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| R. MAGRITTE, La trahison des images, 1928-29, huile sur toile, Los Angeles county Museum of Art, Los Angeles |
“ An unexamined life is a life not worth living ,” Socrates.
In my Forbidden Books course, we were assigned to develop characters to participate in a Socratic dialogue and record our dialogue on video. In our dialogue, one character is confronted with a dilemma of a philosophical nature. The Socratic Method is based on asking and answering questions that stimulate critical thinking and clarify ideas. This method was invented by Socrates, an ancient greek philosopher who is known as the father of western philosophy.
Each students was assigned a theme such as beauty, justice, or love and was instructed to write a socratic dialogue examining the meaning of theme assigned to them. My theme is reality.
Morpheus - played by AJ
Phaedrus - played by GN
Script:
Morpheus: Hello Phaedrus, how are you today? (Sitting on the courtyard steps.)
Phaedrus: I’m fine, but I am trying to figure something out.
Morpheus: What are you trying to figure out? It seems to me that you have been thinking deeply about something.
Phaedrus: Well, I have been wondering whether you are really there, or if everything I see and do is just in my imagination! Are there really other people, and places, and things to eat, or are they just figments of my imagination? I certainly hope I am real! But it’s a good question. Before we can answer it, though, I think we need to ask, what is reality, and how can we decide whether something is real?
Morpheus: Reality is reality! It is anything that would still be here if there were no one around to experience it.
Phaedrus: Are you implying that we humans do not exist? Are language, consciousness and ideas real? If they are, we must be real, because none of these things would exist without us.
Morpheus: All I know is that we are not simply figments of our imagination. Reality is anything you can touch, see, smell and feel. Something is real if everyone can experience it.
Phaedrus: What about paintings? The tableau itself abides by your definition of reality, but is the image represented on the tableau real? Everyone is able to see, touch and feel the image!
Morpheus: The actual painting is real, but the image represented on it is not.
Phaedrus: Then, what is the difference between a representation of something and the real thing?
Morpheus: A real thing exists in space. It occupies a space.
Phaedrus: Really? What about a mirage?
Morpheus: Mirages are different, they are optical illusions caused by atmospheric conditions. They do not occupy space!
Phaedrus: You are right. Mirages are optical illusions caused by atmospheric conditions. They occur when light rays are refracted and form a false image at the observer’s location. Have you ever heard of Descartes?
Morpheus: Yes. Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his philosophical statement saying: “ Je pense, donc je suis; I think therefore I am.”
Phaedrus: Do you agree with that proposition?
Morpheus: I do. Descartes used that proposition to prove that the world exists.
Phaedrus: Is a chair real? A chair cannot think, from my experience. We may be able to think, but how do we know whether or not those ideas are actually ours? And what if someone planted those ideas in our brains, are those ideas still ours? Maybe our brain are pre-programmed, like a robot.
Morpheus: You are right! I cannot answer those question. I was blinded by my own beliefs, and was unable to examine them. You have taught me something. I need to start questioning my beliefs, so that I may defend them better (He said stoutly). You made a great vindication of your ideas.
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