Does A Starving Child In Ethiopia Or A Dying Soldier In Iraq ... ?

Question

Does a slowly starving child in Ethiopia or an American soldier quickly bleeding to death in Iraq have the luxury of contemplating the existence of the external world?

Are they thinking things like:

What if I'm in the Matrix? What if I'm dreaming? What if I'm some kind of "experiment"? What if everyone else is a robot?
Am I the only being with a mind (solipsism) and everyone just appears to have one? What if I'm God and created this universe and put myself in it only to forget I did so? What if I'm a computer program or a holographic program?

Does a soldier who has just had one half of his body blown away from a bomb ask himself in the last few seconds of his life "What if I'm in the Matrix?"

And do the people who wonder if life really exists have the luxury of not having to do deal with life's harsher realities?

Willa, I'm only wondering if people who are so busy living life, for better or worse, are as likely to question it's existence? Is the questioning of existence a luxury that those dealing with full lives (rewarding) or complete lives (accomplished and creative) or harsh lives (painful or dangerous) something that they either can't afford or have no desire to buy?

Astronauts who have been to the moon are as less likely to question whether or not there actually is a moon. A mother who has actually given birth is less likely to question the existence of other lives besides her own.

I asked this question as a direct response to another question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070912102115AAr93EO&r=w#RcF8XDrpWTP5vJRW29VOhjqZ6eNRUJ4DEj4TIC_iyWjlJT0q1LMv

But for whatever reasons, only a handful of you seem to be getting the point. To those few that have I humbly thank you.

Answer 1

I was truly puzzled by some of the answers. Your question was so clear, & focused.
Someone facing imminent death is NOT pondering questions (most of which have no answers).
The soldier who is "quickly" bleeding to death with half his body blown away, isn't thinking of his family, (although the family would feel comforted if they "believed" that); the child, immatue to begin with, extreme physical sufferering from malnutrition, regardless of their beliefs, values or customs, is surely not wondering why God abandoned them!
Extraneous speculations/assumptions that have absolutely no bearing on the question are blowng in the wind at best. They are called "low level philosophy" which is worse than none.
Willa misunderstood 100%. Reference to American Indian cultures is irrevant to the question. You last line asks a valid question--do we have the luxury of pondering life when we are dying?
NO.

Edit: I only wanted to add that in the dying you describe, an adult is not introspective about what they did or didn't do, or how others will feel after they die. The child has no frame of reference to their contributions or morality, EVEN IF they were capable of "thinking" when they are dying.

Edit: I continue to be perplexed by the answers. JUST READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. The conditions are EXPLICIT.
miss_madame, I'd never give you a thumbs down, as I agree that the majority of Americans are ignorant. But your last paragraph does NOT address the question.
Good grief. I thought I was in philosophy, but seems I wandered into trivia. I'm out of here!

Answer 2

I'm not sure how I feel about the soldier example. Since America has not instituted a draft, the soldier had the luxury of deciding to join the service or stay home. (This isn't meant in judgment, only in contrast to your starving child example-- but I think that would warrant a whole argument about free will versus fate).
Anyway, as for the question being asked:
Life is a luxury, and questioning life is a way of living it. A long time ago, I had an Anthropology professor who told me that you could ask the tougher questions-- these questions that make you feel insecure, that leave you wondering what any of this means-- or you could choose to live a quiet life. So, as for the ability to question your existence being a luxury-- yes, it is that, compared to people who are dying or dead and cannot think, or people who are just struggling to live. But also, questioning your existence is a burden.

People living, as you say, full and rewarding lives (in the traditional sense), are often those who choose to live the quiet life. That's not good or bad, really-- just different from the wondering life. Society wouldn't function without people who believed in it. As my professor insisted: it's your choice.
I guess the question is this, though: what is a full and rewarding life? Is it a life lived according to social norms, with the subsequent benefits? Or is it a life lived richly inside, in the pursuit of meaning and understanding?
So, to answer your question, yes-- I believe the ability to wonder is a luxury. It's certainly a human luxury, and why I love being human. To people who are in pain and can only think of survival (which I have known plenty of these past two years), it's the cruelest luxury to lose. But like I said-- it's also a burden. A lot of what we wonder is unsettling. Don't you ever look at a cat lying in the sun and wish you could be that content just to live?
As for this question: "And do the people who wonder if life really exists have the luxury of not having to deal with life's harsher realities?" I don't think so. Sometimes, it seems like people start to question more when life gets harsher. I know that when I have been in pain the past couple of years, I have wished that life wasn't real, and have turned inward and questioned more.

I don't believe that people can be placed so easily into one category or another: those who face the harshness of reality and those who don't. I really believe that just being alive is a harsh struggle for everyone-- and that we all come to that point you're talking about, that point of death where the thoughts are taken away.

Cheers to the unquiet life.

Answer 3

lol are you kidding? God didn't send them anywhere, Mr. Bush and Johnson did to fight for a worldly cause, money and oil. Why would the soldiers think they were fighting for God? It had no relevance to religion. You also forgot to mention how many the Americans slayed in Vietnam and Iraq, after all America is the one who invaded so they should get just as much blame, if not more. You'd make an excellent example to show that propaganda really does work. I'm sure you've heard the free will argument. God gave us free will so he's not going to protect us whenever we are in trouble. If you're going to blame him for the suffering in the world then you should remember that he'll reward the people who died for a good cause, isn't death just a transition into the next life?

Answer 4

Are you suggesting that if some people have it worse than others, then no one should question the nature of reality? That doesn't make sense to me.

Edit:
You seem to be asking two different questions: do people question existence at the moment their life is ending (your soldier) and do people question their existence and others when they are living under harsh circumstances. These seem like two very different things to me.

I have absolutely no idea what any certain individual might be thinking at the moment their life is ending. As far as harsh circumstances, primitive man certainly thought about the nature of their existence. Many American Indian cultures (both North and South) believed that waking life was a dream and the dream world was reality. I doubt they abandoned their beliefs when times were harsh.

As far as your woman who has given birth, I have given birth and I still claim to know nothing about the true nature of existence with any certainty, not mine or my children. It doesn't mean I or my children don't fully exist in MY reality.

Edit:
I get your point. In this question and in your response to the other you are taking a passive aggressive dig at people who wonder about existence. That is very clear and that's probably why you got four thumbs down - people found your answer rude. Why take the time out of your busy life to chastise people for wondering about the nature of theirs?

Miss Madame - while I don't agree that all Americans are ignorant, I do see how one could find the question and some of the answers dealing with those living in harsh conditions (third world [Ethiopians] vs. wealthy civilized society [the West?]) a bit ethnocentric. That actually occured to me when I first read the question.

Peace.

Answer 5

You ask a very deep, meaningful question. I don't know that I could even guess what a starving child thinks of - maybe about God, and feeling that he or she has been abandoned by that higher power? It sounds horrible, but I'm just thinking that if I was starving to death, that's what I would be thinking of. As far as the soldier, he would probably be thinking about his family - having his life flash before his eyes, and thinking about those he will not see again.
So my answer to your question would be "no"; I don't think either person would engage in deep, philosophical wonderings about reality. And I think that those who do ponder these things do so not necessarily out of "luxury" but out of inquisitiveness. I am sure some of the soldiers who die had pondered deep questions like this at some time in their lives, just not necessarily at that critical moment. As far as the starving child, it depends so much on the culture they were raised in - religious beliefs, values, customs, etc.

Answer 6

If the mind is sufficiently developed, and, if the dying is long enough to give time to think:
Facing death gives life an infinite value and it is then that often man faces his existence, his being. How does this relates to the external world? Man, his being, is out in the world says Heidegger.

In The Snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The story centers on the memories of a writer who is taking a safari in Africa. He develops a gangrenous wound from a thorn prick, and lies awaiting his slow death. This loss of physical capability causes him to look inside himself.

Answer 7

What ever your conviction is regarding reality it is important to truly live as though this reality is fact. Questioning the existence of this reality actually seems anti philosophy in my opinion. It does not really matter weather or not this reality is genuine or fabricated, it is all we have and the practice of philosophy is not only about obtaining knowledge but also utilizing knowledge to improve the quality of our reality.
Of course those who are content and well fed do have the luxury to attend to deeper thought life than those who are starving or dying.

Answer 8

What is your point? Are you saying we should all be brave enough to live the painful moments of our misery without questioning the meaning of our existence? Are you saying the world is not exactly a fare place? Are you saying pain, death, and misery are the only true and experience-worthy phenomena? Are you suggesting that a starving kid is not entitled to dreaming a good dream or playing a game of fantasy? Are you suggesting that everyone else besides you, the starving kids, and the dying soldiers are mental masturbators? Are you implying that one should always pragmatically behold the HEAVY immediate reality at hand? Are you saying that accidental (or otherwise) martyrdom is glorious? Are you saying that there is no room for transcendence in the human experience? Are you saying that thinking outside the box is a deadly and unconscionable sin? Are you saying that the luxury of free thought belongs to the non-communist pigs? Are you saying the human animal is not yet spiritually evolved? Are you claiming that most of us are so mentally deranged as to keep asking ourselves whether we live in a Matrix-like reality because we paid good money to go see a freaking Hollywood flick? Are you saying that we are all long lost spoiled cousins of the golden-spoon fed Paris Hilton? No one is gonna think about resolving the longest standing questions of existence while grasping for their last gulps of air; and even if they did, I doubt we would ever know. ... So, whatever the HECK it is that you are actually saying [and we're too dumb to comprehend], kindly direct your misguided ANGER at the fanatics and the political characters responsible for war, bloodshed, hunger, and misery in this world; NOT philosophy and philosophers. … WRONG CATEGORY, MY FRIEND!

Answer 9

I felt that the first paragraph was the focus of your question. I can't remember when I've seen so much wandering around the barn & never getting in the door. THANK YOU Marguerite! "I believe they are experiencing all-consuming pain, that coherent thoughts are impossible." Logical & concise. How refreshing. Perhaps there is hope for the little grey cells after all.

Answer 10

A more direct attack of amateur philosophers pointlessly pondering existence might be more effective than a veiled criticism. Personally I tend to agree with you though.