This post is a continuation of one of my previous posts.
Marx
After Hegel (the era of great philosophical systems), philosophy took a new direction – existential philosophy.
Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.
Marx
Kierkegaard was an existentialist and Marx was a materialist. Both of them took Hegel’s philosophy as their point of departure, and both were influenced by Hegel’s mode of thought.
Marx’s thinking had a practical—or political—objective. He was not only a philosopher; he was a historian, a sociologist, and an economist.
Marx had a practical objective. He thought that the material factors in society determine the way we think.
Hegel called the force that drives history forward world spirit or world reason. [Marx claimed that] ‘Spiritual relations’ do not create material change, [but] material change creates new spiritual relations.
The basis of society: material, economic, and social relations. Society superstructure: the way a society thinks, political institutions, laws, religion, morals, art, philosophy, and science. Three levels in the bases of society:
- Society’s conditions of production (forest, desert, etc.)
- Society’s means of production (how things are produced)
- Who owns the means of production
As a society’s system of ownership alters, so does its superstructures.
How we work affects our consciousness, but our consciousness also affects the way we work. You could say it is an interactive relationship between hand and consciousness. Thus the way you think is closely connected to the job you do.
Through understanding the system of ownership, we can understand the society’s social relations.
– Marx emphasizes that it is mainly society’s ruling class that sets the norms for what is right or wrong. In a capitalist society, labor is organized in such a way that the worker in fact slaves for another social class
– That infuriates me!
– It infuriated Marx too
It is inherent in the capitalist system that it is marching toward its own destruction. In that sense, capitalism is ‘progressive’ because it is a stage on the way to communism
The socialist movement splits into two:
- Social Democracy – gradual and peaceful path in the direction of socialism (Western Europe)
- Leninism – revolution was the only way to combat the old-class society (Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa).
Each in their own way, both movements have fought against hardship and oppression. […] Again we see that everything man touches becomes a mixture of good and evil. On the other hand, it would be unreasonable to blame Marx
Darwin
Darwin discovered the theory of organic evolution, [and] Marx discovered the theory of mankind’s historical evolution
Naturalist’s keywords: nature, environment, history, evolution, and growth.
Two theses in the “On the origin of species”: all lifeforms descend from an earlier lifeform, and natural selection.
Animals that are best suited to their habitat will survive. However, this does not mean that those who survive are better, since they are better suited only to a particular environment.
Study guide
The present geology of the earth, with its mountains and valleys, was the result of an interminably long and gradual evolution
Lyell
Darwin further proposed that the struggle for survival is frequently hardest among species that resemble each other the most. They have to fight for the same food.
The sole purpose of a species is to fully develop and reproduce.
People have adjusted e.g. those who live near the equator have darker skin to protect themselves from sun rays.
In Darwin’s writing “The Descent of Man” he claims that humans descend from animals.
All life and all reproduction is basically a matter of cell division. When a cell divides into two, two identical cells are produced with exactly the same hereditary factors. In cell division, then, we say a cell copies itself.
[…]
But occasionally, infinitesimal errors occur in the process, so that the copied cell is not exactly the same as the mother cell. In modern biological terms, this is a mutation
Alberto on Neo-Darwinism
Resistance can happen e.g. after prolonged usage of antibiotics.
The whole recipe of who we are [now and in the future] lies hidden in each tiny cell [DNA].
Freud
Sometimes we rationalize without giving the actual cause for what we do. For example, a person that is hypnotized may be told to open a window, and once asked why they opened it, they’d randomly justify the answer e.g. “because it was too hot”, but this wasn’t the actual reason.
Freud felt that our minds are made up of three parts. The id is our desire for pleasure. The ego takes reality into account and regulates the id. And the superego is the societal morality that regulates everything we do
Study guide
Suppression. An analogy for conscious/subconscious: Assume that in a classroom someone misbehaves. The professor asks the security to take the misbehaver out (against his will). If the removed person tries to re-enter, he will be blocked by security.
When we project, we channel the features we try to suppress to others. Someone who is angry will claim that others around them are angry.
According to Freud, the key is to not put too much effort to suppress stuff in the subconscious – it is healthy to leave the door a bit open between the conscious and subconscious. A neurotic person is one that spends too much energy to keep the suppressed stuff out of the conscious.
A centipede danced perfectly, but once being told that it doesn’t dance too well it never danced again – this is what happens when imagination is suppressed by additional rationalization.
Our Own Time
This chapter discusses Sartre and his ideas – the philosophy of existentialism.
Existence takes priority over essence
Sartre
That is, the fact that a person exists takes priority (comes first) over who the person is.
Sartre argued that it is useless to search for the meaning of life in general and that every person needs to find their own way how to live their life. Though he also argued that life must have meaning – it is imperative.
Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he has not created himself—and is nevertheless free. Because having once been hurled into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Sartre
Everything new is not necessarily good, and not all the old should be thrown out. That is one of the reasons why I have given you this course in philosophy. Now you have the historical background, you can orient yourself in life. […] A philosophical question is by definition something that each generation, each individual even, must ask over and over again.
Alberto to Sophie
Alberto argues that there is an incredible number of books on something mystical that people demand to break the monotony of everyday life and that such books should be approached with a portion of skepticism. But he also says that humans don’t understand a lot of stuff (including the laws of nature).
The Garden Party
Sophie finds the book “Sophie’s World” — how could one find a book about oneself in a book about oneself? What would happen if Sophie began to read that book?
Weird/illogical stuff happen at the party and the chapter ends with Sophie and Alberto vanishing (stepping out of the book/story).
When you have realized that you are a dream image in another person’s sleepy consciousness, then, in my opinion, it is wisest to be silent. […] It is important to be critical of the older generation’s values. If I have tried to teach Sophie anything, it is precisely that, to think critically [by teaching her the history of philosophy].
The absurdity of Sophie’s party points to the fact that we do not know any truths about life. We do not know what happens after death or whether the world is real. We have no answers to the philosophical questions that have been posed in this book. But everyone acts as if they have already been answered.
[…]
Even if we all exist only as an experiment by a higher being, we must still attempt to get what we can out of life.
Study guide
Counterpoint
The first part of the book is from Sophie’s perspective. The second part is from Hilde’s perspective while reading the first part of “Sophie’s World”. In this chapter, the author zooms out and discusses the happenings of the story from a general perspective.
Hilde finished reading the book but is confused by the last chapter (The Garden Party). She is wondering if her father had written that chapter just to demonstrate his power over Sophie’s world.
Spirit can pass through steel doors. No tanks or bombers can crush anything that is of spirit.
Now that Alberto and Sophie stepped out of the book, they decided to visit a coffee shop named Cinderella (who is a character that also stepped out of the book).
As soon as Albert lands at the airport on his way home, he starts receiving letters from Hilde. As Hilde felt tricked from reading the book, she also wanted to trick him – sort of give him a taste of his own medicine.
While Hilde is waiting for her father to arrive, meanwhile Alberto and Sophie get to her as spirits.
“Can you hear me, Hilde? Or are you both deaf and blind?”
Sophie+Alberto
Did she, or didn’t she, open her eyes a little wider? Wasn’t there a very slight sign that she had heard something—however faintly? She looked around. Then she turned her head sharply and stared right into Sophie’s eyes. She did not focus on her properly; it was as if she was looking right through her.
Hilde had been sitting on the dock waiting for her father. […] But what was that? She thought she heard a faint breath of something, exactly as in her dream about Sophie. She turned around quickly. There was something, she was sure of it. But what? Maybe it was only the summer night.
Hilde+Albert
Once Hilde’s father appears, they hug each other and she starts crying out of happiness. They call it quits from playing mind games. Sophie sees this and also starts crying, as she is a bit envious because Hilde is a real person.
“Hilde is lucky, I agree. But one who wins the lot of life must also draw the lot of death, since the lot of life is death.” – Alberto
“But still, isn’t it better to have had a life than never to have really lived?” – Sophie
The Big Bang
“Has it struck you that our roles are completely reversed?” asked Alberto after a while.
“In what sense?”
“Before it was they who listened to us, and we couldn’t see them. Now we’re listening to them and they can’t see us.”
Sophie thinks she can affect Hilde’s world and hits her in the face and Hilde yelps in pain, thinking a bug stung her. Hilde believes that she can feel Sophie’s presence. In the meanwhile, Albert explains the Big Bang and since everything started with it – everything is one so understanding the universe is the same as understanding ourselves.
Gaarder argues that there is more to life and existence than we can possibly understand. The point is not that Sophie and Alberto really exist somewhere but simply that if they did, we would never know it.
Gaarder might be saying that we really know very little about life, and that we must always keep that in mind. Maybe we are free; maybe our every thought is determined. Either way we really have no way of knowing. What is critical is that we always raise the question. If we continually bear in mind the possibilities, then we will live our lives properly.
One of the largest points of Gaarder’s book is that meaning cannot be found in books. People must find meaning in their lives through living, and through asking the questions that pervade Sophie’s World. Just because we are ignorant does not mean it is all right to live our lives without questioning. The opposite is true. Precisely because there are questions that we cannot definitively answer we must continue asking them—and that is what makes for a fulfilling life.
Study guide
Conclusion
Reading this book took about 4 months on and off but I enjoyed it. I had talked to a few people (most of them over 30 years old) who said they read the book while they were teenagers but that at the time it was way over their heads.
I am happy I got to read it as I am older because the book is somewhat abstract but once one has more experience in life, one can appreciate it more (not just the book but philosophy in general).
bor0's reflective blog 