Anime and escapism…pathetic editorial filler

Fairly recently I read a few articles about anime and escapism. Since I’m far from being satisfied with the current state of some of my posts, here’s some quick filler

I see what you did there!

 

Thrasymachus and Lelouch; Ancestor and Agnate?

‘Beauttocks’ is a perfect nickname. I second it Iknight.

 

For Those Of Us who Don’t Believe In God

A play about a convict murderer in which the narrator is also the dead brother of the woman who is chastising the convict.

 

Mushishi and philosophy pt.2:Moral realism v. moral anti-realism;on the ethics of mushi

MADE OF WIN

 

Mushishi and philosophy:part 1 rationalism vs. empiricism; on the existence of a lower species

This is one brilliant man.

Mushishi is a polarizing show. Most people loved it for its poignant description of the human description and slow moving dramatics. The others hated it for the same reasons; it had some pacing problems, and was admittedly depressing in the way it portrayed every other human besides Ginko. It encompassed a wide variety of the spectrum of human emotion; Greed(ep 6) Love for those long gone(ep 8,16,17, 22) Unrequited love/lust/schoolgirl crush(ep 20) A womans love for a child not technically her own(ep 21) Hatred and fear of the unknown(ep 24) Acceptance of fate (ep 25).

 

Determinism vs. Free-will pt. 2 God gets in on the action

Last time in this segment we discussed what determinism is and what free-will is…basically. One of the most interesting facets to this argument is God. The concept of a higher being seems to either irk or tickle our respective fancies more than most topics. God is a polarizing issue. The existence of/morality of God in concept is a topic that splits us into believers or unbelievers.

If god exists, and he is omnipotent, then I believe it is safe to assume that we have no true free-will. Even if we have some moderate free-will in our decisions, if God can see the future we are to assume a determinist faith. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but I like to feel in charge of myself from time to time. If God exists, and he is not omnipotent then I think its only reasonable we assume that he doesn’t already know what we are going to do, therefore we are free to make our own decisions.

Personally speaking I do believe in some sort of Higher being, but certainly not the Judeo-Christian God(far too many holes in the theory). I like to take a deist faith. The thought that God made us and doesn’t mess with us. The greatest gift God gave us was the ability to reason, so I like to stick with the religion that allows me to assert this truth.

So what does all this mean? If God is all-knowing, then what I do matters not? Should I just kill myself to end the cruel joke I’ve been living. No. No one knows if any of this is true or not. What if all our philosophy was wrong, what if the Muslims were right all along? We absolutely have no way to know anything about the afterlife till we get there. Thats the point. We can conjecture and experiment all we want, but in the end all we need to do is pass the time till we die, where either we will be greeted by hell/heave, or nothingness.

next in this series:Causal Determinism, and the monism/dualism/pluralism debate

 

Determinism vs. Free-will(The Cage Match) pt.1

Since I haven’t even been watching anime lately(save for gunbuster) I figure I should update on the less mainstream reason any visitor comes here. I’m about to leave for a week long ski-trip with my class as a final hurrah before we graduate and go on to better and brighter futures.

I recently overheard a discussion on the matters of free-will vs. determinism, and was too bashful to enter the discourse. As it turns out I’m rather bashful of speaking in public on things that are important to me or pertain to my interests. So I figured I would talk about it here.

Determinism(particularly Causal Determinism) states that “future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature”(1). This means that somehow everything that has led up to this exact moment can be used somehow to predict the future. This completely nullifies the concept of free-will. How can I choose what to eat for lunch if it has already been decided?

Free-will on the other hand states that we have choices all around us and as Sartre put it “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. ” We make choices everyday i.e. whether or not I choose to breath right now is entirely up to me. Thats not to say that outside obligations don’t matter(would your kind dear old mother want you to stop breathing?), but in the end it is my choice whether or not i live or die(at least part of the time).

This entire argument can’t be proven empirically if the mind is a separate non-physical being. If the mind is entirely belonging to the physical brain then the laws of nature apply to the mind. If the laws of nature apply to the mind, then the future of any individual can be predicted, and free will is nullified. If, however, the mind is pertaining to the soul which is a part of the non-physical world, then determinism must be ruled out. If the laws of nature do not apply to the non-physical world, then the mind or soul or spirit is free to think or act or choose as it pleases.

Source: (1)=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

The next post will be how all this applies to theological determinism.

 

Bokurano;Defining ourselves in the context of others.

Bokurano is a manga about kids that will die trying to save the 10 billion people on the earth. This concept is nothing new, and is quite often quoted in the dialogue. It does pose some interesting questions on the darker side of the human condition.

 

Morals of Murder; relating Baccano to Kant

Baccano and Kant:Relating Immortals that murder haphazardly to the Godfather of German Idealism

 

Denno Coil:relating anime to philosophy, and how terminology ruins anime

Denno Coil is a series about kids with glasses. Thats about it…If the series was shot from the perspective of someone without the magical glasses, the series wouldn’t have lasted beyond the first few episodes. What makes Denno Coil so special is the glasses. The glasses allow people to see a sort of cyber-world that exists in real time and affects everyone with the glasses. Take one of the episodes in which Daichi (one of the characters) gets an Illegal which is not allowed to exist in the Actual space(space without the glasses) unless the cyber space is obsolete. Well he decides to take the Illegal in as a pet and feed it Obsolete textiles from the cyber-space. Eventually it grows into this-

It would be easy to write off Denno Coil off as kids messing around with cyber-reality…until thir actions begin to physically harm them when they try to contact the dead through the Obsolete space.

The first half of the series is leading up to all the secrets that get revealed in the second half. Attempting to relate this to philosophy seems a perfect job for a solipsist. According to Metaphysical Solipsism the only thing that I know for sure exists is my mind. Everything else is just what my mind can come up with. A rock, a computer, a prostitute, those are all things that exist solely in my mind. We can never know what other peoples minds are thinking so therefore they don’t exist, according to solipsism. This seems unlikely and selfish, as it claims that all the great ideas thought up were all mine, and so were all the terrible murderous ones as well. So we’ve got this world and maybe others exist and maybe they don’t when all of a sudden these magical glasses come along and a whole new reality is created. All of these glasses are interconnected, and so when something happens in the cyber world, everyone after that with the glasses is able to see it for themselves. To me that is saying that others can and do exist. Of course does that mean that those without the glasses don’t exist?
Another interesting facet to Denno Coil is its terminology. Terminology in anime is nothing new, from the first time i heard the word Angel as a bad thing in Neon Genesis Evangelion, to the rampant confusion offered by Darker than Black’s misused “Messier’s codes”. Denno Coil completely revamps the concept of terminology to destroy the viewers fragile psyche, from the epic Meta-tags to the title of the show itself. Anything that even sounds remotely computer related is fodder for the name of something else on Denno. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to the viewer, but as for me I loved the show but they could’ve toned this aspect down a few notches.

All in all I give Denno Coil a 10 out of 10. For such a small scale its perfect. Out of a hundred its about a 95. SO WATCH IT!

also i had to share this picture-

its from when a certain type of illegal grows on the kids’ faces. the tiny illegals then gains consciousness and begins to question everything. they make up religion, and makes yasako into a goddess. They then declare war on the other side of her face and declare that “yasako is dead”. That is almost a direct quote from Nietzsche. A stunning foray into the human condition…all on a show about kids with glasses

Comeback soon my next post will be a discussion on Kemonozume and the problem with anonymity