TV shows and Philosophy

I was not really happy when my mom told me that we will were invited to a dinner with people I did not know. The atmosphere was heavy and conversation was limited to social things like “ how long have you been here? Do you like the area…’’. It was so boring that I finally asked: “What is your favorite TV show’’ Instantaneously, everybody had something to tell and we finally spent a good time to exchange our point of view on TV series and their new role in our life.

Coming back home I started to think about what happened during the evening.

To me, TV show, more than music or cinema, have become point of reference, a topic of conversation. Everybody has watched or heard about House or Lost… And has an opinion about this.

How to explain this new phenomenon?

I think the unique and new point with the TV show is to create a unique situation like a flight crash in Lost or new medical cases never seen before in House, and to involve the viewer in the exploration of all the consequences on the characters. Contrary to cinema where the viewer has only the possibility to observe a situation, characters and psychology issues, the show concept immerges the viewer in the action and gives him the chance to have his own opinion on psychological dilemma evolving in the show.

I think TV show, or at least some of them, are really interesting as they address a social or psychological issue that lead you to think about and formulate your own opinion.

For example, House is not a pure medical show that addresses a key medical ethic question concerning the place of emotion in the medical practice.

House, in the show, never shows any emotion but resolves all medical challenges. He pushes reasoning to its extreme. Each episode includes a phase of crisis where he has to make patients take risks, in order to find the truth.

Cameron, one of the doctor in his team represents the theory of Care strongly present in the United States medical system.

As said Nietzsche a crisis step is necessary to get to the revelation. I think this show demonstrates this concept very well.

Each show has its own characteristics and philosophy.

I learned in Latin class that Socrate used maieutics technique to make his student express their ideas using mythology stories. I think TV shows could be seen as the new Socrate support, to make people formulate their opinion on a specific topic.

Beauty and estheticism

Some days ago, we talked about beauty and symbolism of the beauty during the Middle Age in English class. We have had an interesting conversation on the topic saying that at that time a woman was considered attractive if she was fair-skinned and overweight because it represented wealth.

After the class, I started thinking about the beauty in general.

To me, I think there is a difference between beauty and estheticism. Something will be elected beautiful at a certain time because it meets the specific esthetic codes of the time but it will be ugly later if the codes have changed. The case of Middle Age we are studying is a good example. At that time, beauty was characterized by a fair-skin and over-weight, while today you have to be tanned and slim to catch eyes on you.

I think we are not talking about beauty here. We are talking about estheticism codes and that these codes vary with time.

I think beauty is not only limited to the physical appearance but also can be related to the emotion. We can be moved by a music, a scenery, the cherishing mother’s look on his baby…

Beauty is the richness of a person whatever how he/she looks like. The appearance should not have an influence on our judgment. As in the Wife of Bath Tale, wisdom and intelligence reveal the true beauty of someone. I have met a lot of people that were disgraceful but were so rich by their reflections and their open-mindedness that you wanted to stay with them. This is the real beauty.

Unfortunately, in our society, appearance often dictates the chance and opportunities that will be offered to you in your life.

To me beauty is not necessarily link to something visible. The quote I posted at the top of this page reflects pretty well what I mean by that –“ On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur; l’essentiel est invisible aux yeux’’ which can be translated by “ We can only see well with the heart; Essentials are invisible to eyes’’