06.18.07
Beatles Philosophy
Beatles Philosophy
The Beatles’ talents were not confined to music. Collectively they display a philosophical understanding that rivals the greats. This is dedicated to the exegesis and deconstruction of Fab-four-philosophy. Feel free to read this if you are a fellow Beatles scholar. hehe =)
Song: All you need is love
Quote from the song: “There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known”
The Philosophy: John Lennon advocates metaphysical anti-realism and endorses the conclusion of Fitch’s paradox.
Song: Yesterday
Quote from the song: “I believe in yesterday”
The Philosophy: Paul McCartney “refutes” presentism
Song: Maxwell’s silver hammer
Quote from the song: “Joan was quizzical, studied metaphysical* science in the home. Late nights all alone with the test-tubes. Whoa, oh oh oh.”
The Philosophy: In response to the anti-metaphysical skepticism of the logical empiricists, McCartney invents a strange new practical and empirical method for discovering metaphysical truths.
Song: Her Majesty
Quote from the song: “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl, but she changes from day to day.”
The Philosophy: McCartney advocates stage theory.
Song: Taxman
Quote from the song: “If you walk around, I’ll tax your feet”.
The Philosophy: Harrison advances neo-Lockean critique of the state: taxation as
cannibalism.
Song: Nowhere man
Quote from the song: “Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to, Isn’t he a bit like me and you?”
The Philosophy: Lennon takes issue with Nagel
Song: All you need is love
Quote from the song: “There’s nothing you can say that you can’t learn how to play the game”
The Philosophy: Lennon advocates a broadly Davidsonian theory of interpretation
Song: The Inner Light
Quote from the song: “Without going out of my door I can know all things of earth.”
The Philosophy: Harrison defends the synthetic a priori
Song: All You Need is Love
Quote from the song: “All you need is love”
The Philosophy: Lennon refutes Empedocles’ cosmological account
Song: Drive My Car
Quote from the song: “I got no car and it’s breaking my heart”
The Philosophy: Lennon endorses Meinongianism
Song: I am the Walrus
Quote from the song: “I am he, as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together.”
The Philosophy: Lennon endorses Spinoza’s monism
Song: Rocky Raccoon
Quote from the song: “Her name was Magil, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy”
The Philosophy: McCartney elaborates Frege’s sense/reference distinction
Song: Strawberry Fields Forever
Quote from the song: ” Always, no sometimes, think it’s me, but you know I know when it’s a dream.”
The Philosophy: Lennon denies the certainty of Descartes’ cogito; but argues that it doesn’t matter because he rejects the skeptical argument from the possibility that one is asleep
Song: Come Together
Quote from the song: “Hold you in his arms, yeah, you can feel his disease”
The Philosophy: Lennon promoting Guru Osho’s thoughts: “PHILOSOPHY is a disease, and not an ordinary one either. It’s not a common cold. It is cancer - Cancer of the soul. Once a person is lost in the jungle of philosophy he becomes more and more entangled in words, concepts, abstractions and there is no end to it. One can go on and on for lives together.”
Song: While my Guitar Gently Weeps
Quote from the song: “For every mistake we must surely be learning.”
The Philosophy: Harrison resists the pessimistic meta-induction.
Song: Penny Lane
Quote from the song: “Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes”
The Philosophy: McCartney endorses a rather extreme form of anti-realism.
Song: Strawberry Fields Forever
Quote from the song: “I mean it must be high or low”
The Philosophy: Lennon denies the possibility of a borderline case.
Song: Nowhere Man
Quote from the song: “He’s as blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see.”
The Philosophy: There’s an implicature that there are some things he wants to see, and so Lennon is here endorsing a rather strange essentialist claim: the Nowhere man is essentially not completely blind.
Song: Tomorrow Never Knows
Quote from the song: “that you may know the meaning of within: it is being, it is being.”
The Philosophy: Lennon nods in the direction of Plotinus’ One/Buddhist nirvana.
Song: I’m only sleeping
Quote from the song: “Please don’t wake me, no don’t shake me, leave me where I am, I’m only sleeping.”
The Philosophy: Lennon advocates the Cartesian method.
Song: Dig A Pony
Quote from the song: “You can indicate anything you see.”
The Philosophy: Lennon’s advocation of the demonstrative concepts reply to richness, and fineness of grain objections to the view that all perceptual content is conceptual content.
Song: I Want To Tell You
Quote from the song: “It’s only me, it’s not my mind”
The Philosophy: Harrison on personal identity
Song: A Little Help From my Friends
Quote from the song: “What do you see when you turn out the light? I can’t tell you, but I know it’s mine.
The Philosophy: “Ringo asserts the ineffability and privacy of the sensuous given.
Song: Come Together
Quote from the song: “Come together, right now, over me”
The Philosophy: Lennon and McCartney point towards the unification of concepts under broadly Platonic universals
Song: Come Together
Quote from the song: “One thing I can tell you is you got to be free”
The Philosophy: Lennon and McCartney agree with the Libertarians that freewill is a
necessary component of the human experience
Song: We Can Work It Out
Quote from the song: “Life is very short, and there’s no time”
The Philosophy: According to McCartney everyday temporal discourse is in good standing even though time itself is an illusion.
Song: When I’m 64
Quote from the song: “Indicate precisely what you mean to say”
The Philosophy: McCartney objects to conversational implicature.
Song: I got a feeling
Quote from the song: “I got a feeling, a feeling deep inside”
The Philosophy: McCartney disagrees with Dennett concerning qualia realism.
Song: I got a feeling
Quote from the song: “I got a feeling, a feeling I can’t hide”
The Philosophy: McCartney turns behaviourist.
Song: Fixing a Hole
Quote from the song: “Where I belong, I’m right”
The Philosophy: Lennon and McCartney endorse contextualism
Song: Tomorrow Never Knows
Quote from the song: “That you may see the meaning of within: It is speaking, it is
speaking”
The Philosophy: Lennon disagrees with Kant’s Transcendental Idealism, strongly asserting that the self can have knowledge of itself as a thing in itself
Song: Strawberry Fields Forever
Quote from the song: “Nothing is real”
The Philosophy: …but they don’t tell us whether or not it Noths!
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