The New York Times called the 1953 novel The Outsider by African-American author Richard Wright (1908-1963) “prophetic… a book people should ponder”. The Outsider’s protagonist, Cross Damon, is an African-American intellectual who majored in philosophy at the University of Chicago. Victimized by white oppression, he is melancholy, a ‘lover of ideas’, brooding constantly over his emotions and analyzing his life circumstances. (Wright thinks his own deep, psychoanalytic thoughts through Damon, and it comes off well.) Married while still young without really knowing what he was getting into, Damon holds a low-paying job at the local post office on the south side of Chicago. He is now estranged from his wife, who refuses to divorce him, and has unknowingly taken up with an under-aged girl. The girl threatens to take him to court for statutory rape if he doesn’t divorce his wife and marry her. To finance his out-of-control life, he has to continually take out loans, thus putting himself in unending debt. What to do?
Well, fortuitously (or not) Damon climbs aboard a Chicago train that crashes horribly, killing many passengers but leaving him unharmed. He comes up with the idea of making it look as if he himself has perished so as to escape his problems. Everyone, including his family and the authorities, believe the ruse, and he slips away from it all to New York City and seemingly a brand new life and identity.
He’s free! Free to start a new life and re-create his identity. How much more existential than that can you get?
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Esta historia es de la edición August/September 2021 de Philosophy Now.
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Thomas E. Wartenberg uses Warhol's work to illustrate his theory of illustration.
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John Shand explains why free will is basic to humanity.
The Funnel of Righteousness
Peter Worley tells us how to be right, righter, rightest.
We're as Smart as the Universe Gets
James Miles argues, among other things, that E.T. will be like Kim Kardashian, and that the real threat of advanced AI has been misunderstood.
Managing the Mind
Roger Haines contemplates how we consciously manage our minds.
lain McGilchrist's Naturalized Metaphysics
Rogério Severo looks at the brain to see the world anew.
Love & Metaphysics
Peter Graarup Westergaard explains why love is never just physical, with the aid of Donald Davidson's anomalous monism.
Mary Leaves Her Room
Nigel Hems asks, does Mary see colours differently outside her room?
From Birds To Brains
Jonathan Moens considers whether emergence can explain minds from brains.