Post by JeRegretRiens on Jan 15, 2009 18:15:50 GMT -5
I'm doing my book summaries as outlines, because it's too tempting to just re-type the ENTIRE book if I try to paraphrase.
Star Wars and Philosophy
by Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, William Irwin
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 infallable 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 occurr 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 infallable.
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.
Star Wars and Philosophy
by Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, William Irwin
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 infallable 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 occurr 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 infallable.
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.
