Medical Enhancement, M. Night Shyamalan, und Mich

Overall, living in Germany has been less of a culture-shock than I expected. Sure they have bread you could kill a pigeon with, a shortage of tofu products, and more sweet-goodies than any American could possibly fathom--but outside of these trivial food anomalies, the differences aren’t so vast. As a matter of fact, many of the friends I have made here remind me of people in the U.S. that I’ve been friends with for a long time.

Today, I found the similarities especially comforting. So, right now I am trying to start my dissertation, learn German, and take a few philosophy classes at the University of Potsdam outside of Berlin. I am taking a vorlesung (lecture) in the different constructions of the public-private sphere distinction in philosophy (terribly helpful for my dissertation topic)--but that course is in German. And as I have only studied German for a total of 12 weeks now, it is a bit difficult to follow sometimes. Luckily, I found a tutorium (mini-seminar) in English on Medical Enhancement. Not only is this class great because the readings and most of the discussion are in English, but it is also great for my dissertation (Habermas’ The Future of Human Nature--you should read it, and critique it). And the small class size is great for communing with real German philosophy students.

During today’s discussion of Feinberg’s “The Child’s Right to an Open Future” I really felt at home. So we were talking about these cases where Amish people in the U.S. were ordered by courts to send their children to standardized schools--no more one-room 3-yr schools that only cover elementary arithmetic. Feinberg claimed that to ensure open possibilities for the Amish children to either choose to be Amish adults or to choose to be Nuclear Physicists, then all children must be given comparable educational backgrounds. Otherwise, an Amish child really has no other choice than to become an Amish adult--their limited education within the community affords them limited options. Most of us agreed that this seemed like a sound liberal philosophical view, and that the ethically right decision accords with the court--send the Amish kids to standardized schools, so that they have future choice.

This is where the discussion started to really remind me of home, though...
One of the women in my class, says...”Are Amish children allowed any exposure to the outside world? I thought they did ultimately make a decision to stay or to leave, as teens.”
To which the course leader replies, “You know, this reminds me of the movie, The Village. The parents in that movie decided to raise their children in a certain way, but in so doing, closed off other future possibilities by prohibiting exposure to the rest of the world.”

AND SNAP! The Germans compare philosophy to popular culture and film, too!!!! Hurray! I thought the Germans took their philosophy far too seriously (Hegel, Kant, COME ON!) to compare Hollywood movies to it, but apparently, they are just like us! Admittedly, I was annoyed most of the time in America when people tried to tie everything into a film. If I ever hear someone talk about how philosophical the Matrix is, I swear I am going to do something drastic. But honestly, sometimes movies do convey philosophical meaning. And sometimes a film isn’t even a film I really liked (as in The Village) but it may have some relevance that illuminates a deeper concept. And with the revelation that German students made these same connections, I immediately felt a deeper resonance with my German peers. I also felt a bit closer to philosophy...and, dare I say it...to M. Night Shyamalan.