Philosophy 101

Philosophy 101 posed a fascinating question:  If a tree falls in the forest when no one is there, does it make a noise?

“Of course it does,” one person might answer.  “Noise is governed by the laws of physics, regardless of human presence.”

“Not so fast,” another might argue.  “Sound waves from any source emit no noise on their own.  It’s only when they are received that those waves generate noise.”

Which is correct?  I’ve always been struck by the impossibility of being simultaneously there and not-there when the tree falls in order to determine whether it makes a noise.  And it probably doesn’t matter, anyway.  The posit is merely a myth.

Here’s another one:  If a person is unaware (s)he is doing wrong, does the action constitute wrongful behaviour?

“Of course,” one person might declare.  “Right and wrong are absolutes; ignorance of that is no excuse.”

“Hold on,” another might protest.  “Definitions of right and wrong are not universally-accepted.  They’re ethnocentric, based on cultural and religious teachings.” 

Here again, one might shrug off the relevance of either answer.  We know bad things often happen to good people, so what difference does it make if they are the result of unknowing wrongdoing, wilful malice, or random happenstance?  Does it matter?  Or is this issue, too, a myth? 

I happen to believe the answer to this second philosophical question does matter.  A few years ago, I wrote a book that has as its backdrop the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.  Researching the subject led me to a list of similar outrages, such as the forced relocation of Indigenous children to residential schools, and the forced sterilization of Indigenous women—both government policy well into the twentieth century.

Most Canadians today, I think, see these actions for what they are: genocidal atrocities.  To those who don’t, I simply ask, “What if they were to come for you or your children tomorrow?  Because of your skin-colour, perhaps.  Or your religious beliefs, your sexual orientation, or your political stance.”

Does anyone think that couldn’t happen?  That it’s just another myth?

Governments today, federally and provincially, are apologizing and attempting to make amends to the descendants of those who were victimized.  Some folks believe such efforts are unwise and unnecessary, given it was not we who committed the atrocities, but our predecessors. 

And that begs another question:  Should we be held accountable for the actions of people who died long before we were even born?

In answering this, it’s instructive to determine if those actions were wilful or merely misguided.  Did authorities in that earlier time sincerely believe they would improve our Anglo-Saxon bloodlines by sterilizing Indigenous women?  Did our predecessors not know they were wrong to uproot children from their families, to send them far away, to inflict the terrors of residential schools upon them?  Or were they just trying to do the right thing, what the orthodoxy of those imperialistic times demanded, the assimilation of conquered, native peoples into the colonial mainstream?

Whatever they believed, those things happened.  It is no myth!

“But they thought they were doing the right thing,” an apologist might claim.  “Many of them were priests, nuns, teachers—all doing what they believed to be right.  They weren’t monsters!”

“Not so,” a person of Indigenous descent might argue.  “They were rapacious invaders who took everything from our forebears—our land, our culture, our language, and our children.  Would it have been right and just, had the tables been turned?”

I suspect the truth lies lost, to some extent, in the mists of myth.  There may well have been good and faithful people among the newcomers who believed they were doing their God’s will.  But there were undoubtedly avaricious adventure-capitalists among them, as well, determined to seize the riches of the new land for king and country (and their shareholders).

Regardless which side of the question one might come down on—even if the best among our predecessors were unaware they were acting wrongfully—their actions still constitute wrongful behaviour by today’s standards.  Worse, they were carried out with government approval under the banner of Canada—under an authority that endures from generation to generation.

So, here is a final question:  If hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people who lived in territory under the jurisdiction of Canada were severely mistreated by their government, and if no one alive today was there to witness it, did it really happen, does it matter, and should the government of today be held to account for those misdeeds?

The answer to this last question will not likely be found in Philosophy 101.  But I believe you and I, if we seek the truth, will puncture the myth and find it.

Within ourselves.

_{© J. Bradley Burt 2023}