The professeur's speech on coincidence and fate
I thought it was fascinating, and would love a copy of that speech. Would anyone have access to the script or this scene? Thank you.
Great film BTW, highly recommended.
would it be ok in French?
Most definitely! I speak French. Thank you so much!
shareThe speech sets up a false antithesis between coincidence (otherwise known as chance) and fate (aka destiny). The prof says that we must believe in the latter because the former reduces us to the level of animals.
Crap. What shapes our lives is a combination of chance and choice. The prof leaves out choice. Some things just happen to us by chance (your parents, accidents, your height, etc). Some things happen because of the choices that we make ourselves (career path, friends, industry/laziness, drugs/not, etc). As a Humanist, I think that the way to a fulfilling life is to make the best of the choices open to you within the constraints that chance has imposed on you.
The idea that there is some kind of fate or destiny that lays down the path that you must follow is just baloney. It encourages people not to take responsibility for their own actions (their choices) and that is deplorable, in my opinion. There is no fate.
The prof was another bad man in the film (were there any good ones?). He is cheating on his wife and seducing his students. His speech is bad philosophy which is supposed to absolve him of responsibility for his wicked deeds. Don't listen to him! He is a bad man spouting bad philosophy.
Perhaps there are many paths to ones destiny? or possibly one may experience several lives towards that same end. Our choices may just be part of our direction and may dictate the time it takes to arrive at our destiny. One thing is for sure and that is every action has a consequence.
shareThere is no 'destiny'. That is a superstitious notion left over from ancient cultures which had only a shaky grasp of how the world works.
Of course, you are going to grow old and die (unless they invent Vonnegut's 'gerasol' to prolong life indefinitely, but that does not look too likely at present). That path (growing old and dying) does lie before us all, but it specifies so little in terms of how we spend our lives that it is not worth giving the title of 'destiny'.
Are you afraid to take responsibility for your own life? Do you need to blame someone or something else for everything that happens to you? Surely you can make some decisions in your own life, even if it is only the decision not to have three burgers at one sitting every time?
If you like classic literature, you may enjoy an essay about free will which starts out as a response to Chaucer's story of the cock and the hen, 'The Nun's Priest's Tale' from the Canterbury Tales. You will find it at http://www.humanists.net/belfast/review%20chaucer.htm