Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, May 1, 2017

Section 8: Installment 2: The Walking Dead and Philosophy!


In the first installment of The Walking Dead and Philosophy, we talked about the emphasis of philosophical zombies and how they play an important role towards the physical and non-physical aspects of this world including the human mind and body. This ideology ultimately leads to the imminent fear of what happens during death. Is everything that we were, are, and will ever be just gone? This is critical because it brings the concept of religion, faith, and the million different beliefs that every individual has. If you think about this philosophically, there are much more concepts that could come out of a zombie apocalypse. Are men and women different (besides sexual organs)? Do we think differently when it comes to safety and protection? The questions go on forever...but one thing we notice is that humans, as a whole, have basic habits and instincts for survival.

In The Walking Dead world, death can happen at any moment. Those people that are surviving have different mechanisms for trying to stay alive (whether moral or immoral). There are no more rules, regulations, or laws to keep people in order. One is simply given the power to do anything he can and want to do in order to survive. According to James Davidson, looting is inevitable. People see stuff(food, weapons, etc...) that they can take(either freely or by force) and there is nothing to stop them; because "it is the right thing to do." 

Think about the state of nature, or the natural condition of mankind, which was deduced by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Everyone has this "natural right" to do anything they think is necessary to preserve their life. People will fight, and even kill, others. They will lie and steal and maybe do inexplicable things. While no one is exceptional, some will try to come together and come up with common rules to prolong the safety and survival of their group. Bottom line, it is in our blood that one will do something that is out of their way to get something that they wantthat is human nature. Our minds and our thoughts tend to change. We are not the same anymore. 

To conclude, those who believe in physicalismthat the real world consists simply of the physical worldought to ask themselves: what about our minds and our thoughts? These things are invisible and thus immaterial. We do believe in our thoughts, which are invisible, and so we believe in the invisible non-physical things. A zombie is merely a physical thing that maintains our basic function to move and eat. Compare a zombie with a wild animal. Last, many people actually believe that a zombie apocalypse is possible, and some even look forward to it. They see many advantages that they do not have now. Do you see yourself in a zombie apocalypse? what would you try to do? What are your thoughts towards zombies? Towards other people? What are some of your coping mechanisms?

A preview of The Walking Dead and Philosophy can be found here.

2 comments:

  1. That is a really interesting subject Physical-ism. I have often thought about it myself, and how our minds and thoughts are not a physical part of us since they are invisible therefore maybe thought as not a basic need that we need to survive.

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  2. This brings up a lot of points. Another point could be made as to how death affects people, positive or negative. In the show, you see people, Rick especially, react and change in order to adjust to the losses of characters. Much like how we do today with the loss of a close relative or friends, we adjust accordingly, but whether in a good way or not depends on the situation of how death occurred.

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