Musings on "House"

"Like Socrates and House, we need people to confront us. If others either agree with us or 'agree to disagree with us' to avoid engaging us in debate, we'll stay confined to our own little reality. We need someone to stand up against us.

Yet very few people will do this for us, because they know we'll reciprocate and ask questions about their beliefs and opinions. Having one's most basic assumptions challenged is unpleasant, unsettling, and considered offensive in our society. Most people will simply refuse to do it...unless they are attacked and feel threatened. To learn anything, people like House and Socrates need others to question their opinions. Since others usually avoid conflict, they have no choice but to relentlessly attack people's beliefs from all sides, and harass them with questions and ironical remarks, until someone 'awakes from their slumber' and strikes back, criticizing House's or Socrate's own assumptions.

Should we condemn such an attitude? If we think about it, an education that wouldn't challenge and change the ideas students already have would be a poor education indeed. And a doctor who wouldn't display a healthy skepticism about the current state of medicine wouldn't be more than a medical ATM, dispensing drugs according to some preestablished guidelines. Yes, just like physical fights, intellectual confrontations are painful. But they lead to our greatest discoveries. At least with respect to knowledge, House is right: 'Being nice is overrated.'"

~Melanie Frappier, from her essay "'Being nice is overrated': House and Socrates on the Necessity of Conflict" in House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies.


Ok, so the title is a bit misleading as these aren't exactly my musings, but they generate further musings so whatevs :D