Welcome
to the consolations,
My idea for this project was sparked by a conversation I had with a friend
while driving back from a surf session and listening to Jack’s first
album. After listening to the verse about Plato’s Cave
on the first track, I asked my friend if he knew what Jack was singing
about. He said “no”, so I told him about the allegory
of the cave, explained how the cave was a metaphor for Plato’s
theory of the forms, and then related it back to Jack’s lyrics.
I didn’t think too much about that conversation until about a week
later when my friend told me “I had a really good conversation with
my girlfriend about Plato’s Cave”. He even went on
to tell me that the “philosophy stuff” I told him about was
“pretty cool”.
After, I wondered if some of my other friends would be interested in off-the-cuff
philosophical conversations about Jack’s lyrics. To my surprise
they were. Even though they didn’t have a philosophy background,
I was able to stir up some really great conversations about Jack’s
lyrics and how they related to the things I was studying in my philosophy
courses.
Several months went by, and I was struggling to come up with a topic for
my senior honors project for my undergraduate degree at Cal State Fullerton.
I knew I wanted to do an applied philosophy project, but I couldn’t
figure out how to frame the project so that my peers would be interested.
I was at such a loss for ideas I even considered dropping out of the honors
program.
Then, I had one of those moments when the clouds part and all the pieces
come together; I thought “why not do a project that involves Jack’s
lyrics—after all, my peers like Jack’s music and they find
it interesting when I relate his lyrics to philosophy”. And the
rest is history.
Specifically, my thesis wound up being that mass art—like
Jack Johnson’s music—is important because it encourages us
to activate our pre-existing analytic skills, which in turn, invites us
to learn about ourselves; and that studying philosophy will enhance our
ability to critically consume mass art, and amplify our ability to learn
about ourselves, because philosophy strengthens and encourages the development
of analytic skills.
If you’re interested in the foundation for my thesis please check
out the intro essay “Bringing Philosophy to Mass Art”. But,
if you just want to dive into my project and read what I have to say about
Jack’s lyrics, and how they relate to different philosophical positions,
feel free. There is no specific order in which these essays must be read;
each essay is designed to stand on its own.
I hope you find these essays interesting and informative. And, as you can deduce form the subtitle of my project, bringing philosophy to my peers, I hope that after reading some of these essays, you—like my friend—find that philosophy can be “pretty cool”.
Enjoy,
P.S. To get the full effect of an essay I recommend playing the song that
the essay is based on a couple of times, reading the essay, playing the
song again, and then thinking about what I had to say. I also suggest
only reading one or two essays at a time—too much philosophy in
one sitting can be a bit overwhelming.
If one of these essays sparks your interest, you should
definitely check out the philosopher for yourself!