Star Wars and Philosophy

by Kevin S. Decker

  Yoda also exhibits the positive emotions allowed to a Stoic. Since Yoda doesn’t fear, get angry, or hate, he doesn’t suffer. Yoda concentrates on what is up to him and what he can do in the present. He thus enjoys impassivity, the lack of disturbing passions the Stoics called apatheia. Yoda is calm and even-tempered. He can tell the difference between the good and bad sides of the Force, and knows what is good, what is bad, and what is neither. Knowing that only virtue is good, only vice is bad, and everything else is really indifferent to one’s happiness is the heart of Stoic wisdom.

  Yoda is also benevolent and cautious. His quirky humor displays a quasi-Stoic joy. His odd wit and unusual pattern of speech humanize him by tempering his seriousness. One of the ancient Greek names for the Stoic sage is spoudaios, which means “serious person.” Perfecting one’s mind by conditioning it to make only rational judgments about all things that occur is a very serious business that requires commitment. The Stoics called this arduous training and disciplined practice askêsis (from which we get the word “ascetic,” a person devoted to austere self-discipline). Yoda too displays the virtue of commitment and lives an ascetic lifestyle in both his sparse quarters in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and his simple mud-hut on Dagobah.

  The Stoics believed that the wise man, the virtuous person, was as rare as the phoenix, due to the difficulty of disciplining oneself to make consistently rational judgments. Such mental discipline, they thought, required an entire life to cultivate. That is why the Stoics distinguished between those who are simply vicious and those who are making progress toward virtue, though still suffering from vice. Even if becoming a sage turns out to be unachievable over the course of an entire life, progress toward this ideal state is possible. Someone who is progressing toward virtue they called a “progressor.” Similarly, Luke can be seen as a “progressor.” He is an apprentice—first of Obi-Wan, then of Yoda—as he strives to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi.

  To recap, the virtues the Jedi shares with the Stoic sage are patience, timeliness, deep commitment, seriousness (as opposed to frivolity), calmness (as opposed to anger or euphoria), peacefulness (as opposed to aggression), caution (as opposed to recklessness), benevolence (as opposed to hatred), joy (as opposed to sullenness), passivity (as opposed to agitation), and wisdom. Given all these virtues, Yoda certainly resembles what the ancient Stoics described as the sage—the ideal person who has perfected his reason and achieved complete wisdom. In contrast with Luke’s youth and inexperience, Yoda has had over eight centuries to study and attune himself to the Force.

  The perfection of the Stoic sage’s character in his human reason mirrors the perfection of all of Nature, which the Stoics believed was coherently structured through and through. The sage acts in accord with and accepts events that occur in the world since his personal reason and his will harmonize with cosmic reason and fate. The sage understands the principles of regularity by which the universe operates. His knowledge of Nature thus guides his conduct. Is this similar to following the Force?

  Yoda says that life creates the Force and makes it grow, and that the energy of the Force surrounds people and binds them, and that it pervades the entire physical world. This description resembles the ancient Stoics’ idea of the “breath” that pervades all objects in the cosmos. This “breath,” composed of the elements air and fire, is the sustaining cause of all bodies, and it controls the growth and development of all living bodies. It holds the cosmos together as the passive principle of all matter. The active principle pervading the cosmos is the “reason” that is one and the same as Nature, fate, providence, and the Greek god Zeus. When Yoda uses the telekinetic power of the Force to lift Luke’s X-wing fighter from the swamp on Dagobah, he uses the power of his mind to move matter. A Jedi master, it seems, while not omnipotent, can use the active power of reason to move passive matter. In this modest way, Jedi who use telekinesis act something like Zeus or providence, as understood by the Stoics. Telekinesis, psychic perception of events that are distant in space and time, and the luminous afterlife of dead Jedi constitute the mystical side of the Force.

  The Stoics emphasized that ethics, physics (the study of Nature), and logic (the study of speech, language, and argument) are the three interconnected branches of philosophy. So does Stoic philosophy allow for the mystical? The mystical element of the Force conflicts with the Stoics’ understanding of the physical world. Yoda tells Luke: “Luminous beings are we . . . not this crude matter.” This is confirmed by the scenes that show the deceased Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin as non-physical, yet luminous, visible disembodied spirits. Since the Emperor was a master of the Dark Side, would he too continue to exist as a luminous, disembodied spirit? Or would he be a dark, shadowy disembodied spirit? For the Stoics, these kinds of metaphysical quandaries are ludicrous. The Stoics were physicalists who believed that souls (minds) were just as physical as flesh and blood bodies. They reasoned that since one’s soul causally interacts with one’s body, and one’s body is physical, then one’s soul must be physical too. So the Stoics rejected the notion of non-physical souls (or minds or spirits) that are the “luminous beings” Yoda claims to be the real Luke and Yoda. For the Stoics, a person is destroyed when his body is destroyed, whereas deceased Jedi apparently enjoy an afterlife which allows them to speak with, see, and be seen by, the living.

  While the naturalism of Stoicism rules out supernatural, disembodied spirits, the sage’s understanding of Nature is amazingly profound and total. In fact, the Stoic sage has infallible knowledge of what should be done in every situation. The sage takes the right steps at the right times and does them in the right way to accomplish the right goal. But is Yoda a Stoic who acts from reason in every situation? No, Yoda feels the Force guiding his actions and the counsel he gives. Qui-Gon says to Anakin, “Feel, don’t think, use your instincts.” Obi-Wan tells Luke, “Trust your feelings.” So the character traits that make reason possible for a Stoic resemble the traits that make it possible for Jedi like Yoda to feel and harness the Force.

  In Star Wars, of course, there is also a Dark Side of the Force. Darth Vader and the Emperor also harness the Force to achieve their goals. How does the Dark Side shape Darth Vader and the Emperor? What makes them evil if Yoda is supposed to be good?

  The Logic of the Dark Side

  To answer these questions we must reconstruct the logic of the Dark Side of the Force. Here again the contrast between appearance and reality reveals clues. In Qui-Gon’s first meeting with the Jedi Council, Yoda observes: “Hard to see, the Dark Side is.” Is this double entendre intended as a joke or a serious insight? In any case, it well describes how the Emperor appears. His head and face are hidden inside a dark, hooded cloak. Like the Dark Side itself, the Emperor is hard to see and an obvious foil to Yoda. Both Yoda and the Emperor are ascetic devotees of the Force. Both wear simple robes. Neither is tempted by bodily pleasures. Both appear to live monkish lives of religious devotion. Is the Emperor merely evil or is his character more complex?

  The Emperor does seem to have several virtues. Like Yoda, the Emperor has a serious mind and the deepest commitment, though his is to the Dark Side. The Emperor is the Master of the Dark Side, and this surely must count as a kind of supremacy. Moreover, in Return of the Jedi the Emperor urges patience on Vader in his search for Luke, a virtue Yoda shares. In these respects, the Emperor and Yoda appear to be similar. How are they really different?

  A few scenes later the Emperor says that Luke’s compassion for his father will be his undoing. The Emperor sees compassion as a weakness, not a strength, a vice, not a virtue. The Stoics rejected compassion as irrational. Taking on the “disturbing passion” (pathos) of someone who is miserable makes you miserable too, so it’s foolish to be misery’s company by feeling compassion. Unlike the Emperor, however, the Stoics thought that it’s virtuous to show compassion to others by acting to help them. Doing things to help others is beneficence. Beneficence can be motivated by philanthropy, kindness, or simp
le recognition of one’s fellow beings as members of the community of rational persons in the cosmos we all inhabit. The ancient Greek Stoics originated this idea of a citizen of the universe or “cosmopolitan.” The Emperor clearly has no such inclusive vision of the subjects populating his Empire.

  So while the Emperor is correct, from a Stoic perspective, to reject the feeling of compassion as a weakness, he is wrong to be cruel by failing to show compassion to those he can help. From the Stoic perspective, his logic is twisted. But what twists it? What makes the Dark Side of the Force dark? Why think the Emperor is evil rather than simply eccentric or illogical?

  The logic of the Dark Side is glimpsed in the moving conversation between Luke and Vader. Vader wants to turn Luke to the Dark Side, so that he will join Vader and the Emperor. Luke senses the moral conflict within Vader, and wishes to turn his father back to the Light Side. Vader tells Luke “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side.26 I must obey my master.”

  The Force is power that can be directed toward good or bad ends. Obi-Wan, Yoda, and all the “good” Jedi use the Force to achieve their goals. Vader and the Emperor do the same. Yoda says that the Force is his ally. Vader, however, is a servant of the Dark Side. Vader is in its power, because he must obey his Master, the Emperor. So the essence of the Dark Side is mastery over others, or tyranny. But the Dark Side limits the masters to only two Sith at a time—the Master and the Servant.

  When Vader brings Luke captive to the Emperor, the Emperor says he looks forward to completing Luke’s training as his new master and gloats about the trap he has set for Luke’s friends on the moon of Endor. The Emperor goads Luke by urging him to take his lightsaber:You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant.

  The Emperor continues to torment Luke, basking in his suffering: “Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred and your journey toward the Dark Side will be complete.” When Luke is fighting Vader, the Emperor is pleased. He congratulates Luke for using his aggressive feelings and letting the hate flow through him: “You, like your father, are now mine.”

  So in contrast to the logic of the Light Side, the logic of the Dark Side is this: (1) Anger leads to hatred. (2) Hatred leads to aggression aimed at the mastery of others. (3) Mastery of others is true power. (4) True power is irresistibly desirable. When Luke slashes off Vader’s right hand with his lightsaber, the Emperor applauds Luke: “Your hate has made you powerful.” But Luke refuses to kill Vader, as the Emperor wishes: “You’ve failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” If mastery of others and enslavement to evil fails, then the Dark logic demands destruction: “If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed.”

  Consequently, the Emperor is a propagator of terror, hatred, and cruelty. He gloats and takes pleasure in the distress of others. The ancient Stoics were quite familiar with tyrants like Cambyses of Persia, Hippias of Athens (both sixth century B.C.E.), and Gaius Caligula (first century C.E.). These tyrants, along with the evil Emperor Palpatine, can be usefully contrasted with the Stoic Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.), who ruled the Roman empire from 161 to 180 C.E. The benevolence and rectitude of the Emperor Marcus is plain in his Meditations. The Stoic does not seek to exploit others. Rather, the Stoic aims at emotional self-sufficiency and cultivating his own mental discipline. This means that the Stoic sage has succeeded in mastering himself by having mastered his desires and having eliminated vice from his character.

  Luke is therefore urging Stoic wisdom upon Vader when he tells him to let go of his hate. Unfortunately, hatred has had such a viselike hold on Vader for so long that he tells Luke: “It is too late for me, son.27 The Emperor will show you the true nature of the Force. He is your master now.” For servants of the Dark Side, the true nature of the Force is servitude to evil, enslavement to hate. Like virtues, vices tend to control one’s behavior. Vader has used fear and hatred to achieve his ends for so long that now the superior hatred and aggression of the Emperor use him. That is how Vader’s mastery of the Dark Side is at the same time servitude to it.

  The reality behind the monkish appearance of the Emperor is the soul of a monster afflicted by vice. On the other hand, the Emperor’s hatred follows a cool logic of its own. His cruelty is calmly calculated, not haphazard. The Emperor shows an icy rationality and self-possession that is a shallow reflection of the Stoic’s passionlessness. His is an arrogant28 rationality which seeks to dominate, exploit, and enslave people through careful planning and use of the Dark Side of the Force. As Luke warns him, “Your overconfidence is your weakness.” According to Stoicism, however, the Emperor’s cleverness, devotion, and self-possession are not virtues. As a tyrant, the Emperor’s goal is to master things and people that are in fact beyond his control rather than to master himself by becoming virtuous. Since the Emperor fails to understand what is really good, namely virtue, and what is really bad, namely vice, he lacks Stoic wisdom. Since he lacks wisdom, he lacks all the virtues, and so he is full of vice. Since he has no desire to gain wisdom, his mind is fundamentally flawed and his vice is incurable. As a consequence, when Vader throws him into the reactor shaft, he appears to die suffering.29

  “Control, Control, You Must Learn Control”

  Yoda and the other Jedi use discipline, commitment, and training to control themselves, thereby harnessing the power of the Force. Vader and the Emperor, on the other hand, stoke their anger and hatred to empower themselves with the Dark Side of the Force. They feed, rather than overcome, the negative emotions within themselves. They seek to control not themselves, but others, in an ultimately doomed attempt to fill the cold, black void behind the mask or the hood with the false satisfaction that arises from domination and oppression of others. A Stoic could never be seduced by the Dark Side, but might well feel at home among the calm, self-disciplined, virtuous Jedi. But a Stoic indulges in none of the supernaturalism or mysticism expressed in some aspects of the Force in Star Wars. The wisdom of Yoda and the vices of the Emperor are illuminated nicely by the plain light of natural reason provided by the Stoic philosophy. 30

  3

  The Far East of Star Wars

  WALTER [RITOKU] ROBINSON

  The “Force” is central to the Star Wars mythology. In A New Hope Obi-Wan Kenobi describes it as “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” This is an extremely good description of what is known in Chinese as “ch’i,” or in Japanese as “ki.”

  In the Star Wars galaxy, the Jedi use the Force in their fighting arts. “A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force,” Yoda teaches Luke. In the martial arts of the Far East, ch’i is cultivated to give special fighting advantage over someone who relies only on physical strength. Eastern philosophy, most especially philosophical Taoism and Zen Buddhism, plays a major role in the Star Wars mythology. This is most true in relation to the martial-arts philosophy of the Jedi. The historical development of this philosophy begins with a Buddhist synthesis with Taoism producing Zen and Kung-fu. This synthesis spread to Korea and Japan, and with it the knowledge of ch’i. The philosophy of the Force is thus best understood by way of understanding the nature of ch’i and the wisdom of Zen.

  “Looking? Found Someone You Have”

  The origin of ch’i-oriented martial arts in China is found in the teachings from the Shaolin Temple. It was here that Bodhidarma, who came from India to China in the sixth century, founded Ch’an (known in Japanese as Zen) and Kung-fu, a discipline that cultivates and directs the flow of ch’i, applying it to fighting techniques.

  (ch’i)

  The Shaolin Temple was founded as a Buddhist monastery in 497 C.E. When Bodhidarma arrived he found that the monks were weak and in ill health and tended to fall asleep during meditation. China at this time was in a state of disunity with
competing military powers fighting with one another and bands of bandits wandering the countryside. Buddhist monks in central Asia had evolved a system of self defense based in Yoga and utilizing “prana”—a Sanskrit term the meaning of which approximates ch’i. Bodhidarma came out of this tradition, integrating it with Taoist practice, and taught it to the Shaolin monks to promote heath, mental discipline, self-defense, and spiritual awareness.

  The origin of Buddhism goes back a thousand years before Bodhidarma to the teachings of Gautuma Sakyamuni in Northern India. As an advanced student of Yoga, Gautuma was principally concerned with liberation from the bonds of karma, which causes suffering. The idea is that one is subject to innumerable incarnations due to the conditions of karma—that is, past actions produce the conditions of the present moment, and what one does now determines the conditions of the future. In this there is suffering due to ignorance of reality. With enlightenment (which is the meaning of the word “Buddha”) one comes to know reality and thus liberation from the chains of karma. Bodhidarma was in a lineage of mind-to-mind transmission through twenty eight generations beginning with Sakyamuni Buddha. At Shaolin, he transmitted this wisdom, which is the essence of Zen.

  The character of Yoda was created with Zen in mind. George Lucas envisioned a character one would find in traditional fairy tales or mythologies, like a frog or a wizened old man on the side of the road. The hero meets this character thinking him to be insignificant, yet he holds the very wisdom the hero needs to fulfill his quest.

  Lucas learned from Joseph Campbell that underlying religious mythologies are archetypal patterns which reflect universal truth.31 Dig deeply enough into any of the great spiritual traditions and one comes upon a reservoir of truth common to all and the source of each. Star Wars mythology is an intentional expression of archetypal truth. This truth is known through mystical experience. Campbell maintained that the Zen experience is the mystical wisdom which springs forth from the great reservoir of universal truth. Thus Yoda is intended to be a motif for universal wisdom. When Luke Skywalker enters into Jedi training, he undergoes what Lawrence Kasdan (screenwriter for The Empire Strikes Back) envisioned as Zen education. He tells us that “the stories I find most interesting are stories of Zen education and the Zen master teaching a pupil how to transcend physical prowess into some kind of mental prowess. That’s what all the training sequences are about.”32