I. The Force Is with You... but You're Not a Jedi Yet A. Philosophy begins with wonder but leads to thinking. 1. Questions sometimes emerge from wonder, sometimes from doubt. 2. The need to think things through, to change our mind and our environment, arises only because we get into sticky situations. a. Simple problems disclose their solutions almost immediately. b. More difficult ones require us to search among alternatives for a solution. 3. Philosophical problems are often distinguished by the fact that the problem itself is unclear--we need to settle certain things about the world and ourselves, sometimes at the deepest levels, before we can move forward. B. Star Wars doesn't wear its philosophy on its sleeve. 1. The Star Wars movies were primarily science fiction action movies with fantasy themes. 2. However, they still involve characters reaching out and within to solve problems that are significantly larger than themselves. 3. In Star Wars, conflict is a constant, but it's not fighting that makes the characters develop. a. It's the struggle to understand and overcome deep problems of identity, truth, freedom, and the tragic side of life. C. The philosophical questions raised by Star Wars 1. Are the virtues good because they are appreciated by the Jedi, or are they appreciated by the Jedi because they are good? (Plato) 2. Is Yoda a Jedi Master so great that a greater one can't be conceived of? (Anselm) 3. Can Anakin commit himself as a chaste, unattached Jedi Knight, but just not yet? (Augustine) 4. As absolute ruler of a galaxy-wide Empire, is it better to be loved or feared? (Machiavelli) 5. Am I a mind, a body, or an overweight glob of grease? (Descartes) 6. How do we know the sun will rise on Alderaan tomorrow even if it has done so every day since the beginning of time? (Hume) 7. If Vader looks into the abyss, doesn't the abyss also look back into him? (Nietzsche) 8. Is hell other Sith lords? (Sartre) 9. Who's scruffy-lookin'? (Solo) II. May the Force Be With You: The Philosophical Messages of Star Wars A. "You Cannot Escape Your Destiny" (Or Can You?): Freedom and Predestination in the Skywalker Family 1. Situation a. When Qui-Gon brings Anakin Skywalker before the Jedi Council, he states that Anakin is the "Chosen One". b. But Yoda's reply is that his future is "clouded". c. Thirty five years later, Luke has nearly completed his Jedi training. d. Yoda tells Luke that he will be a Jedi only if he faces Darth Vader in battle a second time. e. Luke balks at the idea of killing his own father. f. But the apparition of Obi-Wan responds, "You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again." 2. Philosophical Questions a. What does it mean for Anakin to be the Chosen One? b. Is it possible for him to fail to fulfill the prophecy? c. Is Anakin predestined to fall to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader? d. Must Luke unavoidably shoulder the burden of saving the galaxy? e. Does Anakin choose to ally himself with the Emperor? f. Could Luke have chosen to remain on Tatooine and live out his life tending his uncle's moisture farm instead of going with Obi-Wan? 3. "Clouded This Boy's Future Is" a. Anakin Skywalker's destiny seems to have been set for him since before he was even born. The realization dawns on Qui-Gon that Anakin may be the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy. Qui-Gon is a true believer in Anakin's destiny and, with his dying breath, insists that Obi-Wan train Anakin to become a Jedi Knight. Qui-Gon's belief in Anakin, however, is just that--a belief--and Master Yoda points out the uncertainty of Anakin's future. b. Our futures are also clouded. We don't have a way to fortell the future, and neither did the Jedi. c. Even Yoda couldn't forsee the future. i. "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." d. Because we do not know what the immediate future holds, we have at least the illusion of free choice. e. But just because we don't -know- what our future is doesn't mean that we truly have free choice. f. One individual in Star Wars knew what Anakin's future would be--the one who wrote the prophecy. g. In our own galaxy, many religions (especially the Judeo-Christian religions) see God as all-knowing, including infallible knowledge of the future. h. For the sake of simplicity, whatever power one would like to believe in is referred to as God from here on in the argument. i. The author gives an example of how this conflicts with free choice. i. "If God knows from all eternity that I would be writing this chapter right now, it might seem that there's no way it could be false that I'm now writing this chapter. When I was sitting in my Lay-Z-Boy chair about thirty minutes ago wondering whether I should work on my chapter or watch Attack of the Clones on DVD with my 5.1 surround sound system on full-blast (because my wife is out with her girlfriends tonight), God already knew what I was going to choose and, since God can't be wrong, it seems I couldn't have chosen to watch my DVD instead of working on my chapter. Was I free in my choice to work on my chapter?" j. To approach the question the author posed in his example, you have to look at the nature of God. i. St. Augustine (354-430) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) both reason there isn't much we can definitively say about God's nature because we are only human, but they can make a few statements by process of elimination. ii. Both hold that God is not 'in time'. x. Aquinas relied on Aristotle, who argued that time is the measure of motion. x. There can be no time if there is no motion. xx. There can be no motion if there is no universe with things in it that are in motion. xx. Existing outside of time must be a radically different perspective from what we are used to. iii. God must exist outside the universe, because God created the universe. iv. Therefore, God could exist even if no universe existed. v. Existing out of time means that time does not flow in a linear fashion. vi. Therefore all moments at all times occur all at once to someone outside of time. vii. From the eternal perspective, the past, present, and future are all present at once. iix. In this way, God can -know- the future without taking away the element of free will. k. But does the eternal observer's knowledge of the linear observer's future determine that future? l. Assuming that the eternal observer can't be mistaken in his perceptions, it would seem that it does. m. Logic would say that Vader does not freely choose to throw the Emperor down the second Death Star's reactor shaft--the eternal observer's knowledge determines his fate--whatever has been correctly prophesied must happen. n. But why was the prophecy made in the first place? o. The eternal observer can see Vader make his choice in the future, and therefore make a prophecy. p. The prophecy that seems to determine the ultimate course of Anakin's future may itself be determined by the ultimate course of Vader's future that results from his choices. q. This implies "counter-temporal causality"--that a future choice causes past knowledge. r. But that is not the case. Both events occur at the -same- time. s. Knowing is not the same as causing. Just because an observer -knows- does not negate the fact that events are the result of our own choices. t. But the idea of God, the external eternal observer is not the only possible solution. i. The idea of God relies on an assumption: that his knowledge or foreknowledge is infallible. u. Yoda describes the future as "always in motion", perhaps because that is a simple fact--that there are no eternal observers, and no moment exists besides the present one. 4. "Everything Is Proceeding as I Had Foreseen" a. Even if the future doesn't exist until it becomes the present, a powerful person in the present may attempt to determine what the future will be. b. Emperor Palpatine is one such person to make such an attempt. i. He boasts that "Everything is proceeding as I had forseen." ii. But he warns Darth Vader that Luke "could destroy us." iii. Vader also tells Luke of that, though with a slightly different spin: "You could destroy -the Emperor-. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny." c. But things didn't turn out as the Emperor had forseen, or he wouldn't have been so gleeful about his predictions. d. He tries really hard to control everyone, but when Luke shows his own free will in the end, he's actually a bit startled. e. For some religious believers, God can pull certain strings in the world to make it turn out as he wills. f. But can he pull the string of free will? g. And if so, can he then blame us for our actions that he has caused? i. For example, in the Bible, God manipulated the Egyptian Pharaoh by "hardening his heart" (Exodus 4:21). But if God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let the Israelites leave Egypt, does the Pharaoh deserve his punishment when God drowns the Egyptians in the Red Sea? h. Christian philosophers describe the above example in terms of "grace". i. God may give grace to the hearts and minds of those open and willing to recieve it, but not to those who have shut themselves to it. ii. Grace may influence a person's will, usually towards goodness and kindness. iii. Therefore, God can only control those who will -allow- him to control them, because that is how he designed us. i. Therefore, God has no more power over us than Emperor Palpatine has over Luke and Vader. j. And that means we are ultimately responsible for our moral decisions and choices. k. But even without the future concurrently existing and a God capable of determining our every action for us, there is still the possibility of fate. l. Fate has pre-dated religious philosophy in our own world. m. Aristotle uses an example using sea-battles. i. At any one time, one can say "Either there will be a sea-battle tomorrow or there won't be." ii. If one says there will be a sea-battle tomorrow, they are either right or wrong. iii. Assuming the statement is true, then even without the speaker actually knowing the future, the statement seems to determine that there will be a sea-battle the following day: There would HAVE to be a sea-battle the next day if the statement is true today. n. A statement of fate does not -cause- itself to become true. o. People make choices to either accept their fate or to fight against it. p. Therefore, prophecies are neither true nor false until the event in question occurrs or fails to. 5. "He's Got to Follow His Own Path" a. Without the element of free choice, we have no free will, either--picking the only option out of no alternatives is not a 'choice'. b. The "will of the Force" seems to control many characters in the Star Wars galaxy. i. Darth Vader: "You don't know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my master... It is too late for me, son." ii. Qui-Gon, in reference to Anakin: "Finding him was the will of the Force." c. Any being subject to the Force has no alternative possibilities of action. They must act as the Force wills. d. If that is the case, then the only possibly free beings in the Star Wars galaxy are those who don't subject themselves to the will of the Force. i. I.e. Han Solo: "No mystical energy field controls my destiny." e. Han has lived his entire life as a free spirit. f. Han exercises his freedom of choice when he chooses his reward rather than staying to fight the empire, and it is a free choice when he changes his mind and comes back. g. Han appears to have more options, unlike Anakin and Luke. h. But freedom doesn't nessicarily require multiple options. i. John Locke gives the following example: "Suppose a Man be carried, whilst fast asleep, into a Room, where is a Person he longs to see and speak with-, and be there locked fast in, beyond His Power to get out: he awakes, and is glad to find himself in so desirable Company, which he stays willingly in, i.e. prefers his stay to going away. I ask, Is not this stay voluntary? I think, no Body will doubt it: and yet being locked fast in, 'tis evident he is not at liberty not to stay, he has not freedom to be gone." j. The man in John Locke's example is considered free because he -wants- to be there. k. If he chooses to leave and finds the door locked, then and only then is he no longer free. l. Freedom, therefore, depends on a person's will. m. A person acts freely when a person commits evil, because acts of evil stem from the will. n. Augustine says that desire is the foundation of all evil, that one who commits acts of evil has an "inordinate desire"--desire that focuses too much on "temporal things". o. Good persons live by "turning their love away from those things which cannot be possessed without the risk of losing them." While evil persons "try to remove obstacles so that they may safely rest in their enjoyment of these things, and so live a life full of evil and crime." p. Anakin/Vader is given as a prime example of this: He is unable to turn his love away from his mother and from Padme, both of whom he loses. q. George Lucas says of Anakin: "The problem that Anakin has in this whole thing is he has a hard time letting go of things. As he sought more and more power to try to change people's fate so that they're the way he wants them, that greed goes from trying to save the one you love to realizing you can control the universe." r. Anakin's own desire to control things that aren't his to control leads to his moral downfall, and it was all Anakin's own choice. s. "What each man chooses to pursue and to love lies in his own will." t. This view says that it doesn't matter what Anakin chooses to -do-, he's already decided to violate the Jedi Code. u. So, whether or not Anakin has any alternatives, he is still free in his choosing to ally himself with the Dark Side. 6. "This One a Long Time Have I Watched" a. Though Anakin is the child of prophecy, Luke is both the new and last hope for restoring freedom to the galaxy. b. But to restore galactic freedom, Luke must first exercise his own freedom. c. In the cave on Dagobah, Luke has to confront and accept the fact that he has the same potential for the Dark Side that Vader did. d. The Emperor and Darth Vader both want to tap into that potential for destruction. e. But Luke is the only one that can make the choice. f. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan have put great faith in Luke from the time he was born, but they can only watch Luke's life unfold. g. Neither of them can make his decisions for him. h. He chooses the right path, but he doesn't allow the Force to totally control him, either. i. Both Obi-Wan's spirit and Yoda tell Luke not to leave Dagobah before his training is finished, but he goes anyway. i. When he asks if the Force can control people's actions, Obi-Wan replies, "Partially, but it also obeys your commands." j. Anakin also had control over his own destiny. But Anakin doesn't take the right path, though his son does despite similar obstacles. 7. Summary a. In our own lives it's important to ask which "forces" are attempting to bend our will. b. What desires have the potential to become inordinate and be allowed to take over our will? c. We must also be conscious of the control we have over our own will and desires. d. Even if there's an eternal observer keeping watch over us or a puppetmaster pulling the universe's strings around us, we can pull our own strings to determine what the eternal observer knows and limit what the puppet-master can accomplish. e. We are radically free and thus responsible for what we choose to will.