Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Miratrix

I wonder why, I wonder why
I wonder why I wonder
I wonder why I wonder why I wonder why I wonder
-Richard Feynman

Sometimes, I do wonder why I do the things I do. What motivates me to run all over Singapore to meet my personally set schedule? Is it personal responsibility? Moral obligations?

Talking about moral obligations, lets have an analogy. Let's say I have to meet someone. Now, in order to meet someone, I have to run halfway across town to be at the appointed place at the appointed time. This means that as a result, I can't do all that I want to do. And it's not as if I'm meeting the person to do something I want to do. I'm meeting the person out of 'duty'. However, if I do make it down on time, the other person will feel better, because, well, that's what making an appointment is all about. But also because it provides psychological support to the other person. And when ever my friend feels happy, I feel happy. So as a result, I'm willing to rush halfway across town, and not do the things I want to do.

Now, in such a case, does obligation hold true here? Especially since the word obligation, when pre-fixed with the word 'moral', implies that one is doing something because he has to, not because he wants to. But since I can gain satisfaction out of making the other person happy, it means that I want to do the so-called 'obligation', so ultimately, the word 'obligation' becomes rather moot, doesn't it?

Please ignore the above ramblings of a person who has an excess of time in his hands, and not enough things to do to keep him occupied. Which should change in just slightly over a month.

And by the way, the above analogy has nothing to do with any of the weird things I've done so far. It's just an analogy. And I was wondering.

Cheerio

1 comment:

purplecross said...

man, u got me a little confused.. but i was thinkin abt e "obligations" part. i dont think they are moral obligations. have u read Mere Christianity?? there's a chap on tt
adeline:)