Up@dawn 2.0

Friday, December 4, 2015

Lucas Rogers #12 - Big Bang Theory Installment 3



Sheldon, the character I have mainly been talking about in my other 2 installments continues, to amaze me with his actions. The next character trait of Sheldon I focus on his how uncompassionate he is. In one episode Leonard comes home, and wants to tell Sheldon some of his problems, but Sheldon completely ignores him. Sheldon is not paying any attention to him, and is talking about his own problems. Leonard listens to Sheldon’s issue, but Sheldon won’t even hardly give Leonard time to talk.  You can see in this episode how uncompassionate Sheldon is.


Many famous philosophers have talked or wrote about sympathy or compassion. David Hume was a philosopher who wrote a lot about sympathy. In one of his book he said, "Tis remarkable, that nothing touches a man of humanity more than any instance of extraordinary delicacy in love or friendship, where a person is attentive to the smallest concerns of his friend. . . The passions are so contagious, that they pass with the greatest facility from one person to another, and produce correspondent movements in all human breast."


Another famous philosopher who talked about sympathy and compassion, was Adam Smith. Here is what he had to say about sympathy, "But though sympathy is very properly said to arise from an imaginary change of situations with the person principally concerned, yet this imaginary change is not supposed to happen to me in my own person and character, but in that of the person with whom I sympathize. When I condole with you for the loss of your only son, in order to enter into your grief, I do not consider what I, a person of such a character and profession, should suffer, if I had a son, and if that son was unfortunately to die; but I consider what I should suffer if I was really you; and I not only change circumstances, but I change persons and characters. My grief, therefore, is entirely upon your account, and not in the least upon my own. It is not, therefore, in the least selfish."


Sheldon eventually learns to show compassion and sympathy. He meets a girl that he begins to like, which is ironic, because he used to criticize Leonard for liking a girl. He hasn't completely changed, but he at least shows compassion and has feelings to something other than science now.



Previous Installments:
http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/first-installment-big-bang-theory-lucas.html
http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/12/lucas-rogers-12-big-bang-theory-2nd.html

Sources: 
http://www.iep.utm.edu/emp-symp/#SH3a

2 comments:

  1. Good use of Hume and Smith to illustrate the empathy Sheldon lacks. And yet, there's a good heart beneath all the hyper-rationality. Even the coldest human fish has a capacity for warmth. Maybe Sheldon could also learn a bit from Simone de Beauvoir - see the closing quote in the post immediately following yours.

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  2. Very interesting Lucas Rogers! You did well implementing other philosophers to help further explain and describe Sheldon!

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