Friday, February 12, 2010

Friday Philosophy

The following is taken from a 1945 lecture by French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre in which he sought to defend the tenets of existentialism against its many critics. You don't have to agree with his point, but maybe its worth thinking about:

"Let us say that moral choice is comparable to a
work of art. Do we reproach the artist who makes
a painting without starting from laid-down rules?
Did we tell him what he must paint? There is no
pre-defined picture, and no-- none can say what
the painting of tomorrow should be; one can judge
only one at a time. Amongst morals, the creative
situation is the same, and just as the works of,
say, Picasso, have consequences, so do our
moral judgments."

No comments: