4 ms·

Carrie Fisher’s Private Philosophy Coach

64 points by tintinnabula 9y ago

tomc1985 9y ago
Carrie Fisher was an amazing person, but can the world please stop with the worshiping her?
- ForRealsies 9y ago
  I haven't been following articles on her. Has Disney scrubbed all the drug abuse from her past?
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    I don't know but it seems every little tchotchke and hanger-on in her life seems to be coming out of the woodwork
- exelius 9y ago
  I dunno if people worship her as much as they see in her a celebrity who was very relatable and willing to speak about the kinds of problems normal people have. She had real problems, she struggled with them for a long time, and she never really conquered them -- she just learned to live with them. That's how life goes for a lot of people..
- cairo_x 9y ago
  What's wrong with worshiping her? Everyone has heroes. Carrie seems like one of the better ones.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    Nothing is worthy of worship, not even good people.
    - grzm 9y ago
      "Worship" has at least two senses: > 1 : to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power > 2 : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion a celebrity worshipped by her fans https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship I strongly suspect 'cairo_x assumed you intended sense 2. If you meant sense 1, I don't think that's very well supported by either the submission or the world at large. Are you aware of a significant number of people who believe Fisher is divine in the supernatural sense? If you did intend sense 2, perhaps you weight that word more heavily than is used in common parlance.
Jun8 9y ago
"“She called the department wanting to get a tutor in philosophy. They said, ‘What field?’ She said, ‘Philosophy.’ They said, ‘Yeah, but what field?’ ” That’s a funny story to a philosophy wonk." It's a bit of a pity that this viewpoint is the case, although one may argue it's inevitable (e.g. over specialization in today's world, etc. A similar case can be made for literary criticism perhaps. I found this excellent discussion from the Phisophy Bites podcast on the perennial "What is Philosophy" question very helpful: http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/edward_craig_what_is_philosophy_ http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/edward_craig_what_is_philo... (if you have 12 minutes 41 minutes please consider listening to this). Here Edward Craig (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Craig_(philosopher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Craig_(philosopher)) argues that all people engage in philosophical thinking part of their lives, it's not the domain of philosophers. He mentions the lamentable fact that recently a lot of focus has been placed on explaining arguments, terms, etc. rather than the arguments themselves. Interestingly while enrollment in many majors in liberal arts education is decreasing (e.g. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-finds-significant-drop-humanities-majors-gains-liberal-arts-degrees https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-find...) philosophy enrollement seems to be increasing (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.htm...).
- trendia 9y ago
  Your article about philosophy enrollment is from 2008. The trend has reversed, though both the increase and decrease in humanities majors were relatively minor (12.5% vs 15%) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-finds-significant-drop-humanities-majors-gains-liberal-arts-degrees https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-find...
le-mark 9y ago
Some days, when Fisher was travelling, she let Notturno go inside her apartment before she got home. “One time, she came in with a big smile on her face and threw her coat on a chair and said, ‘They loved you in Los Angeles last night!’ ” Skimpy article at best, one might suppose from this anecdote that she got something from the lessons.
peoplewindow 9y ago
Kind of a misleading title. I had assumed she had done serious study of actual philosophy in her older years. Learning why and what she learned might have been interesting. Instead this is a story about when she was 20, didn't know anything about philosophy, didn't care, and basically just wanted to learn to be an interesting conversationalist. And for some unclear reason she decided that paying for a philosophy coach was the way to go. Nothing about what they actually discussed is in the article.

64 points by tintinnabula 9y ago

tomc1985 9y ago

Carrie Fisher was an amazing person, but can the world please stop with the worshiping her?

ForRealsies 9y ago
I haven't been following articles on her. Has Disney scrubbed all the drug abuse from her past?
- tomc1985 9y ago
  I don't know but it seems every little tchotchke and hanger-on in her life seems to be coming out of the woodwork
exelius 9y ago
I dunno if people worship her as much as they see in her a celebrity who was very relatable and willing to speak about the kinds of problems normal people have. She had real problems, she struggled with them for a long time, and she never really conquered them -- she just learned to live with them. That's how life goes for a lot of people..
cairo_x 9y ago
What's wrong with worshiping her? Everyone has heroes. Carrie seems like one of the better ones.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  Nothing is worthy of worship, not even good people.
  - grzm 9y ago
    "Worship" has at least two senses: > 1 : to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power > 2 : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion a celebrity worshipped by her fans https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship I strongly suspect 'cairo_x assumed you intended sense 2. If you meant sense 1, I don't think that's very well supported by either the submission or the world at large. Are you aware of a significant number of people who believe Fisher is divine in the supernatural sense? If you did intend sense 2, perhaps you weight that word more heavily than is used in common parlance.

Jun8 9y ago

"“She called the department wanting to get a tutor in philosophy. They said, ‘What field?’ She said, ‘Philosophy.’ They said, ‘Yeah, but what field?’ ” That’s a funny story to a philosophy wonk." It's a bit of a pity that this viewpoint is the case, although one may argue it's inevitable (e.g. over specialization in today's world, etc. A similar case can be made for literary criticism perhaps. I found this excellent discussion from the Phisophy Bites podcast on the perennial "What is Philosophy" question very helpful: http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/edward_craig_what_is_philosophy_ http://philosophybites.libsyn.com/edward_craig_what_is_philo... (if you have 12 minutes 41 minutes please consider listening to this). Here Edward Craig (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Craig_(philosopher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Craig_(philosopher)) argues that all people engage in philosophical thinking part of their lives, it's not the domain of philosophers. He mentions the lamentable fact that recently a lot of focus has been placed on explaining arguments, terms, etc. rather than the arguments themselves. Interestingly while enrollment in many majors in liberal arts education is decreasing (e.g. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-finds-significant-drop-humanities-majors-gains-liberal-arts-degrees https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-find...) philosophy enrollement seems to be increasing (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.htm...).

trendia 9y ago
Your article about philosophy enrollment is from 2008. The trend has reversed, though both the increase and decrease in humanities majors were relatively minor (12.5% vs 15%) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-finds-significant-drop-humanities-majors-gains-liberal-arts-degrees https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-find...

le-mark 9y ago

Some days, when Fisher was travelling, she let Notturno go inside her apartment before she got home. “One time, she came in with a big smile on her face and threw her coat on a chair and said, ‘They loved you in Los Angeles last night!’ ” Skimpy article at best, one might suppose from this anecdote that she got something from the lessons.

peoplewindow 9y ago

Kind of a misleading title. I had assumed she had done serious study of actual philosophy in her older years. Learning why and what she learned might have been interesting. Instead this is a story about when she was 20, didn't know anything about philosophy, didn't care, and basically just wanted to learn to be an interesting conversationalist. And for some unclear reason she decided that paying for a philosophy coach was the way to go. Nothing about what they actually discussed is in the article.