Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [90]
NOTES
1. Bk. VII Ch. 3, 1145b 27–33 [Our emphasis].
2. Ibid. Bk. V Ch. 7, 1135b 17–19.
3. “Amigos,” season 2, episode 3.
4. “Key Decisions,” season 1, episode 4 (Gob had mistakenly revealed an illusion to the public in “The Pilot” and had subsequently been barred from the Alliance of Magicians, an organization he founded.)
5. “Marta Complex,” season 1, episode 12.
6. Aristotle, Bk. V, Ch. 5, 1134a 1–6.
7. “Switch Hitter,” season 2, episode 7.
8. David Hume, A Treatise on Human Nature (Barnes & Noble, 2005) p. 320.
9. “Family Ties,” season 3, episode 11.
10. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue. 2nd ed. (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), p. 187.
11. Joel.Kupperman, Character (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 143.
Chapter 17
THE COMEDY OF CONTRADICTION
Erin Fay and Willie Young
The lives of the Bluths are full of hilarious, and often immoral, contradictions. Since the hilarity may be obvious, let’s turn to the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) to shed light on the immoral part. Kant held that “If the intent of the action can without self-contradiction be universalized, it is morally possible; if it cannot be so universalized without contradicting itself, it is morally impossible.”1 He calls this the categorical imperative, and it means that lying, for instance, is unethical because it is self-contradictory. When Lucille lies, she wants others to believe her. But of course, if lying were made a universal law, then nobody would believe what anybody else said, and Lucille would lose much of her manipulative power. Thus, she must will for others to be truthful, while willing herself to lie. Because her will contradicts itself, lying is unethical.
Of course, “Liar” could be the middle name of each member of the Bluth family, who might also be pictured next to “self-contradiction” in the dictionary. Arrested Development is a comedy of moral contradiction that highlights the conflicts, tensions, and misunderstandings that permeate our attempts to be moral. Like George Michael, we all try to sift through the conflicting desires, messages, examples, and teachings to find a way to know what to do and who we should be. Watching the Bluths efforts go horribly wrong, pulling disaster from the jaws of success, we laugh at both them and ourselves.
Seemingly Deceptive: Lindsay’s Lies
Lindsay Bluth Fünke constantly hints that her husband is gay and encourages her daughter to . . . well, Lindsay doesn’t actually encourage Maeby to do much of anything. While it’s pretty clear that Lindsay doesn’t really get how to be moral, we might ask if she understands how to be consistent, and if so, what she does consistently.
With her ever-expanding wardrobe, one thing Lindsay does consistently is shop. Indeed, Lindsay is driven to desperation in her desire to shop. In “Not Without My Daughter,” Lindsay sought a job as a shopgirl to pay for her addiction, a depth to which she never thought she would sink. Yet when asked how she got the clothing purchased with her earnings, Lindsay claimed to have stolen them. She lied to her family to hide her legitimate employment.
So Lindsay takes a legal job in order to support her shopping, but tells her family that the clothes were obtained through illegal means. This doesn’t sound consistent; but does it make her immoral? Does lying make her actual work immoral? Kant believes that it does. He writes, “That action is immoral whose intent cancels and destroys itself when it is made a universal rule. It is moral, if the intent of the action is in harmony with