A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

374

Simone Weils Gives a Convincing Argument

Hegel: "The driving force of history is the dialectical refinement of ideas. History is nothing more than the progress of the consciousness of freedom, and elucidation of science."
Marx: "Wrong, Hegel!"

Marx: "Material conditions are the true driving force of earth. The productive capabilities of a society, and the struggle between the haves and the have-nots, THAT is the real engine of history!"

Weil: "Marx, Hegel, you are both wrong. The driving force of history is something much simpler: force."
Hegel: "Force? Ha! Are you serious Weil?"

Weil: "I think i can convince you both if you hear me out."
Hegel: "What argument could you possibly offer for such a simplistic doctrine?"

Weil, pulling out a gun: "Say that it's force, or I'll shoot you!"

Weil: "say it!"
Hegel, with his hands in the air: "The driving force of history is force."
Marx, also with his hands in the air: "Yes, what Hegel Said!"

Weil: "There, see, was that so hard? Force employed by man, force that enslaves man, force before which man's flesh shrinks away. From Agamemnon, to Genghis Khan, to Hitler, it is not ideas or production, but force that has played the central role, isn't that right?"

Hegel: "Yes yes, that's right!"
Marx: "Spot on!"
Weil: "Good, I'm glad we agree."

Weil: "Now give me your wallets."
Hegel: "How is that relevant to your philosophy?"
Weil: "Say it is relevant or I'll kill you now!"
Marx: "Stealing wallets is philosophy!"

Also...dance a little for me. See? The real dialectic is whoever has the guns makes the rules.

Unlike Hegel and Marx, who had more teleological theories of history (meaning they thought history in general moved in a given direction, more or less towards a given thing), Simone Weil thought history was more like biological evolution, where the stronger species survive and the weaker perish in any given environment, nothing is evolving towards anything, and you can't even say that species are "improving" beyond their survivability in their environment.

I was just on the Partially Examined Life podcast, to discuss Weil's ideas. You can listen to it here:
Part 1 on War and Oppression
Part 2 on War and Oppression

Philosophers in this comic: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Simone Weil

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/307

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374

Simone Weils Gives a Convincing Argument

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