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Stannis the philosopher


Waters Gate

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I was recently checking trough some notes i once made for my ethic courses i college, i quite liked that course back then. As i had been recently in a discussion regarding Stannis, it was striking me how much the actions of Stannis are in line with philosophers that would have come at a far later age than medieval times. More crucially it regards the teachings of Emmanual Kant and Jeremy Bentham.

From Kant (early 18th century) we know the "ethics of duty". Really in Kant's philosophy to be ethical a man needs to do his duty, and in that perspective it doesn't even matter if it ends bad. From Kant's perspective it is not the result that counts but the intention, if that intention was good the act was ethical. So if Stannis burned his daughter with the intention to save the whole of Westeros, then by Kant's perspective (no less the founder of modern ethics) he has actually done right, even done his duty, a value by which Stannis very much acts and emphasises to others.

From Jeremy Benthan (late 18th century) we know how to quantify the result and judge from that perspective. From Benthams perspective, if it would require to kill a 100 people to save a 1000 then that would be ethical. Stannis conspiciously argues along those lines in the series.

It's only when we arrive at John Stuart mills (early 19th century) that we can look at it from yet another perspective. From Mills perspective "ones happyness is limited there where the hapyness of another starts". Mills couldn't so easily accept that a 100 could so easily suffer for the hapyness of another 1000. His arguments would i guess be harder to understand for the average person though than the ones before it.

What strikes me in this regard is how advanced Stannis his thinking is for the age he lives in as he makes the same considerations Kant and Bentham would have made in the 18th century. Kant and Bentham would basicly agree with him, but even from another perspective one would think that it would be hard for Stannis to do even better, likely Westeros simply doesn't have the brilliant philosopher that could bring Stannis his thinking even further. All in all, Stannis seems to put a lot of intellectual work in his choices, and he seems to be by far the greater intellectual among all the claimants to the throne, and all his errors seem absolutly forgivable even by ethical norms and the limitations of medieval knowledge.

The issue then is the faith he puts in Mel. Even here he is actually given a lot of proof of what Mel is saying and what she can do, so from an ethical perspective it's quite understandable to take the duty given to him by her god. And then there is Mel, who suffers from the same blind faith, but is also devoting herself to a ethical cause and therefore can be forgiven by the same philosophical considerations.

While Stannis is said to be a boring man, he can be humorous at times in quite a refined way. I guess what i'm thinking here is that George knows the ethical streams of Kant and Bentham aswell, and kinda set Stannis up as the sort of misunderstood intellectual with his head above the clouds, of which his refined humor and ethical considerations seem to be indications.

 

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I always think Stannis analysis is interesting because as you've so wonderfully and thoughtfully shown he's an interesting and multifacted character, who comes across both as unique in tv and literature but also human. 

I also think it's interesting that George RR Martin has said he's surprised at the wide fan reaction/ information seeking/ love for stannis. One theory I'll throw out there for this I think can be found in your post here. Stannis is a character based off certain specific traits, and since Martin himself doesn't seem to have been particularly captivated by the character, I think it's possible he turned to other sources, like philisophers writings on life and duty, to further his understanding of those key Stannis traits and to further his own writing style for and character development of Stannis. Just a theory though. 

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