Carpe diem
Horace trust tomorrow as little as you may
Carpe diem
Dead Poets Society
Kate Bush
Other pop songs
Flippant hedonism vs bittersweet realization of the fleeting nature of the moment
Party on
Pub philosophers
Kierkegaart’s aesthetic life Stages on lifes way, In vino Veritas
Seducer’s Diary
Ryle systematic elusiveness of now
Strawson’s diachronic vs. episodic temperament
Dorothy Parker But, alas, we never do.
Aristotle eudaimonia
Plato pleasure and pain equilibrium
Aristotle, must not be ruled by pleasures-we must rule them
Pleasures are precious because they pass
HoraceLife is short, should we hope for more? Sartre, we should act w/o hope , in despair.
Don’t count on tomorrow or others
All that counts is the now, trust tomorrow as little as you may
Tomorrow probably will come, but today could be the last
Dead poet’s society climax
Carpe diem
Things of value: relationships, creativity, learning, aesthetic exp, food, sex, travel in relation to
sieze the day
Dr. Thomas Barnardo’s Home for destitute children
How to seize the day
Warnings against pure hedonism from Plato, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, Dorothy Parker
Chapter 9 Lose yourself
Georg Clinton Funkedelic ‘Free your Mind…’
Losing self to find self, or self doesn’t exist
No ego
Descartes ‘I think, therefore I am’ vs. Hume’s Bundle theory
No self view (anatta) in Buddhism ; rupa (body), vedana (feeling) sanna (perception) sankhara
(thoughts and acts of will), & vinnana (consciousness)
5 khandhas (heaps) working together; cart analogy
Reincarnation too much for Baggini
Selfishly losing one’s self
Feeling calmer, but turning back on struggle of life?
Inability to describe connection to the universe
Dead comment
Egocentric self indulgence?
Allusion to Kierkegaard’s ineffable
Wittgenstein , then pass it over in silence
Narrow your mind
Choosing belief systems to test
Gods, afterlife, cults, esp
The return of I
Role of rationalism & importance of thinking/expressing symbolically. Drink a symphony
The threat of meaninglessness
Charles Schultz vs. Camus on the urgency
One should confront the absurdity of a meaningless life and live it honestly & courageously
Pseudo problem? Serious threat that there is no meaning, it can’t have meaning?
Meaning of meaningless
(known/knowable) intended purpose X
Defined in some indefinite future X
Shultz’s no purpose|direction|aim ≠ no meaning (happiness may give value)
Camus, living a life in the absurd and void of meaning. He’ll recognize the acceptance of life’s
absurdity essential for authentic existence
Cold big universe
Disraeli three pillars of learning (seeing much, suffering & studying much)
Learning from others as well as our own mistakes (Cato)
Maybe effort justification
Bad faith just to blame randomness/bad luck
Angst essential?
Existential crisis in historical context
Ayer’s vs. Montefiore tv debate on human derived meaning vs. ultimate meaning
Cake’s purpose, Stop sign means, What’s life mean?
Why is life of value –to us.
The examined life
Socrates Homo quaerens & sapien
But reason, opera, sex
Rational, empirical issues with Christian vs. Hindu and others going beyond
What of those who haven’t thought or named their value
P 171 happiness, authenticity, self-expression, relationships, and welfare of others
Name:___________________________
1)
Assume that you liked to drink beer and were choosing an ancient Greek to party with,
who would be the better drinking partner Plato or Aristotle? Explain your answer based
on their views towards pleasure.
2)
What was Baggini's ultimate conclusion about "carpe diem" vs how it's commonly
translated (ex. Colin Farrell's tattoo)?
3)
Explain Strawson’s distinction between diachronics or episodics.
4)
Explain the Baggini’s statement, "One cannot remain equally open to all possibilities or
else one ends up believing in nothing."
5)
Explain the significance of the quote by Sartre on page 133 that “we should act without
hope in ‘despair’.”
6)
How does the Buddhist anatta resemble that of Hume's 'bundle' theory?