My
philosophy is that there is room for all philosophies on the station.
-
Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek : Deep Space 9
My
personal view is that SF is widely heavily underestimated, because it for a
considerable part replaced formal philosophy.
Using the following points I'll defend my
opinion that SF can't be broadly ignored anymore in established philosophy
circles.
1. My discovery of SF
2. The surprising attraction of SF
3. SF discovered by formal philosophy
4. SF Quotes
5. Changed perspective of future
1. My
discovery of SF
For some time
I wondered why since the scientist/philosopher Thomas Kuhn mid 20th
century no new really talented young philosophers had manifested themselves.
Sure they ARE there, but on Internet I found no proof of their existence in the
shape of really catching articles with new views. Do young promising
philosophers only write expensive books or is something else causing their
being missed? (did they disappear in the Bermuda triangle?). Is Social Science dead?
'Science' as started as 'scientia' indeed is virtually dead.
Not as technological discipline of polishing knowledge, but as research and way of life based on Roman Christian ethics.
Young brilliant people started making movies to escape rigid 'science'.
If such a
movie becomes a success then at least one might presume that the ethical ideas in it were attracting (even handsome or pretty players and other eye catchers
can't make up for a bad scenario, not even sex). Because until now only few
people were reached by philosophy through books and articles (say 1%).
The combination Science Fiction and fantasy on Internet and in movies proved to be a winner.
On a t.v. channel like Discovery in addition
many practical subject's are treated in an insightful way. Scientific
Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn would still make a spectacular movie
(about mind traveling).
I often look
at episodes of the series Star Trek,
because in it subjects are treated that are THOUGHT to be interesting in
the future of earth evolution. A valuable snapshot of today's prejudices. Something like cultures of giant bugs with enormous killing potential and superior
intelligence may seem ridiculous, but similar or even more weird beings might
be the enemies of future human soldiers. It shows though that power thinking still is quite dominant, because such bugs could
be fine friends.
On earth androids may in future do our repetitive jobs (why think of fighting)
, but possibly in space human creativity will just
like now continue to be needed (and MAYBE human soldiers). Probably that is cheaper too.
Looking
seriously in that way at an episode of for instance Star Trek is much
more than only enjoying a technical war movie, that happens to play in future. Deep
Space 9 and Babylon 5 became familiar names to me, as well as main
characters captains Benjamin Sisko and John Sheridan.
2. The
surprising attraction of SF
Movie director
Francis Ford Coppola said that
if the Jedi creed had been fully developed as a Jedi Religion it would have
attracted billions of followers. Coppola amongst others is known through his
movie The Godfather. Meant like a title of honor I call these hordes of
sci-fi fans reli-junks
Star Wars fan
Won Park told the New York Times: If George Lucas turned [his Jedi
philosophy] into a religion, it would blow Ron Hubbard's Dianetics [a
central part of the sci-fi writer's controversial belief, Scientology] out
of the window' (while Won was dressed in black as Jedi master Qui-Gon
Jinn).
This Jedi
creed is that The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It
surrounds us and penetrates us . Reading 'The Force' as 'Common Sense' that connects all humans like air
very interesting concept. Indeed local common sense shapes cultures. And Cultures shape Paradigms that VERY MUCH influence local cultural behavior. Stuff for deep
digging research, who dares? I started at 'Return of Common Sense'. My own lucky guess (not unlike Nietzsche) of fresh ethics I described in 21st century paradigm is
that evolutionary energy is expressed in 'willpower' = Creativity
Sir Alec
Guinness even opinioned in Star Wars in 1977: It binds the galaxy together.
Let's not
overestimate SF, but the present 'radio silence' in formal philosophy suggests
the opposite (probably not deliberate , and partially caused by lack of funds).
Quality SF can amongst others be recognized by appropriate use of self humor,
too often this trait is painfully missed in formal science.
For a moment
as adult of over 30 imagine yourself being 10 to 15 years younger, and try to picture your
future. Then you will have to admit that often images you saw in SF movies come
to your mind.
3. SF
discovered by formal philosophy
Looking on
Internet I found that the subject
philosophy and SF is by now discovered by formal philosophy. But most sites
about SF in this traditional branch of the sport thinking for some reason are
just opened, already closed, or never started. In fact the only site found by
me that in my opinion is worth reading both as SF-fan and as to be philosopher
was The Possible World Machine from Pathways professor Geoffrey Klempner
(http://philosophy.members.beeb.net/).
Not surprisingly somebody practicing philosophy on the new medium Internet. (http://www.philosophos.com) There must be more sites, but I didn't find
them.
4. SF
Quotes
Science
fiction is perfectly suited to contain views on near and far future. Movies
like Star Wars and Star Trek contain a high amount of philosophic
messages, like:
There
comes a time in every man's life when he must stop thinking and start doing.
-
Captain Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek : Deep Space 9
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads
to suffering.
-
Henkt the Axe:
It is
easy to laugh away the content of such sentences, but be careful: lots of
philosophic messages when interpreted in a wrong way can as well be used as top
jokes.
The text
writers of these stories surely don't shake such messages out of their sleeves.
But what's more important, young people
came to digest a considerable part of philosophic knowledge through movies.
That also painfully came to show the weak part of movies, i.e. if not used for
debate they trigger more questions than giving answers. Questions like: "are
time machines possible?", "do computers have a mind?" , what about philosophy and happiness, etcetera.
Here
TOTALLY renewed version of traditional philosophy should take over, and by using the same media. By
answering the raised questions it could tremendously improve the enthusiasm for
the exact side of philosophy. But there are no strong signs that this happens.
It is
counterproductive only to say that time machines are nonsense, because every
week they appear on television. And the same applies for computers having no
mind, if almost daily is suggested otherwise. More serious reactions are
needed, the inherent answers may be right, but just waving away questions away is far from
sufficient.
Some
modern movie sentences replace several books, like: I really believe that if
there's any kind of God, he wouldn't be in any one of us---not you, not me, but
just in the space in between. If there's some magic in this world, it must be
in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something. Even if it's
almost impossible to succeed, but who cares, the answer must be in the attempt."
Said by
Julie Delpy as Celine in the movie Before Sunrise.
5. Changed
perspective of future
When I was young
my ambition was to go to a major town, have a lot of sex, and become a good
scientist. Having lots of sex is still a goal. Sex even changed in the meantime
in a major industry, although many young people came to weigh this subject
differently. Although I recognize the merits in technology of rational thinking, my view
on science changed completely after realizing that it was a religion.
And the goal of going to a big town
changed for many young people in the western world into the ambition of
exploring space.
As a teenager
my view of being a forty years old middle aged male played in a town
environment on earth (even in my own country). To be honest, marrying and
having kids was never a great challenge for me. But I understand that generally
this is the way in evolution to keep surviving. Maybe some redundant males are
destined to do deep philosophizing. In general for the present western youth
their goal rapidly moved to space.
In my early
forties I myself appeared to be traveling the whole world as engineer, showing
how fast things may change. And then the image of their future of people like my parents is even
already forgotten. But it only figured in a small part of their country. In 3
generations (say 50 years) the image of future changed from a dot on in a
country on earth, via a dot traveling the earth, to a dot in space.
Former hero's
like James Bond and Superman became middle aged. A need for
younger hero's developed (and surely not for younger versions of secret agent
007)
It's in space
that the new human hero's are found. People like Benjamin Sisko and John
Sheridan. These are movie hero's but because real space captains are very
scarce they perfectly suit the job. No reason to escape into fiction, but why
should life in movies always be only unreal?
That brings me to the following eye opening mind help: the movies in a culture show through which 'window' or paradigm in this culture 'the world' is perceived.
This mind assistant method especially is eye opening when considering western or christian culture.
Realize that its most developed shape is found in the U.S.A. ...... , though Western Europe is rapidly copying views.
That makes one reconsider: Batmans, Rambo's, Starwars, Vampires, etcetera. A world full of Dark Warriors.
Science fiction is a rational product. Amongst others that shows in predictable shapes of life in space.
Be sure that life in space can have such weird 'shape', that it is invisible.
Science Fiction is a modern version in American shape of the fairy tales of the German Grimm Brothers .
Both 18th century Grimm Brothers were Calvinists and wrote very moralistic fairy tales. Always about white western people, and using western morals.
Fundamentalist Protestantism introduced individualism or egoism. Luther is a hero in modern neo-nazi circles.
When the Calvinists lost terrain in Europe (except in Holland, England and parts of Germany),
they fled to South Africa and The New World (America). That led to Apartheid and Slavery.
And now in the 21st century president Bush wants freedom of speech for
Baptist churches in China. That is like suggesting to tolerate cancer cells in a healthy body.
New ideas
following a paradigm shift always are considered 'wild' for a time. Fifty years later they appear dead
common.
One man's villain
is another man's hero, Captain.
-Dukat in Deep Space 9 episode "By Inferno's Light".
| The "Star Trek" Law Don't interfere with Evolution (Science Fiction), is awfully arrogant. This 'puritan' view places Earth Humans outside Evolution, on level 'God'. Evolution is about Interferance, or would someone prefer an Earth still dominated by Dinosaurs. Interferance is DECISION Making. Decisions are discrete direction changes, not 'continous'. |
Zarah2nd, initiated May 2003 and kept up to date until present