An Amoral Manifesto (Part I)

[chaz wyman]

You know its the best magazine you can buy!!

chaz, you don't give the impression you read it.

AN insult from an imbecile is a validation of superiority. Thank you.

[spike]

"I read about this controversy much later, as a result of fretting about what I should do with my life. I didn’t want to waste it, in case (as still seems likely) it turned out that we only get the one. I couldn’t see how to be sure to use it wisely unless I knew what it was for, so I reckoned I’d better try to puzzle out its purpose. What exactly is any human life for? Is it for expanding scientific knowledge? For helping the suffering? For raising children? For making as much money as possible? For becoming the world paintball champion? So I became very interested in the whole notion of purpose and of whether you can derive a knowledge of anything’s purpose simply from the facts about it, but I kept coming up against Hume’s wretched ‘is’ and ‘ought’. What ought you to do with your life? Nothing about how the world is can possibly tell you. At least, rightly or wrongly, that was how I read Hume and I thought that Hume was correct. There is no objective ‘purpose of life’ to find – only projects we ourselves freely choose. So I decided to just do whatever felt deep-down important to me personally. This turned out to be starting a magazine to popularise philosophy and share my meta-ethical confusion with a wider public."

Rick Lewis (PN Magazine, issue 83)

I couldn't help contrasting Rick's career decision with that of Forrest Gump, as portrayed in a review by Terri Murray in the same issue. Rick was of sounder mind and decisive about making choices whereas Forrest was mentally challenged and seemed to go more with the flow. Forrest too did make choices but they seemed to be after the fact whereas Rick's choices were made before or were preemptive. Rick made things happen because he was in control, whereas Forrest let things happen because he was less in control. Nevertheless, Forrest also had the intuition to cease an opportunity when he saw it.

It seems that Rick and Forrest are both a success even though they are different cognitively. Perhaps it had to do with them having a similar upbringing, in that they were both encourage to go into the world confidently and do what they thought was right.

When I examine my life I see a combination of both Rick and Forrest, making decisions up front but also going with the flow.

[spike]

"I read about this controversy much later, as a result of fretting about what I should do with my life. I didn’t want to waste it, in case (as still seems likely) it turned out that we only get the one. I couldn’t see how to be sure to use it wisely unless I knew what it was for, so I reckoned I’d better try to puzzle out its purpose. What exactly is any human life for? Is it for expanding scientific knowledge? For helping the suffering? For raising children? For making as much money as possible? For becoming the world paintball champion? So I became very interested in the whole notion of purpose and of whether you can derive a knowledge of anything’s purpose simply from the facts about it, but I kept coming up against Hume’s wretched ‘is’ and ‘ought’. What ought you to do with your life? Nothing about how the world is can possibly tell you. At least, rightly or wrongly, that was how I read Hume and I thought that Hume was correct. There is no objective ‘purpose of life’ to find – only projects we ourselves freely choose. So I decided to just do whatever felt deep-down important to me personally. This turned out to be starting a magazine to popularise philosophy and share my meta-ethical confusion with a wider public."

Rick Lewis (PN Magazine, issue 83)

I couldn't help contrasting Rick's career decision with that of Forrest Gump, as portrayed in a review by Terri Murray in the same issue. Rick was of sounder mind and decisive about making choices whereas Forrest was mentally challenged and seemed to go more with the flow. Forrest too did make choices but they seemed to be after the fact whereas Rick's choices were made before or were preemptive. Rick made things happen because he was in control, whereas Forrest let things happen because he was less in control. Nevertheless, Forrest also had the intuition to cease an opportunity when he saw it.

It seems that Rick and Forrest are both a success even though they are different cognitively. Perhaps it had to do with them having a similar upbringing, in that they were both encourage to go into the world confidently and do what they thought was right.

When I examine my life I see a combination of both Rick and Forrest, making decisions up front but also going with the flow.