Why
study Philosophy at all in this day and age?
Why
would a group of (apparently) sane and intelligent people spend their time on a
‘Philosophy’ stall? What IS Philosophy anyway?
What’s
the point of it all?
Sometimes,
when I look at the world, my degree, and all the various things I’ve done, I
wonder why... well, actually, no, I don’t, but the article needs a framing
device. And the question ‘Why?’ is as good as any. In truth, I know why I did
Philosophy and it’s a secret I plan to share with you.
The
thing about Philosophy is, more than anything else, it requires thought. Lots
of thought. Luckily, an inquiring mind is all you need. The subject was born
out of a lack of knowledge and a lack of science. In the words of Bertrand
Russell, Philosophy “...is something of an intermediate between theology and
science”. Science is the observed, the experimented. You look at the world, you
poke it, you describe what you see, you make predictions, and see if they match
up. If they do, then your theory is correct until the next iteration blows it
out the water (see Newton vs. Einstein). It’s all based on what you can see,
more or less. In fact, scientists before the word ‘science’ was invented were
called ‘natural philosophers’, i.e. theorising about the natural world.
Theology,
on the other hand, is arch certainty. Something descends from on high (the
Pope, the Holy Book, the imam, the whatever) and tells you the world was made
in six days, God made the world, mankind ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil and now we're damned for all eternity because Adam couldn’t just obey
God (really, God ought to have planned his garden better and put that tree up a
hill...and that is why God created ‘landscape architecture’).
In
between is Philosophy. Philosophy is about thinking things through, arguing and
making things consistent, but it’s all speculative. The fields of interest to
Philosophy are, or were, unknowable at the time. So, smart men thought about it
using logic as their guide and tried to work out...well, the world. How do
ethics work? What is the world made of? What can we know? What kind of
knowledge is the best?
Some
of these questions have become the realm of science. As science has expanded
its scope and knowledge, Philosophy has receded from these subjects. Many
philosophers, from those who lived before Socrates, to the 17th century, pondered what the world was
made of. Science probed the heart
of the atom, then the heart of the proton, and now, we have awesome machines
somewhere beneath the Swiss French border, looking for more answers. Philosophy
has rescinded these questions.
Others
are as alive today as they ever were. Ethics is a fascinating subject. I love
it. There’s so much to it, yet so many easy places to grasp at it from. When I
talk to people about Philosophy, this is often where I start. Theology often
provides ‘answers’ to Man’s moral dilemmas, showing us books and saying “Here
is the proof”. Moral philosophy puts forth arguments which, if not
perfect, provide us with a greater grounding on which to find our own answers.
Yet
I still haven’t answered those first questions. Why do Philosophy in this day
and age? After all, I hear you cry (I have sensitive ears) ‘you said science is
encroaching on Philosophy’s territory all the time.’ It is, but that doesn’t
make Philosophy any less valuable. There will always be questions which can’t
be solved by science. Questions which require a sharp eye, a sharp mind,
questioning and equipped to see the flaws in arguments. These are qualities
Philosophy gives you. Not only are its subjects fascinating, either as the
foreword to science or as a study in itself, but the tools you need for it are
increasingly important for questioning a world in which people seek to pull the
wool over your eyes, with fancy foot work and quick words. Philosophy lets you
see the hollowness in those words, to cut through the bullshit and get to the
heart of the matter.
It
is important to remember, and I cannot stress this enough, that just because
our understanding of science was possibly ‘less advanced’ in Ancient times,
does not mean we should look at the world any differently to how they did.
Whilst it may seem that during ancient times everything explored and discovered
seemed shiny and new, and now there is ‘nothing left to discover’, nothing
could be further from the truth. Socrates believed that we could only find the
truth through questioning and this still applies today. Philosophy enhances
your ability to see the world with fresh perspective, to gain child-like
wonder, and to see everything you thought you ‘knew’ as ‘new’. To re-‘new’ that
spark of ‘what if...?’ you had forgotten about years ago. We somehow idealise
Ancient Greece as an intellectual revolution, where major leaps in science,
maths, politics, literature, and philosophy somehow prove they were smarter
than the current generation. Yet all these ‘geniuses’ had was an inquiring mind
and lots of time on their hands. Inquire. Question everything, especially
yourself. Ask ‘Why? If children had adult intelligence they would make perfect
philosophers, as their perspective is not bound by preconceptions, with
infinite curiosity. Luckily, you have adult perspective, and you can regain
your infinite curiosity making you –yes, you- a philosopher. I challenge you,
-yes, you – for ONE WEEK to ask the five W’s about EVERYTHING. Why is it
morning? Why do you eat cereal? Why did you pick THAT cereal? Try it, and see
your philosophical skills soar...
Philosophy,
in short, is the art of critical thought, and analysis, about anything and
everything. It fills the space between what we know now, and indeed, what we
can know. It looks at everything from why we live, to how we should live (or
should we?) to what we can know. And the toolkit it gives is more powerful than
anything else for analysing the world’s current affairs.
Phil
Overal
