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Monday, December 31, 2018

Ultimate questions

In his book, Confessions of a Philosopher (1997), which is a history of Western philosophy told through his own intellectual journey, Magee offers what could be a partial answer to these questions when he describes how in his late thirties, despite having a passionate attachment to life, he was driven to the edge of mental illness, even suicide, by metaphysical terror. He learned to control his terror, which, though he did not say so, recalled Blaise Pascal’s fear of “immensity of spaces which I know not and which know not me”, through reading the writings of others, notably Arthur Schopenhauer. “I think the feeling of meaninglessness is worst of all, worse than the fear of death itself,” Magee said. “The feeling that nothing matters, that there’s no point to anything. Certainly, I have experiences, in the forms of extreme existential terror, states of mind that bordered on the intolerable.” He also published a novel in which he explored his existential terror, Facing Death (1977). 

The final paragraph of Ultimate Questions, in which Magee speculates on how he might feel at the point of death, is especially haunting. “I can only hope that,” he writes, “when it is my turn, my curiosity will overcome my fear – though I may then be in the position of a man whose candle goes out and plunges him into pitch darkness at the very instant when he thought he was about to find what he was looking for.”

7 comments:

  1. Not really on topic, but has anyone read "Libertarian Free Will: Neuroscientific and Philosophical Evidence" by Peter Tse?
    I'd be interested in your opinion.

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    1. Years ago, Tse had lengthy (pages and pages of) exchanges on his book over at Flickers of Freedom including with famous philosophers of mind like John Martin Fischer. I think the other philosophers and commenters had the better argument.

      NDPR likewise review Tse's book:

      https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/neural-basis-of-free-will-criterial-causation/

      In short, Tse may be a good neuroscientist, but his philosophy is more questionable.

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    2. Sorry, shouldn't say "of mind".

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    3. No problem! :)

      By the way, here's the Flickers of Freedom thread. I think there's something like 10+ pages of debate and discussion in the combox with Tse.

      https://philosophycommons.typepad.com/flickers_of_freedom/2013/12/peter-tses-the-neural-basis-of-free-will-an-overview.html

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  2. I'm not very far into it, but as some have already pointed out, it's hard to see how randomness rises to the level of a volitional act.

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  3. That's a rather telling quote.

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