Like Prince Rasselas and Princess Nekayah, learning about all the possibilities of a situation and determining the best way to do something before making decisions that may be regrettable later on has always been of great importance to me. Especially at this stage of life, when it seems so many long-lasting effects will be determined by the choices I make now in so many important areas of existence, reason seems more vital than ever. Like Rasselas, some of the most difficult questions are, as of yet, undecided, including: what is the difference between happiness and amusement (ch. 17)? Who can you believe (ch. 18)? Where should you live (ch. 19)? How much money is too much (ch. 20)? What kind of job should you have (ch. 24)? How should you decide whom to marry (ch. 26)? Unfortunately, I keep finding truth in the opinion eventually expressed by Princess Nekayah when she objects, “Thus it is… that philosophers are deceived. There are a thousand disputes which reason never can decide; questions that elude investigation, and make logick ridiculous; cases where something must be done, and where little can be said” (Johnson 57). I have never traveled the world and observed people in every way of life to discover the best way to live my own life, but I have often played the deceived philosopher, spending huge amounts of time and energy in my mind, reasoning through possibilities, instead of in the world, actually trying to live. In this, Nekayah’s other warning applies directly, that “this is often the fate of long consideration; he does nothing who endeavors to do more than is allowed to humanity” (Johnson 58). The most terrible conundrum, to me, has been this: one may risk missing his own life while he spends his time thinking about the best way to approach it, but he who actively participates in his life and all its choices may later realize how unhappy he is and how much better things might have turned out if he had spent more time thinking about it. What, then is the purpose of knowledge?
One suggestion offered to me by my honors professor, Richard Obenauf, is that though the so-called perfect decision may never be reached, knowledge opens up more choices to a person. Though sometimes more choices can seem overwhelming to me, the fact remains that being aware of a broader range of alternatives can increase happiness simply by the fact that it reduces limitation.
Learning, then is commendable activity, and even, too, is philosophic reasoning. In the end, though, I suppose life consists of both learning and living, whether or not decisions based in reason will result in success (happiness), or not. In a song I wrote, I concluded:
I’ll try to avoid every foolish mistake;
I intend to make every best use of my mind.
But to be alive is to fall, and to fail, and find grace,
And in the end, every moment I’m going in blind.
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