Superior Autobiographical Memory: Want it? Believe in it?

Nietzsche argues we might need to forget. Santayana asserts we need to remember. But how much? Watch the video below to learn more about “superior autobiographical memory,” an anomalous condition which affords a rare set of individuals the ability for almost “total recall.” Some revel in the ability, but for others it is an obstacle to their happiness.

The privacy of your own heart

New York Times columnist David Brooks (remember him from The Social Animal reading this summer? that's Brooks on the left), published an article today titled "If It Feels Right ...." The teaser for the article, which was embedded in the e-mail alert I was sent, reads: "The rise of moral individualism has produced a generation unable to speak intelligibly about the virtuous life."  This seemed to me relevant to some discussions we've been having in class and on-line about the moral relativism and happiness (and Mother Night).

While reading the article, I was especially struck by this passage:

"Many [young people] were quick to talk about their moral feelings but hesitant to link these feelings to any broader thinking about a shared moral framework or obligation. As one put it, 'I mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn’t speak on behalf of anyone else as to what’s right and wrong.'

"Smith and company found an atmosphere of extreme moral individualism — of relativism and nonjudgmentalism."

I recommend the article to you.  Click on the link above to check it out. And let us know what you think about any of this by leaving a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the page.  Is everything relative? Truth?  The meaning of a novel?  What makes people happy?

And just for fun, I'm throwing in this video of Brooks talking about The Social Animal.

Happiness Unplugged

Ever perform what philosophers call a “thought-experiment” and imagine that you could be somewhere else, someone else? What if it these things were possible? Would you do it? Would it make you happy? (Click here for more thought experiments.)

In his essay titled “The Experience Machine,” philosopher, Robert Nozick (that's Nozick in the photo at right) argues that doing so would constitute “a kind of suicide.” But not everyone agrees, in The Matrix, the character Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) asserts it would be “bliss.” If movies make you happy (are movies experience machines?) and you are interested in using the vehicle of contemporary cinema to ponder whether we are “brains in vats” (as philosopher Hilary Putnam--a man, by the way--put it in his essay “Brains in Vats;" click on this link to read a discussion of it), then you might want to watch, among others:

 The Matrix (1999)

Thinking about Forgetting: Seek Eternal Sunshine

Think only philosophers speculate on the merits of forgetting? No way.  Forgetting is also a popular theme in popular culture. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) considers both the appeal of forgetting and its price. And lest we forget, the title of the film refers to lines from Alexander Pope’s “Eloisa to Abelard” (1717).

Here's the trailer:

And here's a link to a very good scholarly article on the film by Christopher Grau.

This post has been crafted for you by Dr. Jennifer McMahon.

War films cannot depict the reality of war

Click here to read an accessible and interesting article relevant to Mother Night and the issue of fiction representing reality (thanks for the link, Dr. McMahon!). "Carnage and Glory, Legends and Lies," by Michael Norman (see image at right) originally published in the New York Times in July, 1996, contends that war films cannot depict the reality of war.

It begins:

For the record, I know the drill. I've saluted my superiors and spit shined my shoes and marched till my arches were aching. I've aimed a rifle and reeled at the awful result. In short, I'm a typical American paradox, a veteran who still boils at the Beltway blockheads who bloodied his generation and a former marine who will always step forward for his beloved corps.