Essence: A stray whiff - Philosophy Blender
Nicole Sun and Dorothy Du (G11)
Nicole and Dorothy are two juniors with a load of upcoming assessments and pain, who nevertheless decided that there’s no better time than now to think about human existence and the meaning of life.
Zheng Laoshi Shi 郑老师
Zheng lao shi is one of our high schoolʼs enthusiastically received Chinese teachers. He teaches IB Chinese A L&L ,CLL 10, and CLL 9, though, apart from teaching the Chinese language, he also loves to preach “心灵鸡汤”(Direct translation: chicken stock for the heart and soul or in english, Inspirational Life Advice) in class. As such, we thought that he would be interesting to interview.
Q:What is the truest emotion?
A: Itʼs an individualʼs first reaction to conflict- an entirely unbridled emotion, entirely inconsiderate of potential consequences. Though, I think these emotions are usually kept suppressed or hidden, or seen as not enough to present to people other than yourself - sometimes, even you yourself would not realize you have these emotions, because of how we are so socially-oriented as a species, so these unrestrained- and truest emotions so to speak, are rarely displayed. And also difficult to display.
Q: So you’re saying that the truest emotion is something primal?
A: Yeah! I mean- say you approach a feral dog. You might get closer to it, and it may bark and howl at you, or it may bite you. These are, in the moment, their truest emotions- they display primal fear. Primal emotions like these are rarely displayed by humans. As such I think itʼs rare to see people display their “truest” emotion.
Q:How do you remind yourself that you are alive?
A: Perhaps from one perspective, I can prove that I am alive using my relationships and impression on others. You know the movie COCO? I think my proof is similar to how, in that movie, the proof of your life is your legacy- how much you are remembered. In my life, I still remember my dead loved ones, and I think that I myself also exist in otherʼs memories. So my proof that I am alive is not necessarily reliant on the physical state of life, rather, itʻs more metaphysical. The fact that I live in other peopleʼs minds.... yeah. I think that being remembered is definitely a way I remind myself I am alive.
Q:Tell us about how you view your own death?
A: I am primarily fearful of it. As an adolescent, I was tormented by the thought, to the point that considering death would cause me to sit up in bed in the middle of the night, shivering. Though, as Iʼve matured, Iʼve come to notice that Iʼm surrounded by too many people, or perhaps itʼs that Iʼm too busy, so much so that I can no longer find time to consider my mortality. Truly, I havenʼt thought of death in a very, very long time. Yet, thinking about it now, I find that Iʼm still terrified of death. Iʼm not religious, so I lack faith in the concept that there is something that waits for us after life- death to me is the end of all things. So the thought of death horrifies me. However, if I were to consider death on a grander scale- death for humanity, I would think that death inspires purpose. I mean, if all of this, life, was infinite, lifeʼs value would be diminished.
Q: So in the scenario that your dead self is presented with a chance at resuming your life as it was before you died, would you take it?
A: I definitely would, though because I know that Iʼm still on an unstoppable march towards death, I donʼt think the experience would change my fear towards it. Perhaps by experiencing death, I would be able to better understand what I want in life -being reanimated would be good for self- reflection.
Q: If I were to ask you the same question 10 years, or even 40 years into the future, do you think you would answer the same as you just did?
A: I donʼt think I would. In my teens, I looked at death purely with fear. Now, I think that my attitude has changed- at the very least, Iʼve become much calmer about the idea- aging changed me. Even the people around me are changed by age- as some people become older, they may even decide that theyʼve had enough entirely, and feel that they donʼt want to live any longer.
Q:Convince me you are real and not in my dreams?
A: Oh. Well, I think that the proof is in how weʼre communicating right now. Iʼm being interviewed, and youʼre listening to me speak while Iʼm listening to you typing. My words are probably shifting your thoughts right this instant; your questions are also constantly changing my thoughts and replies- Iʼm not an automatic response robot, you know. Weʼre resonating, so weʼre real.
Q:What would you tell to a fruit fly who is feeling lost in life?
A: Well, I would tell it to cherish its life, because your death is imminent and inevitable. Also I would tell the fruit fly: “your buzzing and flying around is really irritating - but, it proves that your existence has meaning. Though youʼre affecting me negatively, your existence still brings change to my life; if I never experienced any small annoyances such as you, then I wouldnʼt truly appreciate the beauty of my life when youʼre not around”.
Q:What is your life philosophy?
A: I think that my philosophy is to recognize that there is always more than one way to perceive anything - thereʼs positive and negative views to all. So, I try to approach anything coming my way with a positive outlook, even as I recognize the existence of some negatives.
Q:Do you recommend any philosophical readings?
A: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder - itʼs a novel that teachers you about philosophy through a story. When I was receiving teacher training in America, I met a student who wanted to apply to Peking University as a philosophy major- I read some of the readings he had with him, and it lost me on the very first page. The writing was too convoluted- looking at philosophy through a story makes it easier to digest.
Mr. Toigo
Mr. Toigo is a widely admired (even worshipped) science teacher at ISB who is renowned for his ability to teach HL physics. A while ago when Mr. Toigo was recommending me books to read for the summer (he recommended the Myth of Sisyphus), he told me that heʼs taken some philosophy courses during college. We were interested in his thoughts and so decided to interview him.
Q: Tell us how you view your own death
A: Yeah, unfortunately, that's it, right? I mean, I think death is the end. I didn't have any existence before I was born, and it's going to be the same thing when I die. It's not going to be any different than before I was born. I had no existence before that, and I will have no existence after that.
Q: Convince me you are real and not in my dreams
A: I canʼt. I can't really give you anything because you could always come up with some weird counterargument, right? Like I could touch you. But then you can say, well, that's again, you're still made up and I'm making up this sensation. One can argue that oneself is the only thing that exists. So the argument is either, I am real, or you are the only thing that's real.
Q: What would you tell a fruit fly who is feeling lost in life?
A: Fruit flies only live like a month, right? I guess you could maybe write a whole thing about the existential nature and the absurd nature of fruit flying existence. You have something that literally only exists for a month, so what does that fruit fly do with that month? We can compare it to ourselves and see our existence is nothing compared to the age of the real universe. What does the fruit fly make of his existence? How does it create morality? How does it create meaning? I would tell the fruit fly what I would tell a person. How do you make meaning out of the existence in light of the absurdity of the universe?
Q: Would you be a happy Sisyphus? (In reference to the Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus)
A: I think so. It's taking me a long time to comprehend the idea of how do you live a meaningful life in light of the fact there is no inherent meaning to our existence. I think at the end of the day, everybody tries to find meaning in some sense, whether it's philosophical, whether it's religion. We all ask ourselves the question how do I live a meaningful life? And I guess that meaning doesn't need to be happiness either. Though in most cases, I think people would try to do things that make themselves happy and find meaning that way.
Q: Do you think happiness in some sense is a societal construct?
A: I think itʼs both societal and biological. I would think that the most common things that make people happy are friends and family, are those biological or societal? I'm not sure. You can look at things in society like needing a job and money in order to be comfortable, which will allow you to be happy. In that sense, our happiness is constrained within society.
Q:What do you think of Neitzsche’s statement God is dead?
A: Nietzsche's language is real shocking, right? I think that is the key statement in terms of describing more and more people not believing in God, but I think itʼs the statement that comes after that is more important. The statement afterward is: how shall we comfort ourselves? The murder of all murders. The idea is once you realize that there is no deity who is sort of constructing morality and meaning and purpose to your life, what do you do? I think it's a question that I've really struggled with. What if there is no such thing as right and wrong? What makes what a serial killer does wrong? Camus would say you live in a society so if you make a decision, you need to accept the consequences. But at the end of the day, is it wrong in some sort of sense because there is no universal right and wrong? That is something that I still wrestle with.
Q: Do you think that the discovery of the supernatural would throw off everything philosophy has evolved to be?
A: Only for some people, because not every philosopher rejects a diety; there are many schools of philosophy prevalent today. I personally, would welcome a deity who would come down and say, “Mr. Toigo, you will continue to exist after your death and your choices do matter.” I would love that to happen. It would be so great.
Q: Do you have any philosophical reading recommendations?
A: For me, itʼll always be The Stranger or The Plague by Albert Camus. I recommend them because theyʼre stories, and philosophical textbooks are pretty hard to get through.
In essence, these interviews were conducted from a place of curiosity- we wanted to hear more perspectives about these questions, but we also wanted to learn more about the teachers that we work with every day. We hope that after reading, you are left with some new thoughts that you can ponder alone or discuss with others.