Senior Seminar. The Republic covers a lot of philosophical, political, and cultural-critical ground. As a work of philosophy, it explores the nature of justice and propounds the famous theory of Forms. As a work of political analysis, it compares and contrasts various forms of government (timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny). And as a work of cultural criticism it explores the social effects of the arts (especially literature and music).
Today I want to point out that The Republic uses a device that today is called the thought experiment, (for example, the story of Gyges’ ring and the allegory of the cave). The thought experiment continues to be used by philosophers to this day — most notably, I would say, by John Rawls, whose notions of the original position and the veil of ignorance are key to his influential book, A Theory of Justice (1971). The thought experiment also happens to be crucial to the genres of utopia, dystopia, and science fiction. (Actually, thought experiments have long been used not only in philosophy and literature but also in physics, mathematics, biology, and computer science — think, for example, of Zeno’s paradox and Schrödinger's cat.)
Your job today is to ransack your vast knowledge of literature and film and come up with some other examples of thought experiments.
Monday, January 26
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Judith Jarvis Thompson's article "A defense of Abortion" is absolutely littered with thought experiments (I read this article in intro to philosophy). In order to approve abortion on the grounds of rape, she uses a thought experiment to place the reader in a hypothetical position similar to that of a woman impregnated by rape. She asks the reader to imagine that they one day awaken to find that they have been kidnapped by the Society of Music Lovers and, without their consent, been attached to an unconscious violinist who suffers from a fatal kidney ailment. This connection alone prevents the violinist from dying. Would you, rather should you, remain attached to this violinist who needs your life to support his own? This presents the obvious moral dilemma of sacrificing one's own comfort, even well being, for the sake of a another, an obviously pertinent issue to the abortion debate.
Also, I don't want to steal Rob's thunder at all, but I really liked his idea of video games as a thought experiment. I've watched my brother play some role playing game for his x-box in which he is allowed to create his character and interact with his environment however he desired. It was kind of disturbing to watch, as he decided he would like to pillage and murder every town he encountered. I know my brother would never choose to do these things in reality, but in the construct of fantasy, he felt perfectly comfortable doing so; he even found it humorous.
Martin Amis wrote a book called, Time's Arrow, it is about a Nazi soldier who actually lives his life backwards. From his death to his birth. This is a thought experiment asking, Imagine if you could live your life backwards. How would it be different. In the book, the man does not know he is an accomplice to one of the world's most genocidal maniac; looking backwards at his life, it looks as though he brings Jews to life, instead of murdering them. They come out of the dead pit, into the furnaces, and come out alive.
On a lighter note, Jim Carey's movie, Liar Liar, is also a thought experiment. Imagine if you could not lie. How would it feel telling the people the truth all the time. It puts things into perspective how many times we do lie. If someone asks, "is my hair crazy today?" how many times have we said, no you look beautiful, when in actuality their hair looks like a lightning current just went through it. How would people perceive you if you were honest all the time, would you have more friends, or less friends? Something to think about.
Snoopy
I really liked the idea of video games as a thought experiment that was presented in class. That got me to thinking about what other modern marvels or obsessions were also thought experiments. One modern media obsession that is a thought experiment are the reality shows.
One particular reality show that comes to mind is Kid Nation. This was probably inspired by Lord of the Flies, but the majority of society is too illiterate to know that. In this reality show a multitude of kids were put on a remote area, without any adult supervision, to see what would happen, how they would handle themselves, and what kind of, if any, nation they would form.
There are of course multitudes of reality shows to choose from, that illustrate the principle of the thought experiment; they seem to be our degenerate's society's contribution to this device.
the thought experment appears to be adenzin for the more macade outpoors of mankind few instances in the realms of sci-fi or fantsy feww elements of the genere point to the blithely happy social concturct of a thought experament. the reason being inmy opinion is that when all is well all is boreing. when a thought experament is appleid to entertainment it is usauly about mankinds indubable place at the top being usuped and our battle to over come it. example, the time machine machine. ergo the abilty to travel forwards and rewards inme is discoverd. marxist sochial classes have emerged in which the politariot is subsurface and the bougwaise is the seeminly dominate sphechis. this eems like the perfect fusion...an emaculate conception of evolution and economics. the system has forced changes upon mankind to improve boths lot. however the system is in fact insidous and our narrator must stuggle aginast it to return with his foreknowldge that we shall ether be blithe vacuious children or subterainian golems. a more modern example from a modern genere is the video game gears of war which i will admit is one of the few games i have apenchant for. the setting s most definatly a though experament in that it posses the question can hummanity fight cohesively to insure its own existance as a sphecis? with humanity tetering on the brink of anhilation by yet again a below ground threat the fos is more upon the chrectors and their devolpement then the acuatal conflict. the insprations of the game come directly from film from the cinamtics to the plot line. substituions can even be enacted to place the game in more related able format the conflict could be constued as a archetype for the vietnam conflict.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. In an attempt to re-create life (and to have the power in hand) Frankenstein creates the Creature and brings him to life, only to be so disgusted with it that he abandons it. What would happen if man had the ability to recreate life? What would be his reaction? What would be the outcome? This book pretty much answers it all (at least in Shelley's perspective).
THX 1138 (movie). Deals with people drugged up and doing their jobs, until THX 1138 breaks out of the monotony and sees the world as it is. I think this is a thought experiment in having the perfect society gone horribly wrong.
I think these two examples show man's desire to really try and make a better human; a desire to control life and the inner-most essence of life.
It always struck me when the movie announcers would start the introduction to the trailer with, "Imagine a world..." or "In a world where..." It sets up the whole theme of the movie, about what we're going to see, experience, and how it's going to happen.
Mel Gibson in the film "What Women Want". It's a hilarious film about what happens when a man is 'magically' given the 'gift' of being able to hear the thoughts of women, ie, what women really want. The thought experiment of what it would be like if a man really, truly understood a woman's wants and needs and the disasters or successes that burst from that. Of course,in my opinion, this experiment fails because the interpretation is still completely through the man's persepective. The wants of the woman are not understood, they are merely used to the man's advantage. Even when he wins the woman's heart in the end, it is merely because he is able to manipulate the relationship into what he wants or thinks it should be like.
On a more serious note, "The Emperor Jones" by Eugene O'Neill is a play that I think could be (at least at it's time) a thought experiment. As this 1920s play is lovingly refered to as "The Racist Play", O'Neill paints a world where a black man has come to power. This power (of course) completely envelops his mind, and he is taken down a path of self-destruction. And not just any path, but a path that was paved by haunting images of slaves, African prisoners, and an African voodoo witch. Unfortunately, O'Neill doesn't set this play up as "a man who is destroyed by power", but as "a black man destroyed by power". Though the stereotyped dialogue, Emperor Jones is pushed back into a primitive state of mind, like his African ancestors. A person can't help but feel icky reading this uncomfortable piece of literature.
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