Question I was hoping you could help me with something personal. My general question is, is there any philosophically rigorous defense for being lazy? Here are the specifics: I'm 20. My parents started me playing cello since I was 4: weekend music school, recitals, the whole bit. And I enjoyed it while I did it, and got good at it. Now I'd like to stop. Naturally, my parents are up in arms: "you can't stop." "why not?" "because 1) you've invested so much time. 2) you owe it to yourself to continue. 3) it's part of who you are, you like it, and it's in your best interest to continue. You shouldn't abandon a rewarding activity just because you're lazy. 4) you have the potential to bring others joy through your music". How do I respond to these claims? I feel like the ideas behind the claims traffic in philosophy, that there are equally philosophically defensible rebuttals, and that I don't know them. As another piece of information, and I think this applies to a lot of young people caught in this situation, I'll borrow a fact that I believe from psychology. Psychology teaches us that a lot of the reasons for our actions are unconscious - we know we have needs, but we can't articulate them. But it obviously won't do to say to a zealous parent: "I know I don't want this, but I can't explain it. It's unconscious". Any help for me here? Thanks from Minnesota... -Jordan

Accepted:

December 14, 2005