Indiana Jones and Philosophy by William Irwin

Author:William Irwin [Kowalski, Dean A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119740179
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2022-02-28T10:41:57+00:00

Truth, Acts, and Shadow Facts

Crusade highlights the risks of overly contemplative life: Henry Sr.’s mode of existence not only damages his relationship with his son, but limits his capacity to discover the Grail. At the same time, the movie depicts the dangers of fervent action without adequate contemplation. As Nazi collaborator Walter Donovan says, his allies “want to write themselves into the Grail legend and take on the world.” Marcus warns Donovan that “you’re meddling with powers you cannot possibly comprehend,” and the latter is indeed killed by mystical forces he does not understand. Henry Sr. similarly laments that “Elsa never really believed in the Grail. She thought she’d found a prize,” and she died seeking it.

Additionally, Crusade shows that newer, active notions of truth are not diametrically opposed to older, more static ones. Even if it turns out that older notions are false, they retain a role by providing solid ground for truth-revealing action. Indy’s development calls to mind ideas advanced by Nietzsche. Simultaneously criticizing and appreciating Greek philosophy, Nietzsche rejected the unchanging “true” ideas of Plato as false yet potentially life-enhancing fictions that can bring out and thus reveal new ways of being.10 So, for example, the golden cross at the beginning of the film is nothing more than that; it’s an empty fiction of sorts, not worth risking one’s life over as Indy later does on the ship at sea. Yet the initial fight over the cross generates Indy’s self-identity—everything from his hat, chin scar, bullwhip fetish, and fear of snakes to his maverick attitude. Moreover, we must overcome static concepts; tired and conventional thinking traps us. We learn this from Plato’s allegory where the shadows might be understood as commonplaces that people unquestionably take to be true.

Crusade offers a cartoonish, colorful, and sentimental spectacle. But it nonetheless deals in sophisticated ways with ideas percolating in the collective culture that Campbell described, including ideas that captivated Plato. The film also flips Plato to reveal other archetypes. Indy prefers action, and says he’s interested in facts, not truth. Facts are occurrences, and the Latin root of “facts” means “do” or “make” or “act.” In ancient contexts “pure act” is total achievement of ideal form, where the completely actualized thing has full truth and being. To the extent that Indy and his father become more truly who they are, the transitions are in keeping with the general thrust of the allegory of the cave, while simultaneously exemplifying pragmatic, transcendental, and existential trajectories.

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