Friday, November 14, 2014

Vertigo has me tripping

On Wednesday, Dr J mentioned vertigo by citing an example of standing on a ledge and being dizzy(vertigo) knowing that you're not afraid of falling but you are afraid because you are aware of your own freedom to induce yourself to jump. And the thing is it doesn't only apply to this situation. There are a multitude of ways this can happen. For example not going to class as a college student, not doing homework, not obeying traffic laws, not respecting people's humanity, so on and so forth. If you think about how we actually refrain ourselves from doing so many things, it's crazy. What actually keeps us from crossing the line, so to speak, when we have the freedom to act otherwise?

Speaking of, I once read a work that compared the freedom of both a waiter and a prisoner.(I'm  not sure how if it's the same as the example from class). In any case, it pointed out how the prisoner was more free than the waiter because as Sartre points out, the waiter is too much like a waiter and loses his individuality in the midst of being a waiter. In other words he is being a waiter in the mode of not being a waiter. The prisoner is free because he does not have bad faith. He refuses to to let his captors "break" him and he holds on to his freedom, something that they cannot get a hold of. By this very means, he is therefore more free than the waiter who surrenders his ability to be transcendent of his facticity to remain just that, a facticity.

Edit: I was able to find the work on jstor. Here is the link if you wish to view it: http://www.jstor.org/stable/810349

It's only a few pages and worth reading if you get the chance.

3 comments:

  1. yes, this is so true. As the waiter we are not free because we are imprisoned by a roll that we really are not. Far as a prisoner he is going to be free far as is body, mind, and soul. A waiter/waitress can be free because she/he has to act as a waitress through the body, mind, and soul as a person. So yes I feel that the prisoner himself have more freedom because he, himself get to act as himself even though he is in prison far as the waiter she is not free because she is not free as herself as a whole.

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  2. Your comment really brings to my mind the Fight Club quote, "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything." I definitely would rather be a waiter than a prisoner, let me start off by saying, but in a way I see why the prisoner might be considered more free. If you don't have anything to lose, what's there to stop you? Once you've survived Hell, what can truly scare you? I actually really love this idea. Perhaps I read Fight Club a bit too early in my impressionable, teenage years (and I read it as an anti-capitalist, "look how awful and toxic our current version of masculinity is") but it was comforting in an odd way. And it definitely had it's existentialist moments, now that I think about it! Another quote says, "I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom." Not sure how factual that actually is, but there's some truthiness in it, I feel.

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  3. I think vertigo influences a lot of decision making in life. For example, if I am stuck in between choosing to rob a bank for a living or working for a living. I may choose to work for a living not because its the right thing to do but because I am afraid of exercising my freedom to rob a bank.

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