Paging Dr. NLX ...

So this past weekend it was brought to my attention that one of my songs has been thrust into a high prestige of being in a select group of twenty songs chosen to be included in a University course: Intro To Philosophy Though Contemporary Pop Songs.

The winning NLX song is STAY, and said line in question is I’d lie to your face if it makes you happy.

Turns out this line illustrates the central difference between Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill) and Kantian Ethics/Deontology (Immanuel Kant)

Discuss …

Well, I’ve been informed that Kant would say this is always deeply immoral, because you are treating the other persons agency as a means to your goal, even if your goal in this case is that person’s own happiness. You are not respecting him or her, because you’re making a decision regarding him or her, to which he or she could not, in principle, consent.

But… on the other hand, Mill, would say this is the right thing to do since the right thing is always what maximizes the overall level of happiness. No actions are right or wrong in themselves, but only in so far as they increase the happiness of the greatest number of people. This is, I am told, the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’.

Well, I remember back to when I wrote this song, and I was in my apartment alone, with a borrowed futon on the floor and me at my keyboard and the lyric just fell out of me. I actually almost never wanted to record that line cause I was so ashamed of how horrible that might sound. But truth be told, it’s the one song and line that, whenever I play a new venue or to a new audience, 99% of the people I meet after the show tell me how they connected with that line.

Are we all liars ... ???

No, we are just collectively trying really hard to practice the greatest happiness principle.

So my philosophy on songwriting 101 is a steady dose self induced heart ache, copious amounts of coffee, nips of gin, and watching The Deadliest Catch but never at the same time ... keeping way too sensitive, making your living in hotel bars, getting as little sleep whenever possible and then, maybe then, you might just have a good lyric on your hands ... I jest because I love.

I am over the moon to have been noticed in this fashion.

Thank you Dr. Alice! It's nice to know that I got the philosophy market cornered.

Bitch Get Philosophized!

Big Love!

NLX