1. Why wouldn't taking a drug to induce belief in the afterlife work?
2. What's the point of playing games?
3. To what do we lay claim, in valuing?
4. Why are we confounded when we try to integrate cosmic ideas into our thinking about what matters?
5. What evidence does Scheffler find in the popularity of the Times "In Memoriam" section?
6. Are we more altruistic than we realize, on S's view?
DQ
1. If, under either the doomsday or infertility scenario, you could take a drug that induced belief in the afterlife AND amnesia (so that you'd not remember taking the drug), would you?
2. Why do some games appeal to you more than others? What do you think when you see someone in a tee-shirt that says "Baseball/Football/Quiddich (etc.) is Life"?
3. Is it possible or desirable to reduce all valuing to immediacy and pure presence, in a timeless Now?
4. Do you agree with Dr. Flicker and/or Bertrand Russell? (See the DQ & links in the Feb2 quiz)
5. Do you agree with Bernard Williams, Epictetus, or Epicurus (or none of the above) on personal immortality?
6. Are there any scenarios in which you would (or would not) choose to live on as the only human on earth?
Response: "If, under either the doomsday or infertility scenario, you could take a drug...?"
ReplyDeleteI would feel more comfortable knowing an ultimately uncomfortable truth, than hiding the knowledge from myself. I already try to live a life that gives me a sense of meaning and fulfillment in which I understand that death can happen at unexpected times anyway. Even though the idea of not knowing that the end were near is not altogether a bad thing, I don't think that I would be able to choose to forget something like that.
DQ
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on the points Scheffler makes on pages 69-70 about how fantasies of a personal afterlife tell us "something about what matters to [those who believe in one] in this one" (70)?
A show I am currently watching has something similar to Frankfurt's wanton, except they also have super powers. How these things, called contractors, differ from a wanton is that they still remember what it was like to be a human and have a cool ratonal outlook. A few ways the two agents are alike is that they don't have any dreams or goals in life and the only reason for their actions is to stay alive. Despite this many of the contractors wish to live normal lives. So here is a potential discussion question: if you woke up one day and found out you had become a contractor would you try to continue a normal life.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched "Darker than Black" in a long time, but I recall that a product of becoming a contractor is a logical, pragmatic viewpoint on life, devoid of emotional reaction. I suppose in that situation, I'd become a scientist or mathematician. Without emotions, I'd be an excellent scientist, free of bias. Although, I'd probably be careful to acknowledge basic human rights and emotions so as to not be led astray into unethical experiments.
DeleteDQ
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts about values, and how much of a role they play in your life? "But to be committed to the persistence of our vales is part of what it is for them to be our values" (61)? Do you think this could be dangerous, or do you think it is a good thing?
DQ
ReplyDelete1. If, under either the doomsday or infertility scenario, you could take a drug that induced belief in the afterlife AND amnesia (so that you'd not remember taking the drug), would you?
I probably would. In this case I ask myself why not? Especially if I already believe in a certain kind of "after-life" why then would I not want that feeling to be induced? So yeah, I would take it.
QQ
ReplyDeleteWhat is Protagoras's dictum?
That time does not have the last word; it does not tell us what is important.
Delete"If, under either the doomsday or infertility scenario, you could take a drug that induced belief in the afterlife AND amnesia (so that you'd not remember taking the drug), would you?"
ReplyDeleteI think this would only be appealing to me if everyone (or most) took the drug. If it were just me, or just a few people, then society would still suffer from all the presumed consequences of the lack of an afterlife, and I would think the world has gone insane. If everyone took it......why not? Things might not really matter in the justifiable sense, but they're mattering or not would not matter afterwards anyway.
QQ Does Scheffler believe that the collective afterlife can fulfill the same promises as a personal afterlife?
ReplyDeleteNick Strukov, Ben Richards, Jenna Garner, Elizabeth Cullum, Jesse Brandon
ReplyDeleteWe talked about whether we would take the drug or not. We all sort of disagreed on the subject; some of us said we would take the drug, some of us didn't, but it's a multifactor problem, and I feel that these factors that need to be considered were not discussed in the theory.
Me, victor, and Jay continued the discussion of taking the drug. I am on the platform that it would depend on my frame of mind when offered the drug. Jay and Victor concluded that they would not take the drug unless they were the only ones who knew about the end then they would consider taking the drug.
ReplyDelete