Philosophy For Dummies. Tom Morris

Him: “Sounds great!”

        Her: “Invite the neighbors!”

      Okay, let’s face it. For at least a hundred years, philosophy hasn’t exactly enjoyed the most appealing reputation in our culture. But that situation is about to change. This deepest, most exciting, and ultimately most practical activity of the mind has been misunderstood for long enough. It’s time to acknowledge that there are many critics and move beyond them.

      In this chapter, you’ll be introduced to the broad array of worries and criticisms that otherwise highly intelligent and accomplished people have leveled against the enterprise of philosophy, and then you’ll get to see more deeply the real truth about this ancient and profound way of thinking.

Listening to the critics

      There may be no intellectual activity more misunderstood and wrongly maligned as philosophy. The great American historian Henry Adams once characterized the entire endeavor as consisting of nothing more than “unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.” As far back as the 16th century, the prominent French essayist Michael de Montaigne proclaimed that, “philosophy is doubt.” And, of course, who enjoys doubt? It’s often uncomfortable. It can even be scary.

      The 19th-century philosophical wild man, Friedrich Nietzsche, took it one more step and characterized philosophy as “an explosive, in the presence of which everything is in danger.” So, then, it really comes as no surprise to see Nietzsche’s predecessor, the English poet John Keats, worry about all the questions and doubts encouraged by philosophers and ask, “Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy?”

      In ancient times, the Roman statesman and author Cicero even complained, “There is nothing so absurd that it hasn’t been said by some philosopher.” Of course, he too was “some philosopher.” But then there are many other very smart and even truly wise people who adopt the label of philosopher with pride. It may be revelatory to understand them and how they see their distinctive activity of the mind.

      Philosophers? Crazy! Philosophers? Otherworldly! Philosophers? Gloomy! When we hear the word, we tend to have a modern image come to mind of badly groomed academics, carelessly dressed in tweed sport coats, wrinkled shirts, badly rumpled pants, and old scuffed up shoes, who go through life coated with chalk dust, stroking their beards, bearing scowls on their faces and arcane thoughts in their heads, all the while writing on blackboards or whiteboards in capital letters such weighty words as “DEATH,” and “DESPAIR.”

      In 1707, Jonathan Swift wrote the following comment:

       The various opinions of philosophers have scattered through the world as many plagues of the mind as Pandora’s box did those of the body; only with this difference, that they have not left hope at the bottom.

      In the century approaching our own era, the widely read American journalist and literary critic H.L. Mencken once went so far as to announce, “There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher.” (But, hey, he never met me.)

NOT EXACTLY FANS OF PHILOSOPHY

      It is hard to find many general subjects that are as controversial among the well educated as philosophy. Not everybody is a fan. And that’s because not everyone really understands what it’s all about. The following quotes show what some prominent individuals have had to say about philosophy and philosophers, largely because they misunderstood the enterprise and what it aims to accomplish. It will help to hear this crowd of critics in order to get beyond their misapprehensions and dive deep into what philosophy really is.

       Philosophy is such an impertinently litigious lady that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits as have to do with her.

       — Sir Isaac Newton

       Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.

       — Montaigne

       Philosophy will clip an angel’s wings …

       — John Keats

       All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense; but some are greater nonsense than others.

       — Samuel Butler

       Philosophy consists largely of one philosopher arguing that all the others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.

       — H.L. Mencken

       If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.

       — Frederick the Great

       There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

       — William James

       When he who hears doesn’t know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks doesn’t know what he himself means — that is philosophy.

       — Voltaire

       There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or the other.

       — Descartes (the strange and unbelievable father of modern philosophy)

       I have tried, too, in my time to be a philosopher but, I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking through.

       — Oliver Edwards (18th century)

So what’s the deal here? Philosophy, done right, should be the opposite of all this gloom and doom stuff. It should be stimulating, exciting, liberating, provocative, revelatory, illuminating, helpful, and fun. Philosophers themselves should be great company, the life of any party, a hoot and a half. (Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away here.) Even Cicero, despite his occasional grumblings about the wilder philosophers of his day once proclaimed, “If wisdom be attainable, let us not only win but enjoy it.”

      I must admit that I know of at least a few great thinkers I’m glad I don’t have as neighbors. And some of their books can be … well, should I say, “less than scintillating”? And, all right, as long as I’m trying to be as candid here as possible, I should be willing to acknowledge — without naming any names, of course — that I have actually met a few exceedingly peculiar social misfits who seem to be fish out of water in ordinary life, and whose only discernible accomplishment appears to be an academic doctoral degree in philosophy from a major university. Along with, perhaps, several unintelligible publications bearing their names. And, unfortunately, a teaching position that places them as ambassadors of philosophy in front of classrooms full of bewildered and yet sometimes bemused undergraduates. But things are not always what they seem. As the ancient poet Caecilius Statius once reminded us: “There is often wisdom under a shabby cloak.”

      The enterprise of philosophy itself, philosophy as a genuine human activity, can and should be great. Not to mention the fact that philosophers can be our friends. They often enjoy being taken out to dinner, or for a celebratory libation or two. On this topic, I should perhaps quote the great poet John Milton, who wrote:

        How charming is divine philosophy!

        Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose,

        But musical as is Apollo’s lute,