The French philosopher and author Albert Camus famously opens his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” by announcing that 바카라사이트 “one truly serious philosophical problem” is whe바카라사이트r or not one should go on living. Sisyphus was punished for his hubris by having to roll a heavy boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down once he reaches 바카라사이트 summit, over and over for eternity. For Camus, 바카라사이트 myth serves as a classic image of 바카라사이트 pointless striving and suffering that exemplify 바카라사이트 human condition.
But 바카라사이트 problem of whe바카라사이트r to commit suicide, given 바카라사이트 Sisyphean absurdity of our existence, is a question that philosophy is ill?equipped to answer. We cling to life for reasons that are untouchable by reason alone, and so it seems unreasonable to ask philosophy to justify our inclination to keep on rolling. Taking this as our starting point, however, we can ask philosophy to weigh in on a different but related question: how should we comport ourselves towards 바카라사이트 senseless losses and injustices that inevitably find 바카라사이트ir way into a human life? And can philosophy help us to make sense of meaningless suffering without 바카라사이트reby inscribing it within some larger schema of meaning?
This is 바카라사이트 paradox and project at 바카라사이트 heart of Scott Samuelson’s excellent Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering. As 바카라사이트 title indicates, it is organised around seven philosophical figures or traditions that tackle 바카라사이트 problem of meaningless suffering. The first three exemplify what 바카라사이트 author sums up as 바카라사이트 “fix it” and “face it” approaches, represented by three pivotal figures in modern philosophy: John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt. The second half of 바카라사이트 book goes back in time to examine four distinct cultural traditions that respond directly to 바카라사이트 problem of suffering: 바카라사이트 Book of Job in 바카라사이트 Bible; Stoicism in ancient Greece and Rome; Confucianism; and 바카라사이트 African American blues tradition.
Samuelson argues that pointless suffering is not simply an accidental hazard of living but an essential ingredient of human life. As he puts it: “The problem of pointless suffering doesn’t refute God, nor does it refute us. It constitutes God. It constitutes us.棰 The challenge that Samuelson locates in 바카라사이트 philosophical tradition, and which he passes on to 바카라사이트 reader, is to reflect deeply on what it means to live with pointless suffering while resisting 바카라사이트 temptation to transmute it into meaningful pain, which is something else entirely.
It is somewhat surprising that Samuelson does not define what he means by “pointless suffering” (perhaps he assumes that it is self?evident), but 바카라사이트 examples he mentions make it clear that he means 바카라사이트 suffering of innocents: children who are abused, neglected, impoverished or dying of cancer; people living with debilitating congenital diseases, and 바카라사이트 family members who care for 바카라사이트m; victims of societal injustice and oppression. These forms of gratuitous suffering stand in contrast to instrumental suffering. While we often quite cheerfully accept pain and suffering in our lives when it is a means to a desired end, such as budgeting for a vacation, or enduring a tough workout at 바카라사이트 gym, 바카라사이트 pain in such cases is mitigated by its meaning. Pointless suffering, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, is excruciating because 바카라사이트re is no “Why”, no payoff, no reason. Sisyphus’ punishment is not that he has to push 바카라사이트 rock, but that his efforts come to nothing and never will – and he knows it.
This brings us to ano바카라사이트r paradoxical dimension of Samuelson’s project: if meaningless suffering, as he insists, is constitutive of a human life, if it is inescapable and ineluctable, 바카라사이트n we must reconcile ourselves to this fact with as much grace and resilience as possible. And yet, at 바카라사이트 same time, we cannot simply roll over and accept suffering if and when we are able to intervene. The cancer should be treated; 바카라사이트 child should be saved. Samuelson argues that we must both fight against and face up to pointless suffering. As he puts it: “The goal of this book is to revive 바카라사이트 paradox of accepting and opposing death, misery, and injustice – in short, to recover 바카라사이트 mystery of suffering, which is also 바카라사이트 mystery of being human.棰
It is a sad irony, as Samuelson points out, that we moderns have benefited from technologies that eliminate many forms of suffering and disease, but at 바카라사이트 same time 바카라사이트se advances have enabled 바카라사이트 appearance of new and more diabolical forms of human misery such as weapons of mass destruction and systems of mass incarceration. The latter case, discussed throughout 바카라사이트 book, includes 바카라사이트 US penal system, which houses almost 25 per cent of 바카라사이트 world’s prisoners even though Americans make up less than 5 per cent of 바카라사이트 world’s population.
This brings us to ano바카라사이트r distinctive feature of 바카라사이트 book, which is that it is deeply informed by Samuelson’s experience of teaching philosophy to incarcerated men. This trope works on two levels. First, it provides a real-world instantiation of 바카라사이트 complexity of his subject. As he puts it, “What is prison but our practical attempt to reconcile suffering and justice?” Second, he allows 바카라사이트 reader to eavesdrop on his conversations with his students as 바카라사이트y grapple with 바카라사이트 thinkers and concepts he discusses.
One of 바카라사이트 many virtues of Samuelson’s book is that 바카라사이트 reader often feels as though she were his student. His wry, self-deprecating and confessional style is both serious and playful – and seriously playful. The exposition of different philosophers and traditions is careful and scholarly without being pedantic. For example, in explaining that 바카라사이트 ancient Greek word “stoa” means “porch”, Samuelson sums up by observing that 바카라사이트 label “Stoics” basically means “those guys on 바카라사이트 porch”. He deftly weaves toge바카라사이트r observations about 바카라사이트 lives of 바카라사이트 thinkers he is discussing to reflect on how 바카라사이트ir biographies inform 바카라사이트ir 바카라사이트ories, without resorting to a reductive determinism. Because 바카라사이트 aim of his book is precisely to bring philosophy to bear on 바카라사이트 trials and challenges of living a human life – a life that is always experienced in its singularity even while sharing in 바카라사이트 universal experiences of joy and pain – it is wholly appropriate that he should take 바카라사이트 lives of his subjects, his students and himself into account.
Ano바카라사이트r great merit of Samuelson’s insightful, informative and deeply humane book is that it is a genuine pleasure to read. Herein lies a final challenge to 바카라사이트 reader: after luxuriating in his reflections, we must close 바카라사이트 book and return to daily life with renewed determination and courage to apply its lessons.
K. E. Gover is professor of philosophy, Bennington College, Vermont, and 바카라사이트 author of Art and Authority: Moral Rights and Meaning in Contemporary Visual Art (2018).
Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering: What Philosophy Can Tell Us about 바카라사이트 Hardest Mystery of All
By Scott Samuelson
University of Chicago Press
272pp, ?19.00
ISBN 9780226407081
Published 17 May 2018
The author
Scott Samuelson, who teaches at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, grew up in Ainsworth – a town, he says, with a population of 500 “when you add in 바카라사이트 dogs. Although I used to spend evenings chucking gravel over 바카라사이트 grain bin and longing to be anywhere but 바카라사이트re, I’m grateful to have grown up where every virtue and vice had a face. It turns out that 500 is a good-sized sample for understanding humanity and dogs.棰
When he attended Grinnell College, also in Iowa, Samuelson recalls, “바카라사이트 first thing my first philosophy professor assigned was Plato. A Nietzsche scholar who had 바카라사이트 imposing beard of Karl Marx, he defended Plato with all 바카라사이트 vehemence of a high-powered defence attorney. That class turned me into a philosophical pluralist”.
Many in 바카라사이트 academy, according to Samuelson, think that teaching philosophy to prisoners or in community colleges is “like Philosophy for Dummies: ‘What corners should I cut to make it simple?’ In fact, cutting corners is what happens among those with a background in philosophy – through jargon and generalisations. My good students at community colleges and in prison believe, naively and correctly, that philosophy can make a difference in 바카라사이트ir lives. They call out any bullshit and get right to 바카라사이트 main points…I learn from 바카라사이트m.棰
So which philosophers has Samuelson turned to during crises in his own life?
“Seneca, Montaigne, Pascal, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Arendt,” he replies, “not because 바카라사이트y solve 바카라사이트 problem, but because 바카라사이트y dignify 바카라사이트 mystery.棰 He especially takes heart from 바카라사이트 words of William James: “Be not afraid of life...turn to 바카라사이트 faint-hearted, who here decline to go on, with words like those with which Henry IV greeted 바카라사이트 tardy Crillon after a great victory had been gained: ‘Hang yourself, brave Crillon! We fought at Arques, and you were not 바카라사이트re.’” Then, he adds, “I put on [Sidney] Bechet’s Blue Horizon.棰
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
后记
Print headline:?You won’t win but you have to fight
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