Dec 29 2921 - Shaking Off Santa...At Least for a Year!

 

Santa is such a delightful visual icon.  The white curly hair and beard, rosy cheeks, beautiful elves and fur "suit"... always so charming.  But the keeping of lists for naught and nice is a nasty underside to this soft, warm cozy visual experience.   These are 'substitute' or 'stand-in' words of naughty for bad, sinful, evil, and nice for good, ethical, virtuous. Such a moral framework within the guise of candies, cookies and presents.  No wonder philosophers have looked at Santa carefully and wondered about what moral framework was used or invented to guide him.  CBC took a look at philosophical frameworks to explain how describe how the framework might work.  Consequentialist? Deontologist?  Virtue ethicist? I've summarized the interview that can be found in full HERE. Santa as a consequentialist - The Total Score Consequentialism determines whether an action is good or bad based on the consequences of that action. This is also known as modern utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham an 18th-century English philosopher is the founder of this philosophy.  It is an addition and subtraction framework with a final score of right vs wrong.  "If you, as a kid, are constantly doing things that cause harm to other people and cause them to be in pain, that seems bad. And we might intuitively understand why Santa would judge you as naughty in that case,"  Bentham created  a way of assigning a numerical value to an action — by considering questions like: How much pleasure or pain might your action cause? For how long? How many people are you going to affect? "You add up all the pleasure and you add up all the pain and you take the pain away from the pleasure. And if your action results in more pleasure overall for more people, this is a moral thing and you were nice, not naughty." There are a few issues with consequentialism.  "You might be pretty moral overall," said Fellows. "So that's one problem ... For example, what if a child is generally kind to many people and does favours for them, but keeps a frog in a jar at home to torture it?  Consequentialism also doesn't take a person's intentions into account. For example, a child who wraps the family cat in blankets to make it cozy may think they're doing a good thing, even if they're actually causing harm. Santa as a deontologist - The Stickler or One Strike and You're Out! One school of ethical thought that does account for intentions is deontology, best represented by Immanuel Kant, an 18th-century German philosopher and one of the central thinkers of the Enlightenment. "He said that you must always try and follow your duty, and your moral duty is to follow what's called the categorical imperative."  His concept is categorical because it applies in all places at all times, and it's imperative because you must follow it without exception. "Whereas we thought of Santa with Bentham as being like Santa the Mathematician, Santa for Kant would be maybe Santa the Stickler, because Kant says you have to follow this rule."  "In other words, allowing other people the freedom to make their own choices," said Fellows. "And maybe they choose to help me achieve my goal, and that's great. But I also have to [show] respect if they choose not to help me." For example, if a parent asks their child if they ate all their brussel sprouts before they're allowed to have dessert, a child who lies would not be respecting their parent's' rational autonomy.  "They're manipulating their parents into trying to get the ice cream. So they're not telling all the truth and they're not giving the parent a free choice."  On the other hand, a child who admits to their parents that they gave their vegetables away to the dog would be acting morally. But when it comes to making it on the nice list, there's a twist. For Kant, the only way to be truly moral is to follow the categorical imperative because you've chosen it as the right thing to do, and not because you're trying to get a reward out of it like a Christmas present. "If you are only following the categorical imperative because you want the treats and you don't want the coal, then you aren't doing it properly either. You've already failed. In fact, you need to take Santa out of the equation and not worry about his approval at all." So with Kant, it could be "one strike and you're out!" Santa as a virtue ethicist - The Soul Observer - Improbable Decisions for a Four-year-old If Santa the consequentialist only cares about the end results of your actions, and Santa the deontologist only cares whether you're respecting other people's rational autonomy, then Santa the virtue ethicist only cares about looking into your soul to see if you're trying to be good. Virtue ethics, a branch of philosophy that goes all the way back to Aristotle, is concerned with individual moral aspiration.  "Rather than focusing on this specific situation and what should I do in this specific situation, virtue ethics asks: Overall, over the course of my lifetime, what kind of person should I try to be?"  According to Aristotle, to become virtuous people, we have to identify the virtuous course of action. For him, virtues can be found at the midpoint of two extremes, what he calls a "golden mean." For example, if your little brother draws a not-so-pretty finger painting, and proudly shows it off to you, do you lie and say it looks great, or do you tell the truth, which could hurt his feelings?  "Truthfulness is at the golden mean. It is at a midpoint, but it's a midpoint between deception — that is, lying, which is a vice of deficiency — and what Aristotle calls kind of a boastfulness or a hard truth… truths that hurt people."  "Part of achieving the golden mean of truthfulness would be learning when to tell the truth, how to tell the truth, and when it might be best to keep silent." Virtue ethicists like Aristotle also acknowledge that while people may aim for the golden mean, they're bound to make mistakes, and that's OK. "The real point of virtue ethics is that morality is a skill that you have to practise until it becomes second nature. And when it becomes second nature, you actually remake yourself into a moral person."  "So in some ways I like virtue ethics because it is a very positive theory. No matter how naughty or how bad you are, you can work to make things better, to make yourself better."  Under an Aristotelian model, Santa would be an observer, watching what you did over the course of a year. He would ask: What habits did you acquire? How did you practise the skill of morality?  "The reward is that you will actually be a happier, better, more well-rounded person, and that you will have less regrets at the end of your days."   "So you will kind of give yourself the present. You won't need Santa."   Let's all explain that one to a four-year-old.  What moral habits did a four-year-old learn besides name some colours, count, remember parts of a story, draw a person with 2 to 4 body parts, use scissors, and so on. I rest my case on Santa - at least for another year. That's likely why he only comes around once a year.  There's too much to explain, too much "Santa's watching" threats to invoke and then moderate, keep score on how things are going with motivation and so on.    As we come to the conclusion of 2021, we look ahead to 2022.  We hope for a better year ahead.  Can we pass through the keyhole of the pandemic and climate change urgency in one year?

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 28 2021 - Santas Existence

 

To be or not to be - that is the question.  Did Shakespeare have to deal with the existence of Santa? Seeing as the story "stretches all the way back to the 3rd century", one might think he too had the dilemma of deciding how to represent Santa to his children.  But I doubt it. I also doubt my parents had a philosophical discussion on Santa's to be or not to be.  Things were simpler then - less sophisticated education, more engagement with pleasure and fun wherever it could be had, particularly the consumerism that got hold of the 20th century. And of course, simpler parenting methods - physical rewards and punishments to train behaviours.  The migration of Santa into naughty vs nice was unlikely to be thought about then.   Think of naughty and nice as a conversation starter for Santa in Malls or at events...who would have considered where this might go?   Think of this:  if the Wright Brothers had foreseen that the airplane would have caused more casualties in war rather than the elimination of war itself, they would not have invented the airplane.  So here we are today- I found this 21st Century example of the Santa to be or not to be question.  This is a Toronto Star article on the philosophical meaning of Santa Claus HERE. "My son had a play date to the zoo in December and his friend’s mother called and said there will be reindeer at the zoo. “Reindeer will prompt a discussion of Santa and since your son doesn’t believe in Santa and my son does I don’t want my son to be skeptical, so I don’t think your son should come along.” I thought, “That is weird,” because she seemed to be sacrificing a relationship with someone who is real, my son Ari, with someone who isn’t real, Santa. Then I began to think: how do I know Santa isn’t real? Just because I haven’t seen him? I haven’t seen that Israeli model Bar Refaeli but I know she exists. And that is the start of a deep dive into an examination of Santa from a philosophical viewpoint.   No worries - he pulls up quickly with this conclusion:  "We need to have things in our lives, certain things. Maybe Santa is one of those ways to teach children about gifts. You tell the kids there is a magical evening when Santa comes down the chimney and it allows them to participate in gift-giving."   Our existential questions in pictoral form today.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 23 2021 - Something Sublime

 

We don't have much to say about "sublime" these days.  It seems to me that's because we are far from the experience: 1a : lofty, grand, or exalted in thought, expression, or manner. b : of outstanding spiritual, intellectual, or moral worth. c : tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence.   Do a search on lofty - and there is very little - new word toplofty entered the English language in 2021.   Grand has been overtaken by versions of the best -  the best things, favourite things, must-see things, etc and if one looks for Grandeur, these are Hyundai's most luxurious cars. Look for exalted and one finds the exalted weapons of Warframe. What happens with noble?  One retrieves the Nobel Prize winners.  So where have I found sublime? in the field of philosophy, where the term sublime refers to something that is great.  Wikipedia tells me: "This greatness can be physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. Very often, the term refers to something that is so great that it cannot be calculated, measured or imitated. Special skills are often needed to fully perceive or understand the sublime." Mountains seem to be examples of the sublime.  Grosser Mythen in the Swiss Alps was referred to by British writers in the 17th and 18 centuries as sublime.  This was the first time that objects of nature got this descriptor. Has sublime gone out of favour now?  I have to think so - it isn't in the current social culture as expressed by google searches.  No TikTok dances, tweets or memes..  That goes for philosophy too.  OK,  maybe John Gray, with his 2020 book Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life.   Our picture today is Garden of the Gods in Colorado.  I guess its name carries the sense of  exalted, grandeur, and beauty.  Were there any philosophers in the expedition to name it?  Rusus Cable exclaimed this was  “a fit place for the gods to assemble!” And so its name was given.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 15 2020 - Epicurious

 

Where are we in philosophy? We are in contemporary philosophy - that would be what our current period beginning at the early 20th century is named. And we are in the phase of analytic and continental philosophy, and the start of philosophy as a profession. I wonder what the over-arching principles are for the way we are functioning culturally, socially and politically.  What has got me wondering about this?  Yesterday, the CBC radio's mid-afternoon program outlined the philosophical origins of hedonism. They are in Ancient Greece where the investigation focused on this premise:  what is pleasurable is morally good and what is painful is morally evil.  By dealing with this basic question, the philosophical school became associated with excessive pleasurable pursuit. Epicurus lived between 341-270 BC, and contributed to that philosophical field.  He founded the school of philosophy named Epicureanism.  Today we know the expression epicurean as it relates to food.  Like hedonism, his name became associated with excess pleasure.  An Epicurean is defined as a person who is dedicated to sensual enjoyment or fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures, especially in eating and drinking. That link happened even though his teachings promoted living a simple life and eating simple food.   He thought that the goal is to attain a happy, tranquil life that was free from fear and absent of pain.  To do this people should live a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He encouraged simple meals along with simple living.   He is with us today, and I find him referenced quite a bit: "I imagine Epicurus would see far more consumption than necessary in my own American life and too little self-discipline." "Do you see the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as a tough research project and kick yourself when you’re glum? You’re Epicurean." Here's a picture for simple living today.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Stories From the Garden