Salen, Carl Dhaniel G.

Ethics

2A7

A Reflection on “The Philosophers”

“Science and art have in common intense seeing, the wide-eyed observing that
generates empirical information.”

- Edward Tufte

The premise of the movie is about a group of graduating students pitted by their
Philosophy professor in thought experiments that challenged their take on surviving in
varying post-apocalyptic scenarios. Each of the students picked out from a box a piece
of paper on which differing professions and personal details were written which formed
the basis for evaluating their worthiness for a bunker slot, while their professor
represented a wild card who may or may not have information or abilities crucial to their
survival in the bunker. Their end goal was to survive in the bunker for a whole year and

resurface at the end of that year to become the constituents of the next human civilization .

All was going well as the story progressed until its post-mid and latter parts which, for
me, botched the whole purpose of their experiment which rather irrelevant. The title of the
movie was quite ironical, in fact, because of how it utterly went out of the philosophical
track in favor of some hippie love and the thirst for living a leisurely life that has nothing
to do with logic or the principles that the film established at the beginning . Don’t get me

wrong. I liked how the film was setup, yes, but disliked its final iteration as it did not really

make enough sense for me.

At the third iteration of the experiment which the students themselves called for after
failing the first two, the top student of the class, Petra, asked the group to let her decide
the slots, hoping that they’ll trust her. They all agreed. She singled out people with roles
that seemed irrelevant to the survival of the human race with each choice dropping down
her A+ grade into an A and so on. At that point, I happened to agree with their professor’s
reaction as Petra seemingly ignored everything that they have learned in their Philosophy
class. But even though that was the case, they still continued on with the experiment .
Petra narrated that during their stay in the bunker, they had lived a year filled with art and
literature. Yes, they had survived, but something trivial happened after their emergence

from the bunker which I found cringeworthy. The bombs never actually fell during their
stay and yet, they still chose to end themselves and the future of humanity by pushing the
button on an atomic bomb that suddenly came out of nowhere.

“We live; briefly, yes; imperfectly, of course; stupidly, sometimes; but we don’t mind,
because that’s the way we were made. And when it’s time to die, we don’t resist death.

We summon it.” Said Petra. This was the final turning point for me. I don’t know what

went on the minds of the producers of the movie that they chose to end the film like this .
The substance and excitement it had at the beginning dissipated due to their ignorance
of logic and what seemed to be their attempt at romanticizing philosophy.