Heroes and life as an illusion

"I'm not really here, Parkman. It's an illusion, like life."

~Usutu to Matt. (Heroes, series 3, BBC, 2008)

The idea that life is an illusion has never been particularly startling to me as the concept was introduced to me at a very early age. The idea of "how do we know whether what we see is real?" was one of the freaky ideas that dad liked to talk to us about when we were little. I think he just liked scaring us at the time but he does have a point.

I suppose we can't ever know whether what we see is real. (Right now mum is looking up how much the 'Truman Show' costs to buy on DVD; it is a film about someone who's whole life was a TV show and all the people he knew were actors but he was oblivious to this fact.) I also can't really get to grips with the idea that I could be the only one. I mean, how weird would that be?

For a start, I don't think I could invent half the people around me. They're too crazy! I like to think that my imagination is fairly active but people surprise me far too often. Also, if I had invented the world there would be more rules! People would actually go up the right set of stairs at school without me telling them off, for example. (Hm, there's a point, what are the moral issues surrounding that?) The world would make more sense.

I don't think that it's impossible that the world isn't some kind of weird illusion to keep someone up there amused at how I react to different things. Of course it could be. But it seems like a lot of effort for vague amusement. I just find it highly improbable that this is the case. There aren't really any logical arguments for it, just that it could happen. Well, I could turn into a green balloon dog tomorrow but I still don't lose any sleep over it. (Yay, analogy!) I have to assume that this isn't some elaborate joke by a supernatural being or I wouldn't be able to function in normal society. Sorry, Usutu, I'm going to have to go with the bet that life is not an illusion.

My subconscious attempting to explain anamnesis

The other day I had an interesting dream which was quite related to anamnesis. The dream was that I was looking for something my parents had given to me as a baby. I didn't know what it was and they refused to tell me, saying that I knew what it was really. I was feeling really guilty and I didn't want to disappoint them by telling them I didn't know what it was so I ransacked my room endlessly trying to figure out what the mysterious object was.

This is essentially my brain's way of understanding the paradox of knowledge, when Meno asks how Socrates will find the nature of virtue when he doesn't know what it is. 

I didn't know what I was looking for, but I searched anyway, through a sense of duty.  I was actually really worried that I wouldn't have been able to find it; if I had not resolved the dream I would still be wondering what the mysterious thing was.

Happily, I did find the object. It was a really old French dictionary. (It was actually a present from a neighbour when he finished French A-level, but I didn't let reality get in the way of a good dream!) When I found the dictionary, I felt a sense of elation, like I HAD always known that it was the dictionary that I was searching for. When I found it, it just seemed obvious that I was right.

This has made me reconsider what I think about the theory of anamnesis. I am still extremely skeptical about the theory, but less so than I was. I think that the feeling that you always knew something does exist, but probably not in the way Socrates thought it did. Maybe intuition? 

Should you let your evil twin brother die?

Source 

Order of the Stick (commonly shortened to oots) is a web comic that parodies Dungeons and Dragons type games. It features a cast of characters that go around adventuring and smiting evil. This episode centres around Elan, a kindhearted but foolish bard, as he decides whether to let his evil twin brother Nale fall to his death. The two sides of the argument are humorously portrayed as a devil and an angel. I'd like to look at his dilemma from the three perspectives we have thought about so far.

Deontological

From a deontological perspective, this case seems pretty simple. Elan should not let Nale fall to his death as killing is an evil act in any circumstance. Applying the golden rule, if everyone went around killing people there would be nobody left. Clearly Elan should save his brother.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a bit more difficult to decide. On one hand, taking Nale's life would cause  considerable distress for his girlfriend, Sabine. However, she would be the only one affected by his death as Nale is not in contact with his family and does not have any other friends that would care about him. Also, if Elan did let Nale die, he would probably feel very guilty about it, especially considering it was his twin brother, which would be another bad consequence. However, if Elan lets Nale die it could be considered to be a good thing in many ways. Firstly, Nale would no longer be trying to kill Elan or his friends. In this case, the death of one person to save six other lives could be justified. Also, if Elan was thinking about the situation in this manner, his guilt would be reduced due to justification of not saving one life to keep six others. From a utilitarian perspective, it would be acceptable to let Nale die.

Virtue Ethics

This is difficult to apply in specific situations so I will appeal to Elan's character in general. He has shown himself to always try and be good. His alignment is good (a feature of Dungeons and Dragons is that you choose to be good, evil or neutral at the beginning) and he tries to do good actions. It could be said that any course of action Elan takes at this point is good, as he is a good person.

You will probably be pleased to know that Elan did save his brother in the end, on the proviso that Nale promised to surrender. However, Nale did come back to be a recurring villain, causing all sorts of problems for The Order of the Stick. It may have been more convenient to kill him but I'm not sure that convenience is worth a life, even an evil one like Nale's.

Note: Good and Evil are very much black and white in the Dungeons and Dragons world, which is interesting. Most people stick to their alignment pretty well but how do they decide what's right or not? There are often conflicts between characters and the pursuit of goodness. I must remember to write about Miko and the problems she caused in her blind quest for goodness. She was crazy.