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What’s up, guys?
Jared, here.
As I briefly alluded to in our last South
Park video, I’ve been playing a lot of Red
Dead Redemption 2 lately, and, at the risk
of sounding hyperbolic, it’s nothing less
than a milestone in the art of gaming.
Now, I could spend the entirety of this video
geeking out about the detail, the story, and
the performances, but that’s not what I
want to talk about today, because - surprise!
- I wanna talk about philosophy.
In fact, there’s one mission in the game
that builds its entire trajectory around two
philosophical ideas.
And not only is it quite clever, but it builds
off the critique of early American values
that the franchise is so famous for.
"This is America.
You can always cut a deal."
So, welcome to this test vlog format on Red
Dead Redemption 2.
We might do a bigger Wisecrack Edition that
focuses on the entirety of the game, but I
haven’t even finished it yet.
In the meantime, I know you guys like hearing
our process, so consider this a little window
in to how we think about things.
Let us know what you think about this new
format in the comments, and very insignificant
spoilers ahead - seriously, it just doesn’t
matter.
Starting early in Chapter 4, you can go on
a 3-part Stranger mission called “Idealism
and Pragmatism for Beginners."
So yeah, you can probably see why we’re
breaking down this mission.
It comically explores the basic tenets of
idealism and pragmatism, but it’s with its
exploration of pragmatism, a uniquely American
philosophy, that we get to see that classic
Rockstar sarcasm, as they take American values
down a peg.
In the first part of the mission, we’re
introduced to Mayor Lemieux, the pragmatist
and his assistant Jean Marc, the idealist.
The mayor informs Arthur that he recently
bought a collection of classic paintings to
hang in a new museum he plans to open.
But turns out, he’s been conned - the sleazy
art dealer painted them himself.
But, that’s no biggie for Lemieux the problem-solver,
who will display them anyway.
"These are good paintings.
I can't make the difference, and I'm French!"
But, an expert by the name of Professor Shiftacre
is on his way to evaluate the paintings and
make public their fraudulence.
So, Mayor Lemeiux hires Arthur to intimidate
Professor Shiftacre so that he changes his
professional opinion and deems the paintings
real.
Shiftacre initially resists, but Arthur’s
fists are quite convincing.
"I relent!
I relent!"
Okay, so what does this have to do with either
philosophy?
Well, in this part of the mission, we most
clearly see an interesting exploration of
pragmatism.
Originating in the 1870s, Pragmatism is an
American philosophy primarily developed by
Charles Pierce, William James and John Dewey.
Pragmatists vary in their specific philosophies,
but one tendency among them all is their willingness
to settle metaphysical and scientific debates
according to the practical consequences of
ideas.
So basically, they emphasize that which is
useful to advance human understanding of the
world.
More importantly, this stands in contrasts
with those who sought out universal truths
with reason, a la German Idealists like Immanuel
Kant.
So, on one level we see the mayor, ever the
pragmatist, deciding to beat the sh*t out
of a man, so long as it’s useful.
And Jean Marc, the idealist, holding moral
principles as universal truths not unlike
our boi Kant.
"Violence is never right."
But there’s another reading of this scenario
that, perhaps incidentally, comments on how
pragmatism deals our understanding of reality.
Pragmatists don’t look towards universal
truths, and stress that human ideas about
reality are likely wrong.
So because humans are fallible, some pragmatic
thinkers favor ideas that are the most useful.
For a pragmatist like John Dewey, scientific
hypotheses are great because they’re useful,
and even if they’re not 100% right, we can
fumble around with them to acquire more scientific
knowledge, which allow us to concoct better
theories.
The same, for Dewey, should be true of philosophical
ideas, rather than search for some capital
T truth, one should instead search for an
idea that may be useful to humanity and its
advancement of knowledge.
So, here we see another layer to the joke
- the Mayor hires Arthur to beat the sh*t
out of a guy until he admits that a fake painting
is real.
Now although this isn’t exactly what the
pragmatists were talking about, they’re
making a blunt, if reductive, joke about pragmatism.
Sure, the paintings aren’t real, per se,
but the idea that they are real has its use
in the advancement of public education and
culture so who cares if they’re fraudulent?
"People are going to look at those paintings
and love them, so, you're helping people,
really."
As William James said in his work, Pragmatism:
A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking,
"The true is the name for whatever proves
itself to be good in the way of belief, and
good, too, for definite assignable reasons."
This idea of partial truths also comes up
later: "I'm worried that he's going to open
his mouth and say things that aren't true
to those vulgar puritans at the newspaper."
"Well, perhaps true, but not the whole truth."
Now, I don’t think anyone at Rockstar is
reading John Dewey, and if you are, please
send me an email.
But this take on pragmatism as it’s more
commonly understood by non-philosophers is
in line with Red Dead’s cynical take on
the value systems that propelled the West
at the turn of the century.
Pragmatism is darkly cast as an ideology that
more or less justifies selfish, cynical behavior.
"Education is the most wonderful thing.
It'll raise us higher and higher, make civics
and ethics less a work of dirty-minded pragmatists
like me, and the calling of higher, better
men."
"Here, here."
In part 2 of the mission, we see this distinction
between the “dirty pragmatism” of the
mayor and Jean Marc’s idealism when the
mayor hires you to, once again, intimidate
a newspaper man into funding the library.
Arthur does what he does best, and the newspaper
man gives in.
And libraries are good things, right?
"Look at these beautiful books.
This is magnificent.
It will bring this city back to life if it
kills me, and it probably shall."
So, if it requires a little bit of nasty business
to get something done, it’s worth it, right?
Such pragmatic justifications for pretty gnarly
sh*t are all over both games - including the
essential conflict of the first game: threaten
John’s family in order to get him to do
what they want - kill the remaining members
of the gang.
In the third and final part of the mission,
we see a final standoff between these two
idea systems when Jean Marc turns on the Mayor
for his seeming lack of principles: "We will
serve to improve the city's moral backbone
by any means available to us."
"Within reason, yes."
"Yes, yes.
Within my reason.
Because it's better to get something done
than nothing at all, like you said."
"Utterly, utterly corrupted, Lemieux."
"Oh, how I long for the luxury to have principles
such as you, but I must actually do things!"
So, there you have it, a little taste of philosophy
in what is undoubtedly a top contender for
game of the year.
So, what do you guys think?
Is this exploration of pragmatism relevant
in more areas than this one mission?
Let us know what you think and hope you guys
enjoyed this new vlog format.
And, as I already mentioned how impressed
I am with the story of Red Dead 2, so if you
guys are looking for more engaging stories
to listen to while you’re hunting legendary
animals or trying to find rare herbs, you
gotta check out Blackwood.
It’s a narrative podcast about a group of
friends investigating their small-town’s
urban legend, the Blackwood Bugman.
It’s kinda like VHS or Blair Witch Project
meets Stranger Things, with its found footage
audio style.
Each episode leaves you wanting more so if
you’re interested, you can head to wondery.fm/wise
or find Blackwood anywhere you would get your
podcasts.
As always, thanks 
for watching, guys.
Peace!
