Finally, the Liar Game is over.

Having watched the 2 seasons of this TV series (11+9 episodes in all) last summer, I wondered who was behind the cheating game.

The film, Liar Game – The Final Stage, revealed to me the end of the story, rendering my previous ridiculous guesses pointless. Actually, the point of the whole story is neither the intelligence contests nor the purity of the girl’s heart, but whether human beings are capable of overcoming desires when they are faced with appealing temptations.

According to Immanuel Kant, freedom doesn’t mean that people can do whatever they want to do. He stated that people are free if they are not controlled by natural laws, such as personal interests, but are governed by the universal laws that they impose on themselves autonomously. The universal laws are shared by all people, for we, belonging to the same species, can reason by way of rational thinking.

On the surface, the sponsors of Liar Game were testing Kant’s ideas about the freedom of people. I always heard others talking about rational thinking in the context of economics, in which they might say that in order to maximize the utility of myself or that of the community, I will choose to blablabla…

I was once convinced by these arguments, but now I seriously doubt whether arguments calculating pleasures versus pains can be any rational thinking. I mean even non-living things can conduct such computations. This kind of reasoning somehow disrespects the dignity of human beings, for rationality is something unique endowed by God, separating us from other animals.

Finally, I recommend all of you watch the podcast of a Harvard Open Course, Justice with Michael Sandel, which you can download on iTunes U for free. The 12 lectures concerning what is the right thing to do will probably enlighten you.