What an interesting title for this chapter! "Do Whatever You Want"...
What does he mean by writing this? From the very first impression it sounds a bit liberal, doesn't it?
What does this idea mean to us? That's the question, I would say...
It is important to remember that when he talks about doing whatever we want, he means that we are free to choose and, as a consequence, we can choose to do whatever we want...
But, what does "freedom" mean then? Well, we don't have to forget that freedom is not only being able to decide but also being aware of what you are deciding, which is, by the way, not an easy task at all...
When we talk about decisions, we don't have to avoid thinking about the orders, habits and whims that make us act in a certain way at a certain situation... But we have to remember that these "influences" are just one aspect of the complicated art of taking decisions...
As time goes by, we grow older and we do not have to do what our parents want us to do... or we may move to another place, completely different from ours, and suddenly we find us having to face a radical change in our habits... so, are orders, habits and whims valid for taking all our decisions? How are we going to take such decisions without being told what to do or without having our typical habits?
What a question! "How are we going to take our decisions if we are not told what is expected from us in order to be able to live our lives in the best way possible (i.e. being a good person)?"
At this point we may have no answers for this question, but at least we have the question "What is it to be a good person, a good human being?" (Let me tell you that this is a perfect beginning! We have found us asking a key question in Ethics!)
Of course that each of us will find many different answers for this huge question... but we have to be patient... Finding this answer is a long-life process...
8 comentarios:
Hola AlEZ.!
Cómo estas corazón.?
Bueno..
Sabes que de inflés no entiendo NADA pero es tu blog y te lo tengo que firmar =)
Te amo Gorda.! (L)
Soné re Tago jaja
Muchos Besos.!
Voy a seguir hablando por teléfono con vos =) =) =)
[æ[ .. Mªr!eL .. ]æ]
Cheeee
Puse InFlés en lugar de InGlés ¬¬
Arruiné todo ='(
Ahora si me voy..
Beso
[æ[ .. Mªr!eL .. ]æ]
P/D: Me acabas de decir que aclare que el teléfono x el que estamos hablando es gratis jaja besotes.!
Hi Alez!
Sure the title chosen by Savater was "Do Whatever You Want"? How about "Do what you actually want" (as opposed to what you might think you want, out of an order, habit or whim...)?
I really like the way you talk about the double meaning of freedom (choice + awareness of the consequences brought about by our actions). Remember this when we discuss the "human act"!
BTW, you ask: "are orders, habits and whims valid for taking all our decisions?" Instead, I'd like to ask you if you believe they are valid justifications for any choice we make... How are we going to take such decisions without being told what to do or without having our typical habits?
One last thing: it's true it might be easier to make choices when you know what others expect from you, but isn't it fantastic to learn to look for our own expectations?
See you in class!
Gladys
Hi... It´s me.... I guess that savater comapres in his book both ideas the one on 'whaterver sb wants' and the one on 'what sb actually wants'... Now as we have been discussing with some other girls... this chapter leads us to chapter 4: 'Date la Buena Vida' so as to find a possible answer...
LOL
Yohi
Hello Ale!
You're the 1st person whose blog I'm commenting on.(so, be patient!)
One of the key questions that you've raised is how we learn to make decisions without always following orders, habits or whims. I know that in some circumstances we do have to follow them but, as you say, as we grow up, we need to realize that we have more freedom to choose how we want to live. However, with such a power comes a great responsibility (wait, that's something Spider-man often says! Well, actually he's not quite mistaken:-))
But I do believe that as long as we can choose freely, we are responsible of our choices. And I feel that this is one of the hardest, yet most gratifying, things to learn when becoming an adult, a professional or a citizen. As you mentioned before, we learn this constantly in a long-life process.
Hope I was clear???!!!
R
Rodrigo's reference to Spiderman has made me smile... I watched the movie last night, but hadn't thought of Ethics! :-P
The idea that humans need to learn to take decisions (as part of their growing up)leads me to wonder: can we teach others to make decisions? If so, who should teach children to do so? Do we, EFL teachers, have something to do with this? Or is the job of parents?
What's more, how can I teach others (my class - who might even have more experience than me!, my children, never mind!)something I'm not sure I know?
Help!!!!!!!
Gladys
Well people, I'm here! :) and thank you all for having commented! It's really great to being able to exchange ideas through the net! :-O
I hope I can answer all the questions that you've have pointed out...
First of all Gladys, you're right about the title of the chapter and I believe it's like that ("Do what you actually want) but it seems that I haven't been clear enough in this post :( but in the following one I've explained it better :)
Then, regarding orders, habits and whims I have to say that they are by no means a justification for any decision!! And I've talked about it in my next post too :)
Expectations? Well, I think that what others expect from us tends to be most of the time clear to us because we know who wants what from us. But the question here is: What do we expect from ourselves? Do we just do what is expected from us in order not to have problems, or do we really do what WE expect from US?
Yes, they are very difficult questions to answer, but a way of starting to look for its answer is to think about our actions and why we do them...(because of orders? habits? whims? or is it really because we do want to do them?
For more philosophical questions please go to the next post...
:P
(Yohi was right when she said here "this chapter leads us to chapter 4: 'Date la Buena Vida' so as to find a possible answer" :))
And Ro.!! Welcome to the blogger's world!! :P
I totally agree with you when you wrote "with such a power comes a great responsibility" (and I've seen the movie too!) since we have the power of taking decisions, we are free to choose simply because we were born free and we cannot change it... So let's see what we can do to use such a power in a responsible way...
Well, I think I've written TOO much for today!
So, see you tomorrow!
LOL,
AleZ
Thanks for your extensive reply, Ale!
I understand your views much better now, I think!
Keep blogging!
Gladys
Publicar un comentario