Philosophical Overview
In this unit we continue to probe our general question of what we are, but now we go over the ideas of the romantics, and above all, those of the existentialists and psychoanalysts. In presenting psychoanalysis, we discuss Freud’s notion that we differ from other animals in that we repress and sublimate our sexual and aggressive urges. We also discuss Freud’s ideas about unconscious thinking, dreams, childhood sexuality and the Oedipus complex. Today many are attacking the Freudian view of human life, and especially psychoanalytic therapy, and one of our teachers, who doesn’t think she has a sexual relationship with her son, beats me up every time I teach Freud. But I find it hard to shake off the Freudian claim that sex is at the center of human life, that childhood is enormously important to what we become as adults, especially our early relationship with our mothers, and that some of our thoughts and wishes are unconscious. It is also easy to take a Freudian view of jokes, literature, and Hollywood, all of which center on the sublimated expression of sexual and aggressive impulses.
In presenting existentialism, we point out that the existentialists shift the focus of thought about human beings from human nature to human existence in the world. In taking up this topic, we discuss the existentialists’ claim that many moderns find themselves in a godless, “absurd world”―a view greatly influenced by the emergence of modern science, but above all, by the catastrophe of the First World War, an absurd war which was fought over nothing, in an absurd way, leaving 10 million dead, and concluded with an absurd peace treaty. We also discuss the existentialist’s claim that human beings are born with a free consciousness, but tend to act in bad faith, and pretend that they are not free. Living in a paralyzed world with teachers and bureaucrats who justify their lives by saying, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do about it; I have to do it.” But some of us love to respond with , “you are wrong, and the existentialists are right when they say you are free and you can do something about it. After all, you are free, and nothing makes you live this way.” We also discuss Sartre’s existentialist ideas about our social relations―and in particular, his idea that once we are around other people we begin to fake and pretend that we are this or that kind of person, and we also discuss his terrible claim that “Hell is other people!” What we like about existentialism, about teaching Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Camus, and Sartre, is not only that they force students to accept that human beings freely choose their way of living in the world, but also forces them to think about the purpose of their life―about what should be the purpose of a human life. In a society in which people blindly chase after wealth and high social position, this isn’t a bad thing to think about. Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych is a classic existentialist story that deals with this topic. Some of the other works covered
in this unit are excerpts from Nietzsche’s books, Sartre’s No Exit, and Camus' The Stranger, as well as secondary readings written by teachers.
In this unit we also present the touchy-feely ideas of the Romantics. Even though we have several times come to blows over whether these ideas should be trashed, our old fashioned English teachers say the poetry of Blake, Shelley, and Wordsworth is so beautiful and touching that it must be taught (Incidentally, the English teachers consider themselves to be the deep feelers in the 12th-grade, and it is rumored that their students hold hands while reading the poetry) So, we existentialist types try to be tolerant, and let the English teachers dream on. After all, `even though the history of Homo sapiens is full of cruelty, blood, murder and war, it is possible that underneath our sad history we have a compassionate nature and that we are kind at heart. If you read Jared Diamond, you will certainly have doubts about this kind of nature, but if you read Karl Marx, he might make you sympathize with the romantics. Our Marxist reading is assigned over the summer, and we hope to have time to discuss it during our fourth unit. In our aesthetics class we also discuss Tolstoy’s expressionist theory of art, according to which the artist expresses his feelings in an artwork, and that art thus leads to moral progress. For example, for Tolstoy, Stowe’s expression of her negative feelings about slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin helps to explain the freeing of the slaves in the 19th century.
In this second unit we also single out the theme of romantic love (think of a passionate spiritual and physical love for a one-and-only ideal partner), which has become the most praised form of love in the modern world. We go over three theories of romantic love, those of the novelist, Stendhal, the psychoanalyst Philip Slater, and the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. All three of these writers are concerned with why we fall in love with someone, and they emphasize the great problem of maintaining a close relationship with the opposite sex, and two of them argue that the whole thing is based on a big illusion. The other, Sartre, argues that everything can be reduced to a big ego problem―i.e., if loved, the romantic lover feels like an important animal in the universe. For Sartre, this helps to explain the fakery which is normal in a romantic love relationship. We point out that each of these theories could very well contain a kernel of truth. In two stories by Gárcia Márquez, he sides with those who see this kind of love as stimulated by our wild imagination―but he also suggests that the experience of love gives great value to a human life. In addition to these writers, we also go over what some of the evolutionary psychologists have said about love. With feminism and today’s changes in the job market (women are increasingly more employable than we boys, so we boys are no longer needed), whether it is important to have a close love relationship has become a big question for the girls. After all, love relationships are often filled with pain.