The Man Who Fell to Earth.

[Friedrich]

Should we speak of a "science" of reason? There are many ways of being rational that have nothing to do with science. There are moments in life when a scientific response may be inaccurate or inadequate to the situation.

We should not seek scientific answers to philosophical questions, nor vice versa. If I ask: "What do human beings love?" I may be prepared to accept the answer of W.B. Yates -- "Human beings are in love with what vanishes ..." And yet I cannot accept, even finding it positively ludicrous to attempt such a thing, a scientific experiment designed to yield a definitive answer to this question.

For me, what philosophy calls for is creative "interpretation." It asks us to define who and what we are, in the very process of attempting to decide what we believe and claim to know about what is the case in life and in ourselves. This is a difficult process and not always a pleasant one.

Suppose you were the single occupant of a space ship that crashes on a strange planet. As you begin to emerge from your space ship, there are some questions that you NEED answered, like: Can I breathe this air? Is there food around here? Where, in the universe, am I? Are there other organisms? Let us assume that the answer to the first two questions is "yes." (Those two questions certainly would be empirical scientific questions, by the way.)

The last of these questions remains unanswered.

Assuming that you return with food to your space ship, realizing that you are the only human on this planet in order to eat the food that you have found, then you hear a knock at the portal of the vessel.

At this point, before you decide whether to open that door or not, ethical philosophy is born (and maybe politics and law too), for you may now have to deal with another subjectivity, a new locus of rights, a new world of agents' intentions and meanings suddenly emerges. Everything is no longer about what "you" want, but others' needs and rights will matter too -- and EQUALLY. It becomes necessary to consider the reality of the other's intentions, meanings, concerns and to make FREE choices about how you will act.

Notice I said nothing about another "human being" knocking on your door. (Think of a creative science fiction scenario.) At that moment, also, you can be sure that religion would emerge, as well, so that you come to terms (sometimes painfully) with the actions for which one is responsible. But as that knock is heard, very few people would wish to set up a laboratory experiment.

If you should decide to open the door of the space ship marooned on that strange planet in the middle of the night, and if you find a philosophy professor standing there, then it may be a good idea to ask: "What meaning can be found in this precarious existence?" (All of us are lost on a strange planet.)

How might you help that other creature to meet life's challenges, to survive and flourish? And what can you do to make one another laugh, to dry one another's tears? Maybe, by the end of the evening, the two of you might look up at the moon and make a wish.

I know what mine would be ...

[Suburbanite]

Fred, I like your shit, but there is never anything to really reply to.

[Friedrich]

Suburbanite:

Then try just thinking BEFORE speaking.