budget philosophy 101 with jen
March 11th, 2009 by Jennie Tate Posted in Film
The other week I watched a French film called ‘La Petit Jerusalem’ about an Orthodox Jewish girl. It wasn’t brilliant – don’t rush out – but it was interesting because the main character, Laura, was seriously into philosophy, particularly Kant. She tried to live a life of thought to rise above passion and tradition. For example, she emulated Kant’s rigid regime of taking a walk at exactly the same time every day to beat her body and will into submission.
Anyway, the point to all this is it got me thinking about whether freedom comes by living within the rules or by breaking the rules. It’s a sad movie because Laura wasn’t really free, trying to escape through adhering to rigid man-made rules. Her brother-in-law breaks the rules of his Orthodox community by having an affair, but it doesn’t bring him freedom either. Maybe it’s all down to the rules – if they’re good rules and you keep them, you’re free. If they’re bad rules and you break them, you’re free…
Therefore, picking which are the good rules and which are the bad ones is the key. Arghhh! It all needs more thinking!
2 Responses to “budget philosophy 101 with jen”
By Jon Rumble on Mar 11, 2009
Hey Jen, I can’t remember where this comes from, but I think Paul talks somewhere about the law prompting sin, ie just by having rules it makes us want to break them.
For us do you think we’re free because by living according to the Spirit -ala Romans 8- we do good not because of any rules but just because it’s good?
By Gavin Parsons on Mar 12, 2009
Kant died antisocial and bitter over the growing loss of his memory and capacity for work. Kant became totally blind and finally died on February 12, 1804.
I prefer “life to the full…”
Jesus busted through the great kantian divide between the phenomenal and noumenal to show us what that life is like.
GP