Better Call Saul and Philosophy by Joshua Heter

Author:Joshua Heter [Joshua Heter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-09T18:11:41+00:00

From Past to Future

Chuck’s behavior toward Jimmy is oriented toward the past; he wants Jimmy to be held accountable for his past wrongdoings. So, Chuck creates a Platonic cave of his own making that imprisons himself and Jimmy, all while severely compro mising his humanity because of an insidious use of his imagination that results in an attitude of meanness toward Jimmy and a sense of cowardice to be in a right relationship with him.

There is thus, on the one hand, Chuck’s bizarre commitment to his hypochondria, which is thoroughly irrational, and, on the other hand, Chuck’s commitment to rationality as a practicing lawyer that enables him both to be faithful to his clients and to accurately theorize, investigate, and accuse Jimmy in the Mesa Verde numerical transposition scandal. For Chuck, then, Jimmy’s past—and his own—are the impetus for the dysfunctional relationship between Chuck and Jimmy that shows itself on the screen.

What would it take for Chuck to see Jimmy differently? How could Chuck’s relationship with Jimmy be improved? We know that an overwhelming sense of past-oriented vengeance directs Chuck in his relationship with Jimmy. But what if Chuck’s orientation toward Jimmy was future-oriented instead of past-oriented? What if Chuck could step away from Jimmy’s past wrongs and his sense of vengeance long enough to accept Jimmy on his own terms rather than attempt to make Jimmy into who Chuck thinks Jimmy should be through his own sense of justice, imprisoning himself and Jimmy in a cave of his own making?

In his novella, Repetition, Kierkegaard, writing through a pseudonym named “Constantin Constantius,” tells the story of a young man in love who reaches out to Constantin for help because he is having difficulty in his relationship with a woman. The young man is in love—he is engaged to be married, but wants to break the engagement and does not know how to do it. Through a series of letters, the young man explains his predicament and would like some advice from Constantin on what to do. But Constantin, because he is an intellectual observer, cannot give any advice to the young man.

Constantin’s character represents a sort of stale intellectual figure who is so busy thinking about abstract concepts that he is unable to live in the concrete reality of the here and now. He’s too much of a thinker and not much of a doer and thus cannot move forward himself, let alone advise the young man on how to move forward in his relationship with his fiancée. Constantin can only look backward; that is, he is preoccupied with his past, trying to recapture moments that he has enjoyed, such as his trip to Berlin.

No matter how hard Constantin tries to duplicate the experience from his trip to Berlin, he remains unsatisfied. Nothing is ever quite the same or as enjoyable as it was during his pre vious trip to Berlin. The young man’s request for help, then, is like asking the blind to lead the blind: the young man does not know what to do to move forward and neither does Constantin.

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