Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [4]
So what is the best way to make all these difficult choices well? How do you make your way successfully through the maze of life? How should you deal with the Hang-ups and Slumps, the lonely games and the confusing wiggled roads, the Hakken-Kraks and other real and imagined monsters you’ll encounter along the way? Dr. Seuss assures his reader that he’ll succeed (“98 and ¾ percent guaranteed”!) but what does it mean to succeed, anyway? What is a good and worthwhile life? And how do we achieve it?
Questioning Life’s Big Questions
For ancient Greek and Roman philosophers questions about the good life were fundamental not only to philosophical inquiry but also to human life in general. The first philosopher to ask these questions prominently was Socrates (469–399 BCE), who referred to them as “the most important matters” in life.1 Socrates assumed (and subsequent ancient philosophers agreed) that all humans desire good and happy lives.2 Although we’re often shortsighted or confused about what that means—sometimes, perversely, we even do things we know will make us miserable—nevertheless, deep down, we do want to be happy and flourish. Indeed, many ancient philosophers went further and argued that, ultimately, the desire for happiness underlies every choice we make, even the most stupid and impetuous ones. Suppose a teenager gets drunk and is arrested driving home from a party. Socrates would say that, as stupid and thoughtless as his actions might seem, his choices must have made sense, at least in terms of what seemed right to him at the time.3 Perhaps he wanted to be accepted by his friends, or he didn’t want to have to call his parents and get in trouble. To be sure, he wasn’t thinking clearly or well. All the same, he did what he thought was best. So even if he never stops to think about the “most important matters” in life—happiness, virtue, what it means to be human, or in general, as Socrates puts it, the “condition of his soul”4—nevertheless his actions and choices reflect his unexamined values, assumptions, and beliefs. He makes his decisions based on what, deep down, he believes is good and worthwhile, and if his beliefs are shoddy, so will be his life.
Dr. Seuss’s books often feature characters whose unexamined and false beliefs prevent them from being happy or satisfied with their lives. For example, “The Sneetches” tells the story of two kinds of Sneetches who share the beaches—Star-Belly Sneetches and Plain-Belly Sneetches. The difference between the two is not significant: “Those stars weren’t big. They were really so small / you might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all” (Sneetches). Yet Star-Belly Sneetches look down upon Plain-Belly ones, exclude them from their games, and leave them out in the cold during their frankfurter roasts and marshmallow toasts. The Sneetches on the beaches are miserable and divided, all because of their silly belief that little belly stars make some Sneetches better than others. Then, a “Fix-It-Up Chappie” arrives with a wondrous machine that—for a price—can add stars to unstarred Sneetch bellies. The Plain-Bellies eagerly line up, thinking that once they have stars, they’ll be able to participate fully in Sneetch society. However, when the original Star-Belly Sneetches see what has happened, they want to maintain their distinctive status, so they pay the Fix-It-Up Chappie to take their stars off. And as every child knows, the situation soon spirals out of control. Sneetches run in and out of the machines, putting on stars, taking them off,