social network that would be affected by that event. They would suffer because of your self-destructive actions. It is not fair to them or yourself for you to hurt yourself.
To hurt oneself is to hurt a human and one human is part of humanity in general. Self-harm is also a harm to all of us. We learn this from the philosopher Kant and his categorical imperative.
It is important for you to take the suffering you have faced and make a better world from it. The fact that the suffering happened and you are aware of it, is reason enough to learn how to communicate it to others so they do not have to suffer the same way you did.
We were brought into this world together, are in this world together and will leave this world together. Humanity is its own unit and each one of us is part of the whole. We are all important and have a place within the context of our group. This is what society is and those who do not feel part of it require special attention and effort so that their place is fitted for them.
You have your own identity and that identity needs space to flourish. As a human, you have thoughts which affect how you feel, that are based on how you perceive the world. Learning to regulate our perceptions and thoughts will increase one’s autonomy and give power over one’s well being.
Action and decisions will help create different environments, experiences and quality of life that will counterbalance the situations of the past. The past cannot be changed but we can change how we perceive it and what present experiences we create to compliment those previous experiences. The present will become the past so you can string together a narrative that resonates with your identity.
Being human is a significant experience. For those with agency, we have the capacity to make decisions based on our lives. This willpower and self-awareness is the power you need to make a better life. You have that power and it is time to learn to use it. Suicide is not the only option, learning to live is.
Argument 2: Cosmological Significance
Person: Humans are insignificant. There have been many extinctions on this planet. The dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid and we could be too. If that happened it wouldn't matter at all to the universe. We are smaller than a speck of dust.
Achilles: In all of the cosmos, human consciousness is the most advanced development of matter we know of. We are matter evolved to the point of self-consciousness. The fact that there have been 5 mass extinctions shows how fragile life is and why investing in space technology and astrophysics is so important. We can use our intelligence to survive and push life forward in the cosmos.
Argument 3: Biodiversity
Person: Humans are a plague on this planet. We are the cause of climate change that is killing the earth we come from. We are responsible for creating the extinction of so many animals. If humans went extinct it would be good for the earth.
Achilles: Humans are at a certain stage of our own growth in relation to our planet and the other beings who inhabit it. We developed technology and learned to use certain materials from the earth to build our civilization. Now we are aware that some of those technologies and materials are damaging to the earth. It is the natural and necessary progression of our growth to develop sustainably friendly ways of building our civilization. Just because we have made some mistakes in the past does not mean we are condemned to continue making those mistakes in the future. We see evidence of this in the passing of new environmentally friendly laws in most developed countries in the world. We are transitioning because of what we have learned from our past.
Argument 4: Careless Rich
Person: The world is run by the rich and all of the rich people don’t give a fuck. They just care about their own profits and don’t care about the environment or the average person. The world is in their hands and we are doomed because of it.
Achilles: This is not true. Two examples would be Elon Musk and Bill Gates. Musk has developed Tesla and has been very successful in creating personal transportation that is not reliant on fossil fuels. Gates was very active in the pandemic response and has been working on a proactive organization to create an emergency response program for future pandemics. Two of the richest people in the world directly show that they care for the environment and for us.
Academic Reflections: Definitional Fallacy
‘It can’t be defined!’ is one of the most unphilosophical positions to take. One of the very first lessons of being philosophical is learning how to define something. This begins with an understanding of thought. We think with concepts and categories. Categorical thinking is to determine what phenomena or idea fits within some set. For example, in the set of red, all things that have the colour red would be in there.
Every category has a prototype example that is in the center of the set. From a dimensional view, we deviate from the prototype until the specific case is basically not part of the category or is but a caveat is required like ‘He is part of the family through marriage.’ In the category ‘family’ we have to account for the fact that this person in question is not blood related. So then how are they in the category, through the legal process of marriage.
Sometimes people do not like definitions because the definition goes against a skewed perception of some concept or idea. Instead of accepting the real definition of a thing, they fall back on a fallacious form of thinking by stating that the term or concept cannot be defined. The reasoning is like this, 'If you are going to define things that way, then this idea cannot be defined,’ or ‘This term is very difficult to define.’ No it's not. You simply have to identify what the properties are of the thing you are defining and determine if the specific case in question has those properties.
Definitions have the variable of being broad or inclusive and narrow or exclusive. We can develop our definition by looking at specific cases and asking if those cases are to be included in the category. If not we would narrow our definition to exclude the cases. If we find that we have excluded some case that does belong to the category, we can then broaden the definition to include it.
Whatsapp Chat: Place of Suffering
Reggie: Why Be Happy When You Can Be Fascinating?
Many of the greatest artists went through struggles that resulted in humanity's most profound works. Schubert contracted syphilis at 21, was mistreated and died early at 31. Today, he is comparable to, and to many, greater than Beethoven.
Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, eventually shooting himself at 37. Yet his Impressionism is among the most revered worldwide.
Nietzsche was admitted into a mental institution for 11 years until he died. Yet his challenge of the traditional philosophers transformed the landscape and lifted existentialism to the next level.
To what extent does suffering -- anxiety, anguish, tragedy, despair -- help us achieve a better self? Is suffering part of achieving eudaimonia?
The Concept of Anxiety - Wikipedia
Not sure if anyone here is/was Christian (or religious in general) but Kierkegaard was a Christian theologian who pioneered existentialism (ie. before Nietzsche). In The Concept of Anxiety, he discusses the importance of angst in our personal development. I mention Kierkegaard not to promote a religious view, but assuming that most typically associate existentialism with Nietzsche's nihilism.
Achilles: Yah, some people embrace suffering instead of learning to determine how their current suffering is a product of the trajectory of their lives and their current state. Eudaimonia or living well is not about a state of happiness but how we live in general. Creating meaning in life is to devote oneself to a larger purpose that is significant and connects with one's narrative in a coherent way.
These people may have not taken certain actions to live a meaningful life and hence did not live in a coherent way that balanced out problems of their past. It is a misuse of life to live in suffering. If suffering is a natural phenomena that occurs, we can guide ourselves from it. We do not need to create it out of nothing but learn from it. Buddhists take an extreme approach in the non- attachment solution but this seems to remove oneself from appreciating some of the best things in life. it is better to of love and lost than not love at all. learn to deal with it once it is gone.
Our emotions are a guide to our experiences. We can learn from our anxiety and taking time to reflect/ mediate will give us thoughts to the cause of these feelings. Once we have a thought that has emerged from our mind and become conscious, we can then take action and do something about it. If it is something we do not have control over, it is up to us to develop acceptance of the reality of life. Acceptance may be developing our philosophical perspective on something so that we do not have to suffer unnecessarily from our emotions.
Sometimes we have to make a decision to reduce our anxiety even though we don’t know what the correct answer may be. Decision making is a skill and we have to be willing to make mistakes in the learning process. Over time, we will develop practical wisdom and be able to regulate and understand the place of our emotions. Action is one of our greatest tools; as is self-reflection.
The human animal has not evolved to be in a perpetual state of unrest. Our brains flourish in the state of flow which is the absence of negative emotional states.
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