Sunday, November 19, 2006

The philosophy of television

Television commercials encourage us in the belief that all of our needs can be met by the passive and impersonal means of the marketplace. The television programming supported by these commercials encourages us in the belief that all of our intellectual needs can be met by adopting the passive role of a spectator.

Television presents a certain point of view on the care of the self, which can be specified approximately as follows: "All the activity of the self should be directed toward the marketplace. Creative activity should be directed toward creating marketable goods in order to acquire money. Recreational activity should be directed toward consuming marketable goods in order to spend this money."

What is absent in the television-inspired view of the world is a relationship of the individual to himself and others not mediated by pixels or dollars.

Let us now contrast the television worldview with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius as a representative of the philosophical worldview.

The philosopher “looks to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason.” The television viewer flips the channels until he finds something entertaining.

The philosopher recognizes “how few the things are which if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods.” The television viewer recognizes that a rich variety of things is required to be constantly entertained and distracted.

The philosopher knows that “those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.” The television viewer knows that the movements of celebrities are far more entertaining.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

Should one respect the law?

The question "Should one respect the law?" resolves into four questions. Do laws deserve more respect than the legislators who devise them? Do legislators deserve more respect than the groups who elect them? Do groups deserve more respect than the individuals that compose them? And, finally, what sort of individual elects our legislators?

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

The culture of scientific beauty and technical elegance

Today's tendency toward specialization makes ever scarcer the person of both science and letters, the person who is initiated into the esoteric world of science, and yet has enough of a background in the humanities to place his pursuit in a wider historical, intellectual and aesthetic context. One of the reasons such persons are needed is to recognize and articulately describe the nobility and beauty of science.

Goethe says, in regard to mathematics, that the mathematician is excellent only insofar as he is sensitive to the beauty of mathematical truths. This applies just as well to any other science. If, in the future, we are to have scientists and engineers who are, by this standard, excellent, we will need at least some to be articulate and aesthetically educated enough to help their peers recognize the nobility and beauty of their pursuits, pursuits that are most often perceived as useful and lucrative, and yet morally and aesthetically indifferent.

In particular, as the governance of science and engineering is usurped more and more by commerce, which finds value, not in their elegance, but only in their tangible results, it becomes ever more important to articulate the non-commercial, non-utilitarian aspects of science and engineering. If we aspire to make the scientists and engineers in our society something more than wage laborers—to restore to these professions at least some of the reverent awe which was formerly their due—or, at least, to allow scientists and engineers some satisfaction from their work aside from wages—we must preserve what is perhaps the most neglected aspect of the heritage of science and technology, the culture of scientific beauty and technical elegance.