DISTINGUO! A talk by Alan Jacobs.
Forking
paths:
1941
CSL published Screwtape Letters and Jorge Luis Borges published The Garden of Forking Paths.
In Borges' book, a novel is hypothesized in which all possible
outcomes occur simultaneously: forking paths, all followed.
Either/Or:
“The
choice between the ethical and the aesthetic is not the choice
between good and evil; it is the choice of whether or not to choose
in terms of good and evil.” Alasdair MacIntyre on Kierkegaard's
Either-Or.
Sarte:
choice is inevitable. Choice has implications beyond itself.
Existentialism
is a powerful form of humanism: Sarte, “I am responsibly for myself
and for all men.... In fashioning myself, I fashion man.” When we
chose one fork, we influence others as well as ourselves. Choice is a
huge moral burden.
Robert
Nozick, Philosophical Explanations.
As young people, all the paths are before us. We can only choose a
few. We have a limited amount of time within which to make a limited
number of choices. When we make one choice, we have given up ALL the
others.
Two
themes: all the paths are always present? or all the other paths
disappear when you choose one? Multiplicity, or an either/or?
The
idea of the multiverse got its start as an imaginative idea in
Borges' novel!?!
Neal
Stephenson, Anathem.
The
Multiverse Hypothesis
- extends the empire of choice
- reduces the “opportunity cost” of choice
- reduces the significance of any single choice
- leaves unanswered the question of reality—multiform? unitary?—after death
“Distinguo”
means “I distinguish.” It means to stop and clarify terms.
Darwin:
those who make many species are “splitters”; those who make few
are “lumpers.” Lewis thought we had too many lumpers. He wanted
to push his readers towards necessary choices.
{what
about the fallacy of a false binary? Aren't there more choices than
Lewis allows?}
Why
is this drive towards choice such a strong theme in his work? There
is no third way: we are always helping each other towards either
Heaven or Hell. This is dramatized in That Hideous
Strength. Example: Mark going by
car to Belbury; Jane going to St. Anne's by train. Does Merlin
represent a curious in-between place? “Good is always getting
better and bad is always getting worse” (Dimble in THS).
“We all have our different languages; but we all really mean the
same thing” (Busby in THS).
Feverstone realizes that there are, indeed, two sides between which
one must choose. Everyone is coming to the point of decision where
you won't get to be neutral anymore. Not only do you have to choose
sides, but you have to choose why
you are choosing sides! For power? or for virtue?
In
LOTR, there is a theme of fighting for the right without hope.
Galadriel: We are fighting the long defeat.
Mark
Studdock faces a “cross”; a crossroads.
A moment of decision.
{Grace
Ironwood says that they are a “company.” Influence of CW? This is
one year after “The Founding of the Company.” Notice also the
language of “obedience.”}
Jane,
having had her “religious experience,” cannot be made to go back
and take the other path from the crossroads.
The
distinguo is necessary
in a uni-verse:
- limits our powers of choice
- raises the “opportunity cost” of choice
- raises the significance of self-defining choice
- asserts everlasting teleological directionality
The
Great Divorce: it's an absolute
either-or.
EITHER:
getting further apart (as in the Gray Town of The Great
Divorce)
OR:
further up and further in—to the Real Narnia
In
a strange way, Lewis is at one with the Existentialist: we must make
the ultimate choice.
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