Taking life philosophically.
26 April 2010
One often comes across the idea of useful fictions, particularly in moral philosophy. A useful fiction is an imaginary idea that is useful for some practical (or theoretical) purpose. A useful fiction can be recognized as such, but it can also go unrecognized. For example, an atheist might sincerely think that God is a useful fiction, even though those who believe in God obviously do not consider God imaginary. God might be useful for both the atheist and the believer, if you think that believing in God helps one commit oneself to being a better person, and that this in turn makes life better for everyone in the society. Machiavelli was perhaps not an atheist, but this passage from the Discourses suggests that he thought that the teachings of religion were useful fictions:
All things that arise in favor of that religion they should favor and magnify, even though they judge them false; and they should do it so much the more as they are more prudent and more knowing of natural things. Because this mode has been observed by wise men, the belief has arisen in miracles, which are celebrated even in false religions; for the prudent enlarge upon them from whatever beginning they arise, and their authority then gives them credit with anyone whatever. (Discourses on Livy I 12, emphasis mine.)
I am not talking about gods but something more modest: imaginary friends. An imaginary friend is obviously a fiction, but it can also be a useful one. Let us try an exercise. Imagine a person who you really like and who likes you, and to whom you can relate—a person who does not make any demands of you but who cares about you the way you are and wants the best for you. The picture does not have to be detailed.
Now imagine yourself being in a situation where you want to make a good choice: it can be either an important choice or a less important choice: you can be choosing a meal, a television, a job or a spouse. However, there is one restriction: the choice should be at least moderately difficult. The purpose of the exercise is to think about how to make better choices in one’s life. We are constantly faced with new choices. Some of them are easy and unimportant and some easy and important. Some, however, are difficult, and the more these choices are important, the more important it is to know how to make them.
Next, imagine all the things that come to your mind when making the choice: hopes, expectations, fears, love, hate, rational considerations and so forth. Among all these there are many things that help you make your choice. However, there are also things that cloud your judgement. And what makes things difficult is that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish good reasons from bad ones when making a choice. For example you can feel that you really want or even need that television, but when you bring it home and sit in front of it you do not feel as good about it as you thought you would.
Now, if you go back to the situation of your imagined choice, picture your imaginary friend with you and ask him (or her, the choice is yours) for advice. Chances are he will be able to distinguish the good reasons from the bad ones better than you. Generally, good reasons are objective and can be recognized as such by anyone. Bad reasons instead are subjective. As I see it, the problem of bad reasons is that they often appear to the chooser as objective. In one’s mind, fancies easily transform themselves into needs, often with the help of the skilled salesman.
What I propose is therefore to imagine someone who does not share the bad reasons and can easily tell they are bad reasons. At the same time he does share all your true priorities. To me this seems a good recipe for making decisions. (No doubt the idea is not new. A quick search revealed a blog entry by someone who calls himself “Philosophy Bob”, for example. I am sure that in some form it can be found in classical philosophy too.)
The obvious question is whether this works with real friends too. Obviously it does, as anyone with friends can tell you. However, sometimes you do not have the opportunity to talk to other people. It is also worth noticing that real people have their own subjective reasons that affect their judgement: real friends have personalities, imaginary friends do not. By saying that imaginary friends are better, I mean they are only better in the very narrow sense I have tried to describe. Their being imaginary means that in a way you are befriending yourself, which I think is not a bad thing. They cannot replace real friends, but they are not meant to.
The journal of Timo Laine (contact information). Cultural commentary from the perspective of a philosophy student in Helsinki.