First Class

My first class of existentialism was unlike any class I've ever entered before it. Sure, there were the usual seats, people milling about, and music that I had grown accustomed to this particular instructor playing before class began as per his m.o. in the last class of his I took - introduction to philosophy. Where the strangeness reared its head was when he began to speak on what this class was going to be like. There was no PowerPoint prepared, no clear destination that our professor needed us to reach for comprehension or correct learning, and it was strangely liberating. We discussed whether or not, if presented with a fortune-teller who was accurate the majority of the time, we would ask about what would happen to us in the future. I talked with my groupmates about it and they agreed that finding out what will happen to you would rob you of the surprise of life. The statement that stuck with me was one of my groupmates saying that they valued the journey more than the end goal of where they were going. I am a little more neurotic than that so I said I would like to know my future so that I could avoid my death in the case that the fortune teller accurately guesses it. One of my groupmates brought up the point that if the fortune-teller told you how you would die then that is inevitably how it would happen and knowing it would only make you paranoid rather than actually help. My rebuttal is that if you know how you would likely die and then take measures to avoid it then it could become one of the few times that the fortune teller is inaccurate and, therefore, cheating your most likely death. We also talked about just other bad things in your life that could happen which you could avoid like starting a business that goes bankrupt. My groupmate's response to this was that maybe going bankrupt is a lesson you need to learn or an experience you have to go through in order to get to a better place in life - where you're supposed to be - that you otherwise wouldn't if you avoided it due to listening to the fortune teller. However, the maybes aren't enough to comfort me and that is my reasoning why I would want to know the future. Another intriguing thing we talked about in class was a hypothetical soldier who would not wear his helmet as he believed that if the bullet was meant to hit him and kill him then it would happen anyway and if it wasn't then it wouldn't so there was no reason for him to wear his hot and heavy helmet. To be honest, I didn't understand entirely what the example was meant to prove or demonstrate - maybe that the soldier was making an error in thinking he had no control in the outcome of his life? It could be that he thinks that things will always end up the same for him regardless of his own personal intervention. The example proves him wrong, though; obviously, he should wear his helmet as if a bullet is headed for his cranium he will be much more likely to have it ricochet and keep him alive with it on rather than with it off. I think the point is to show we have that control - that fate isn't absolute. However, from a determinist perspective, if he wore the helmet he was always going to anyway as a result of all his other actions. I often flip back and forth between believing we have that power to change our future and believing that our "choices" are really just us making the decision we always would be based on all the things we have done or had done to us up to that point. Anyways, the class obviously got me thinking and I'm excited to see what else is in store for me. I will update you again soon.

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