“After the politicians, I went to the poets,…. So I took up those poems with which they seemed to have taken most trouble and asked them what they meant, in order that I might at the same time learn something from them. I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen, but I must. Almost all the bystanders might have explained the poems better than their authors could. I soon realized that poets do  not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say”.  Plato Trial of Socrates

Relativism – does anything really matter?

Relativism is often confused with an “anything goes” view of morals.  Live and let live, “easy come, easy go”, going the way the wind blows.  Perhaps this is pragmatism rather than relativism, as relativism can mean a number of things – no absolute rules, no universal truths, a situational view of morals, and a subjective view of truth., but one thing it doesn’t mean is “anything goes”.  Right and wrong can still be justified according to reason and we need to discuss and consider what reasonable grounds still exist for morality.  Of course, in the twentieth century it did shade into emotivism, the view that a moral view is just a matter of feelings and nothing else (subjectivism).  In this extreme form truth did become opinion and there really was no grounds for deciding right from wrong. This may be the meaning of the Queen song – that the wrong understanding of relativism and values, the idea that nothing at all matters – can lead us to do monstrous things like kill a man and then “it’s too late, mamma” to “face the truth” that there are some absolutes of right and wrong.
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality

Open your eyes

Look up to the skies and see

I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy

Because I’m “easy come, easy go”

Little high, little low

Any way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me, to me

 

Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head

Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead

Mama, life had just begun

But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away

Mama, ooo

Didn’t mean to make you cry

If I’m not back again this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

 

Too late, my time has come

Sends shivers down my spine

Body’s aching all the time

Goodbye everybody – I’ve got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama, ooo – (any way the wind blows)

I don’t want to die

I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

 

I see a little silhouette-o of a man

Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the Fandango

Thunderbolt and lightning — very, very frightening me

Gallileo, Gallileo,

Gallileo, Gallileo,

Gallileo, Figaro — magnifico!

 

I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me

He’s just a poor boy from a poor family

Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come easy go — will you let me go?

Bismillah! No! We will not let you go! — Let him go!

Bismillah! We will not let you go! — Let him go!

Bismillah! We will not let you go! — Let me go!

Will not let you go! — Let me go! Never!

Never let you go! — Let me go!

Never let me go! — ooo

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Oh Mama mia, Mama mia, Mama mia! Let me go!

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me!

for me!

for me!!

 

So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye

So you think you can love me and leave me to die

Oh baby — can’t do this to me, baby

Just gotta get out — just gotta get right outta here

 

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah

Nothing really matters

Anyone can see

Nothing really matters

Nothing really matters to me

 

Any way the wind blows…
Utilitarianism – the meaning of happiness

Utilitarianism has one intrinsic good at its centre, pleasure or happiness.  of course, theya ren’t the same thing.  So what is happiness?  Mill was rather confused on this point, as he begins his essay implying that happiness is the same thing as pleasure and then widens out his definition to include “a life of many pleasures and few and transitory pains, with a predominance of the active over the passive and not expecting from life more than it is capable of bestowing”. Mill was, however, well aware of the paradox of happiness, if we pursue happiness it escapes us, and if we think of it n terms of things we gain, we find when we have them that it is gone.  How does this song express the paradox?

 

Sheryl Crow if it makes you happy – utilitarianism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyihQtBes1I

I belong, a long way from here

I put on a poncho and played for mosquitoes

And drank ’till I was thirsty again

We went searching, through thrift store jungles

 

Found Geronimo’s rifle, Marilyn’s shampoo

And Benny Goodman’s corset and pen

Well, okay, I made this up

I promise you I’d never give up

 

[Chorus]

If it makes you happy

It can’t be that bad

If it makes you happy

Then why the hell are you so sad?

 

Get down, real low down
Strokes Two levels of happiness

Happiness has a number of definitions: Asitotle, Mill, Bentham all take a different view.  This song seems to suggest that there are at least two definitions, one involving discipline and one pleasure – is this something the philosophers allude to?  Compare with Mill’s second definition (see my handout) “with a predominance of the active over the passive, and not expecting from life more than it can give”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOaBNQt2k3A

 

Happiness is two different things,

What you take and then what you bring.

One is pleasure, 

one’s discipline,

one’s devotion,

one’s just a ring.

Desire and reward.

Long term and short term joy.

Don’t waste your heart,

don’t waste your heart.

One has nothing to do with the other…

And the world is all cousins not brothers

Hard to take you off of my love

one’s an instant, 

one takes some will.

One gives life,

and one makes you kill.

one’s the means and ones for the end…

Desire and reward.

Long term and short term joy.

Don’t waste your heart,

don’t waste your heart.

One has nothing to do with the other…

and the world is all cousins not brothers

Don’t you give in,

You’re beginning.

Kant and Respect: the second formulation of the Categorical imperative

Kantian ethics is the ethics of duty and respect.  Respect stems from the seocond formula the principle fo humanity (or ends).  “Never treat people merely as a means to an end but always also as an end in themselves”.  the end in themselves implies we give human beings equal respect as rational sharers in our common nature as moral beings.  We don’t treat women as sex objects, as this song by Pink complains boys often do.  What are the indicators in our culture that women are reduced to objects of sexual desire?  Should we be more Kantian? (Have a look at the newspapers/ teenage magazines like More/ The Sunday Times style magazine and see what you think).

Respect Pink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kb6zQsODnQ1 and 2 and 3 and 4 

This my rap song

1-2-3-4

I get really sick and tired of boys up in my face

Pick up lines like “What’s your sign” won’t get

you anyplace

When me and all my girls go walking down the

street

It seems we can’t go anywhere without a car that

goes “Beep-beep”

Cuz this body is a priceless piece of lovin’

unconditionally

So, Mr. Big-stuff, who you think you are?

You was thinkin’ you’s gonna get it for free

No, no, no,

Hey ladies

(Yeah!)

Let ’em know it ain’t easy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Let’s come togeta’

Sista’s

(Yeah!)

Its time to be greedy

Nothin’ good comes for free

 

Mirror on the wall, damn I sure look fine

I can’t blame those horny boys, I would make me

mine

When I pass you in a club, “Ooh, lala!” you gasp

Back up boy, I ain’t your toy, or your piece of

ass

 

Cuz this body is a priceless piece of lovin’

unconditionally

So, Mr. Big-stuff, who you think you are?

You was thinkin’ you’s gonna get it for free

No, no, no

 

Hey ladies

(Yeah!)

Let ’em know it ain’t easy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Let’s come togeta’

Sista’s

(Yeah!)

Its time to be greedy

Nothin’ good comes for free

 

Hey ladies

(Yeah!)

Let ’em know it ain’t easy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Let’s come togeta’

Sista’s

(Yeah!)

Its time to be greedy

Nothin’ good comes for free

 

No jealousy, no envy girls, c’mon, let’s work it

out

No freebies in the limousine, that’s not what its

about

Let ’em know there’s work to do, give it up he

won’t call you

Respect is just a minimum, go on girl and get you

some

 

1-2-3-4

 

Hey ladies

(Yeah!)

Let ’em know it ain’t easy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Let’s come togeta’

Sista’s

(Yeah!)

Its time to be greedy

Nothin’ good comes for free

 

Hey ladies

(Yeah!)

Let ’em know it ain’t easy

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Let’s come togeta’

Sista’s

(Yeah!)

Its time to be greedy

Nothin’ good comes for free

 

Let’s come together

C’mon girls let’s work it out

Let’s come together

We’ll show them what we’re talkin’ bout

Let’s come together

C’mon girls let’s work it out

Let’s come together

Let’s come together

Let’s come together

Nothin’ good comes for free
Kant and universalisability: the first formula of the Categorical Imperative

Kant argues that our reason demands consistency and consistency demands that we universalise our actions.  As this song suggest we do’t always understand why people do what they do to us, and perhaps the other person would understand better if we “did it to you”.  The ability to universalise may be a universal moral principle, as it seems to appear in all majr religions (eg the Golden Rule “do to others as you would have them do to you” Matthew 7:13.  See the Golden Rule website fro all versions of this principle in philosophy and religion.

How do you do it  Gerry and the Pacemakers/ Beatles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zs7OtsvvT4

How do you do what you do to me, I wish I knew

If I knew how you do it to me, I’d do it to you

 

How do you do what you do to me, I’m feeling blue

Wish I knew how you do it to me, but I haven’t a clue

 

You give me a feeling in my heart, like an arrow passin’ through it

‘spose that you think you’re very smart

But won’t you tell me how do you do it

 

How do you do what you do to me, if I only knew

Then perhaps you’d fall for me like I fell for you

 

You give me a feeling in my heart like an arrow passin’ through it

‘spose that you think you’re very smart

But won’t you tell me how do you do it

 

How do you do what you do to me, if I only knew

Then perhaps you’d fall for me like I fell for you

When I do it to you
Kant and Practical Reason

Kant suggests we need to throw off immaturity and leave feelings aside when making a moral decision:  “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”

Morality is about the excercise of practical a priori reason – reason before we experience anything.  We should act out of duty – which means out of obedience to the moral law, not out of a sense of my own interest or my own desire.  Supertramp would not have agreed – being too logical and sensible is to dehumanise us, they seem to suggest.

 

Supertramp The logical song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcX1qA1Etc8

When I was young

It seemed that life was so wonderful

A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical

And all the birds in the trees

Well they’d be singing so happily

Joyfully, playfully watching me

 

But then they send me away

To teach me how to be sensible

Logical, responsible, practical

And then they showed me a world

Where I could be so dependable

Clinical, intellectual, cynical

 

There are times when all the world’s asleep

The questions run too deep for such a simple man

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned?

I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am

 

I say, “Now what would you say for they calling you a radical

Liberal, fanatical, criminal?”

Won’t you sign up your name? We’d like to feel you’re

Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable

Oh, ch-ch-check it out yeah

 

At night when all the world’s asleep

The questions run so deep for such a simple man

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned?

I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am

Who I am, who I am, who I am

 

‘Coz I’m feeling so illogical

D-d-digital

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Unbelievable

 

Radiohead and Philosophy book Brandon Forbes
Situation ethics

Joseph Fletcher argues that love is something you have to believe in and commit to – then you find out its truth.  he calls this positivism, one of the four working principles of Situation Ethics.  John Paul Young agrees – love is something you gotta believe in.

Love is in the air John Paul Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC0kIzM1Fo

Love is in the air

Everywhere I look around

Love is in the air

Every sight and every sound

 

And I don’t know if I’m being foolish

Don’t know if I’m being wise

But it’s something that I must believe in

And it’s there when I look in your eyes

 

Love is in the air

In the whisper of the trees

Love is in the air

In the thunder of the sea

 

And I don’t know if I’m just dreaming

Don’t know if I feel sane

But it’s something that I must believe in

And it’s there when you call out my name

[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/john_paul_young/love_is_in_the_air.html ]

(Chorus)

Love is in the air

Love is in the air

Oh oh oh

Oh oh oh

 

Love is in the air

In the rising of the sun

Love is in the air

When the day is nearly done

 

And I don’t know if you’re an illusion

Don’t know if I see it true

But you’re something that I must believe in

And you’re there when I reach out for you

 

Love is in the air

Every sight and every sound

And I don’t know if I’m being foolish

Don’t know if I’m being wise

 

But it’s something that I must believe in

And it’s there when I look in your eyes

 

 

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/john_paul_young/#share
Virtue Ethics

Virtues are habits of character formed over our lifetime by the application of phronesis or practical wisdom to different situations.  The end of the virtues is eudaimonia, a personal flourishing so that I become the most excellent person I can possibly be.  There are three ways to get virtue: the three Es, by education, by emulation, and by experience.  This song is about heroes and so it is a song about one of the ways we get virtue, by defining heroism and then following it.  What makes the hero in this song heroic?  In our culture have we made heroes of people who have no morally heroic qualities (and are just excellent footballers etc)?

Wind beneath my wings Bette Midler

Film version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiS8YokFzeY

Singing live version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E5a_4yCXcQ

It must have been cold there in my shadow,

To never have sunlight on your face.

You were content to let me shine, that’s your way.

You always walked a step behind.

 

So I was the one with all the glory,

While you were the one with all the strength.

A beautiful face without a name for so long.

A beautiful smile to hide the pain.

 

[Chorus]

Did you ever know that you’re my hero,

And everything I would like to be?

I can fly higher than an eagle,

For you are the wind beneath my wings.

 

It might have appeared to go unnoticed,

But I’ve got it all here in my heart.

I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.

I would be nothing without you.

 

[Chorus]

 

Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?

You’re everything, everything I wish I could be.

Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle,

For you are the wind beneath my wings,

Cause you are the wind beneath my wings.

 

Oh, the wind beneath my wings.

You, you, you, you are the wind beneath my wings.

Fly, fly, fly away. You let me fly so high.

Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.

Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.

 

Fly, fly, fly high against the sky,

So high I almost touch the sky.

Thank you, thank you,

Thank God for you, the wind beneath my wings.