Meet Tony. He's my student. He's about my age, and he's in San Quentin State Prison. When Tony was 16 years old, one day, one moment, "It was mom's gun. Just flash it, scare the guy. He's a punk. He took some money; we'll take his money. That'll teach him. Then last minute, I'm thinking, 'Can't do this. This is wrong.' My buddy says, 'C'mon, let's do this.' I say, 'Let's do this.'" And those three words, Tony's going to remember, because the next thing he knows, he hears the pop. There's the punk on the ground, puddle of blood. And that's felony murder -- 25 to life, parole at 50 if you're lucky, and Tony's not feeling very lucky.
Upoznajte Tonyja. On je moj student. Mojih je godina i u državnom je zatvoru u San Quentinu. Kada je Tony imao 16 godina, jednog dana, jedan trenutak, „To je bio mamin pištolj. Samo trenutak, da uplašimo tipa. On je nezreo. Uzeo je nešto novca; mi ćemo uzeti njegov novac. To će ga naučiti. Onda zadnju minutu, pomišljam, ne mogu ovo učiniti. To je pogrešno. Moj prijatelj kaže: „Hajde, učinimo to“. Ja kažem: „Učinimo to.“ I te dvije riječi Tony će pamtiti zato što sljedeće što zna, čuje pucanj. Tip je na podu, lokva krvi. I to je ubojstvo -- 25 do doživotne, uvjetna s 50 ako imate sreće, a Tony se ne osjeća veoma sretnim.
So when we meet in my philosophy class in his prison and I say, "In this class, we will discuss the foundations of ethics," Tony interrupts me. "What are you going to teach me about right and wrong? I know what is wrong. I have done wrong. I am told every day, by every face I see, every wall I face, that I am wrong. If I ever get out of here, there will always be a mark by my name. I'm a convict; I am branded 'wrong.' What are you going to tell me about right and wrong?"
Dakle, kada smo se upoznali na mom predavanju filozofije u njegovom zatvoru i kad sam rekao, „Na ovom ćemo predavanju, raspravljati o osnovama etike“, Tony me prekida. „O čemu ćete me učiti, o ispravnom i pogrešnom? Znam što je pogrešno. Učinio sam pogrešno. Svakog dana mi je rečeno, na svakom licu koje vidim, svakom zidu koji srećem, da sam pogriješio. Ako ikada izađem odavde, moje ime će zauvijek biti obilježeno. Ja sam osuđenik; ja sam označen kao 'grešan'. Što ćete mi vi reći o ispravnom i pogrešnom?“
So I say to Tony, "Sorry, but it's worse than you think. You think you know right and wrong? Then can you tell me what wrong is? No, don't just give me an example. I want to know about wrongness itself, the idea of wrong. What is that idea? What makes something wrong? How do we know that it's wrong? Maybe you and I disagree. Maybe one of us is wrong about the wrong. Maybe it's you, maybe it's me -- but we're not here to trade opinions; everyone's got an opinion. We are here for knowledge. Our enemy is thoughtlessness. This is philosophy."
Rekao sam Tonyju, „Oprosti, ali gore je no što misliš. Misliš da raspoznaješ dobro i loše? Možeš li mi onda reći što je to loše? Ne, nemoj mi samo dati primjer. Želim znati o samoj nepravednosti, o ideji pogrešnog. Koja je ideja? Što čini nešto pogrešnim? Kako znamo da je to pogrešno? Možda se ti i ja ne slažemo. Možda je jedan od nas pogriješio o pogrešnom. Možda si ti, možda sam ja -- ali nismo ovdje da bi razmjenjivali mišljenja; svatko ima mišljenje. Ovdje smo zbog znanja. Naš neprijatelj je nepromišljenost. Ovo je filozofija.“
And something changes for Tony. "Could be I'm wrong. I'm tired of being wrong. I want to know what is wrong. I want to know what I know." What Tony sees in that moment is the project of philosophy, the project that begins in wonder -- what Kant called "admiration and awe at the starry sky above and the moral law within." What can creatures like us know of such things? It is the project that always takes us back to the condition of existence -- what Heidegger called "the always already there." It is the project of questioning what we believe and why we believe it -- what Socrates called "the examined life." Socrates, a man wise enough to know that he knows nothing. Socrates died in prison, his philosophy intact.
I nešto se mijenja kod Tonyja. „Moguće je da nisam u pravu. Dosta mi je biti u krivu. Želim znati što je pogrešno. Želim znati što znam.“ Što Tony u tom trenutku vidi je zamisao filozofije, zamisao koja počinje u čuđenju -- što je Kant nazvao „divljenje i strahopoštovanje prema zvjezdanom nebu iznad nas i moralni zakon unutar njega.“ Što stvorenja poput nas znaju o takvim stvarima? To je zamisao koja nas uvijek vraća do uvjeta za opstanak -- što je Heidegger nazvao „uvijek već tamo.“ To je zamisao preispitivanja u što vjerujemo i zašto vjerujemo -- što Sokrat zove „pregledani život“. Sokrat, čovjek dovoljno mudar da bi znao da ne zna ništa. Sokrat je umro u zatvoru, filozofija mu je netaknuta.
So Tony starts doing his homework. He learns his whys and wherefores, his causes and correlations, his logic, his fallacies. Turns out, Tony's got the philosophy muscle. His body is in prison, but his mind is free. Tony learns about the ontologically promiscuous, the epistemologically anxious, the ethically dubious, the metaphysically ridiculous. That's Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche and Bill Clinton.
Stoga Tony počinje raditi svoju domaću zadaću. Uči zašto i zbog čega, svoje razloge i odnose, svoju logiku, svoje zablude. Ispada da Tony ima filozofski mišić. Tijelo mu je u zatvoru, ali um mu je slobodan. Tony uči o ontološkom promiskuitetu, o epistemološkoj tjeskobi, etičkoj neizvjesnosti, metafizičkoj ludosti. To su Platon, Descartes, Nietzsche i Bill Clinton.
So when he gives me his final paper, in which he argues that the categorical imperative is perhaps too uncompromising to deal with the conflict that affects our everyday and challenges me to tell him whether therefore we are condemned to moral failure, I say, "I don't know. Let us think about that." Because in that moment, there's no mark by Tony's name; it's just the two of us standing there. It is not professor and convict, it is just two minds ready to do philosophy. And I say to Tony, "Let's do this."
Kada mi daje svoj konačan rad u kojem raspravlja o tome da je kategorički imperativ možda previše beskompromisan da bi se bavio kofliktom koji utječe na našu svakodnevicu i izaziva me da li da mu kažem jesmo li stoga osuđeni na moralni neuspjeh, ja kažem, „Ne znam. Daj da razmislimo o tome.“ Jer u tom trenu, Tonyjevo ime nije obilježeno; samo nas dvoje stojimo tamo. To nisu profesor i osuđenik, to su samo dva uma spremna za filozofiju. I kažem Tonyju, „Učinimo to.“
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)