Philosophy For Dummies® 2nd Edition
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Philosophy For Dummies? What a concept! Is this the ultimate oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, or at least an utter impossibility in the making, an exercise in futility on a par with Advanced Calculus For Toddlers or Neurosurgery For Nitwits? No. Not at all. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (fifth century, BCE) thought that, when it comes to The Ultimate Questions, absolutely everyone starts off as a dummy. But he also thought that if you’ll humbly admit how little you actually know, you can really begin to learn. With an open mind and a keen focus, you can discover great things.
The word philosophy comes from linguistic roots that mean, simply “the love of wisdom.” And this is worth pondering. Consider for a moment any real object of love. When you lack it, you pursue it. When you have it, you embrace it. Philosophy, then, is just about the pursuit and embracing of wisdom, which involves some of the most fundamental truths and insightful perspectives about life that can help us on our path through the world.
This is the right book for you if you ever wonder about the big issues in life, or the deeper truths, and want a little guidance for making some progress with them. It is also a great help if you’re a student taking your first course in philosophy and are not quite sure about what’s going on in class. I aim to be clear about things that are often confusing and help you make progress in thinking through for yourself some of the most important and basic human questions. My son’s Introduction to Philosophy professor at Harvard long ago once confided to him that he used this book to prepare for his own Friday discussion groups. But we’ll just keep that between us, okay? So, yeah, even if you’re an Ivy League professor, I hope you’ll find things here that are helpful. We’ll do some real philosophy together and have more fun with it than you might ever have thought possible.
Philosophical questions deal with serious issues, but serious isn’t the same thing as somber. You can actually have fun and enjoy thinking about things that matter. In a top university course I had the joy of teaching for many years, I told stories derived from my own wild life experiences, as well as borrowing many illustrations from the great philosophers of previous centuries to clarify the issues. Personal tales from my own path through the world often provided just the right imaginative boost necessary to help my first-time students see the importance of a big question about life — and then maybe glimpse a good path or procedure toward for its resolution. I hope my stories here help you in the same way.
In philosophy, ultimately, there are no final authoritative experts. You and I are in this together. I often ask you to consult your intuitions about something, and I sometimes make a suggestion about what most people usually tend to conclude when they do so. I sketch out the deep contours of some experiences that are common among human beings across space and time. And I ask you to think through many issues for yourself. You and I are on a journey of understanding together. So feel free to talk back to me if you ever think I’m getting something wrong.
A final piece of advice: Catch yourself if you spend too much time staring blankly at a page, mesmerized. Deep questions can sometimes have that effect. And, please, try not to ever fall asleep with this book in your hands. It might give other people the wrong idea about the exciting, rousing, exhilarating enterprise of philosophy.
I am assuming you are new to philosophy. You’re not new to all the questions of philosophy — you’ve likely been asking some of them since you were quite young. But I’m assuming that you are new to the careful discipline of philosophical thinking. I don’t take for granted that you’ve ever sat in a philosophy classroom, or that you’ve ever donned a toga. I assume only that you sometimes wonder about life and this world and want to get your bearings a little better. If you are that rare reader who already has had an introduction to philosophy, or even proudly hold a (non-income generating) degree in philosophy, I’m just going to assume you’re willing to suspend or rethink some things you thought you knew already, and go at this afresh. And I’m also going to assume that you and I can have an adventure here, thinking about things that matter, which actually isn’t foolish at all.
Throughout this book, icons in the margins highlight certain types of valuable information that call out for your attention. Here are the icons you’ll find and a brief description of each.
The Tip icon marks suggestions and perspectives that can help you think through an issue.
The Remember icon indicates information that’s especially important to know and keep in mind.
The Technical Stuff icon alerts you to information of a more difficult nature that you can skip over initially, if you’d prefer.
The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It flags important cautionary notes that can save you intellectual confusion, needless effort, or the fallacious faux pas to be avoided.
In addition to the abundance of information and guidance related to the philosophical questions to be found in this book, you get access to even more help and information online at Dummies.com. Check out this book’s online Cheat Sheet. Just go to www.dummies.com and search for “Philosophy For Dummies Cheat Sheet.” But don’t worry, it’s not the sort of cheating to be pondered in the ethics chapters.
The deepest philosophical issues are all connected with each other in interesting ways, as you’ll come to see. But I’ve written this book so you can start anywhere or read different chapters independently of each other. If you see your favorite topic in the table of contents, jump right into it if you like. But of course, if you start with chapter one and read on consecutively, you’ll be following the order of my own thinking and pick up some tools early on. But the point is that you need not. This is a reference guide for your convenience and is intended to answer at least many of the questions you might have about philosophy and philosophical thought. It’s written in the great For Dummies style that organizes lots of important information in an easy to access format. Go enjoy the journey!
Part 1
IN THIS PART …
Chapter 1
IN THIS CHAPTER
Hearing common misunderstandings of philosophy, courtesy of the famous
Examining the importance of the examined life — the life worth living
Looking at the questions to consider in a deep quest for understanding
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.
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.)
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:
In other words, good stuff indeed.
The same Cicero who loudly voiced his irritation at bad philosophers didn’t shrink from praising a good one. He once described Socrates as “the first man to bring philosophy into the marketplace.” In many ways, it’s the example of Socrates that will be followed in this book. Philosophy can be brought back into the marketplace of ideas that are seriously contending for your attention. Some pretty lofty ideas can be pulled down to earth and examined for their amazing relevance to our day-to-day lives. The goal in this book is to help you get clearer on some of the issues that matter the most, but that you may ordinarily tend to think about the least.
I hope that together we can be explorers of the spirit, charting our way forward in new depths of awareness as we go. We take a close look at some exciting ideas, quite a few amazing questions, and several new perspectives for everything we think and do. We can’t nail down a definitive answer for every question that may arise, but if you stick with me for the duration, you’re likely to find yourself making more progress in appreciating and understanding these topics than you may at first imagine. I might sometimes ask some strange-sounding questions, but I promise you that, as you consider the answers, those queries can help you attain some pretty amazing perspectives on this life that we’re living. Our goal, throughout, is nothing less than a quest for wisdom itself. And that’s a vitally important matter, since, as the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson realized, “Life is a festival only to the wise.”
The original public philosopher, Socrates liked to walk the streets and go to parties, along the way engaging anyone he could in philosophical dialogue. For him, philosophy was not a dry, intellectual subject, a game for pedants and scholars, but a requirement for living well. He even famously proclaimed the following axiom:
But what in the world does this statement mean? Everyone knows what it means to say, “This car isn’t worth $80,000,” or “This shirt isn’t worth $150,” or “The tickets to this concert aren’t worth $125 each.” But what exactly does it mean to say about a certain form of life, a particular lifestyle — what Socrates is calling “the unexamined life” — that it’s “not worth living”?
Essentially, an item is “worth” what it costs if the value or benefits that you derive from it are equal to or greater than the price you pay for it — which is ultimately the same value as the underlying effort or energy that you put into obtaining the resources required to pay that price. Whenever I think about making a certain purchase, I always ask myself whether the item is truly worth the asking price: Is it worth that amount of money? Is it worth the work it took for me to earn that amount?
A pair of shoes that a wealthy individual could see as a “very good deal” might be perceived by a person of more modest means as far too extravagantly expensive. The less well-off shopper may need to work far too hard or too long to earn that amount of money. He may then conclude that the shoes aren’t worth the cost.
But how exactly does this commonplace sort of judgment relate to Socrates’ famous claim? What is the cost — or the worth — of “the unexamined life”? Well, first we need to understand what Socrates means by this phrase.
What is “the unexamined life”? Unfortunately, it’s the form of life far too many people live: getting up, dressing, eating, going to work, breaking for lunch, working some more, going home, eating again, watching TV, leafing through magazines or endlessly scrolling social media, exchanging a few words with family members or or friends on the phone, bathing, changing for bed, checking messages again, and falling to sleep — just to repeat the same routine over and over and over, without ever thinking about what it all means or how life should really be lived.
We wake up already in motion in this life. The raft is out on the river, and the current simply carries us forward. Habit and the demands of others tend to eat up the day.
When we’re young, other people decide what we wear, what we eat, and when we can play. All too often, even after we’re older, other people still decide what we do during the day. We make choices, lots of them, but often from a limited selection of options that our environment, friends, families, employers, and simple routine together present to us. Rarely, if ever, do we stop to reflect on what we truly want in life, on who we are and desire to become, on what difference we’d like to make in the world, and so on what’s really right for us. And that is the unexamined life — the life that is lived at some level almost as a cosmic sleepwalker, somnambulating away the hours, days, and years. It’s a life that is experienced on automatic pilot — a life based on values and beliefs that we’ve never really looked at, never really tested, never examined for ourselves.
Many people seem to fear self-examination, as if looking at and evaluating their most basic beliefs and values is somehow a threat. But a philosophically reflective examination of our most basic assumptions and commitments doesn’t necessarily have a corrosive effect. It may have a purifying and empowering impact. The fundamental goal of philosophical examination isn’t criticism in a negative sense, or any sort of rejection or abandonment of ideas or beliefs. The true goal is this: understanding. And then a greater level of understanding often results in a refocusing, a shedding of unnecessary or unimportant activities, and an adoption of others — rebalancing and changing our lives in a positive way.
The unexamined life, on the other hand, isn’t one of deep personal understanding. It’s not a life of self-directed positive change. It simply continues on, largely out of inertia.
And you pay a big price for living such a life. Socrates identifies the price or the cost when he states that this form of life, the unexamined life, is not worth what you have to pay for it — when he, in fact, plainly says that this form of life simply is not worth living. The living itself, the spending of those precious hours, days, weeks, and years that you have is too high a cost to pay for an unexamined life.
The price that you pay for an unexamined life, therefore, is precisely that — your entire life. And you can pay no greater price for anything. Notice, however, that Socrates didn’t say that the unexamined life is not worth anything. He wisely left open the viewpoint that some positive value exists in any life, however unreflective that life may be. This great thinker said only that the unexamined life isn’t worth the high price that you must pay for it — the investment of all your time and energies in a direction that’s not of your own careful and wise choosing.
Philosophy, on the other hand, as an activity of reflection giving rise to a wiser way of life, involves investing your life energies in something that may prove worth the cost. But it’s not easy. The activity of self-examination and developing the self-knowledge that results from it can be quite hard. The great novelist Cervantes once acknowledged this in an extreme though accurate way when he advised: “Make it your business to know yourself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.” Pondering this, you might of course also begin to wonder whether the examined life is ion the end itself guaranteed to be worth living. And the truth is that Socrates never actually said so. His statement about the unexamined life does seem to imply, by contrast, such a conviction. But the wise philosopher left us to draw that ultimate conclusion on our own, precisely by examining ourselves and our own lives. And I hope that what you find in this book helps show you the true worth of such an examination.
In this book, you get to look at some incredibly interesting questions dealing with issues of belief, skepticism, and knowledge; good and evil; free will and determinism; the nature of a person; death and life after death; the existence of God; the truth about success and happiness; and the meaning of life. As children, we were endlessly curious about life. And as we age, that should not stop. Philosopher John Locke once wrote: “There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than then discourses of men, who talk in a road, according to the notions they have borrowed and the prejudices of their education.” In these pages you get a chance to explore some of those questions once more.
This book touches on many of the main fields of philosophy — epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion. And it consults many of the great thinkers in history. Throughout, the discussion will be as practical as it is theoretical, because I believe that the best use of theory is in better practice. With each issue, you should ask what difference it makes in your own life, and how it can help you to chart your way forward in the world.
Here are some of the questions you can expect to find in these pages:
These questions cover only a few of the basic concepts that I consider with you throughout this book. Ultimately, I hope to help you ask your own questions a little better, or a bit more deeply, and perhaps even come to some revelatory and satisfying answers. As the famous novelist James Thurber once pointed out, “It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers.” Asking the right questions well, and living with them, can enhance our lives.
Chapter 2
IN THIS CHAPTER
Seeing what philosophy as an activity is
Finding out how to do philosophy yourself
Appreciating the power of belief
Peering into Plato’s Cave
Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
Philosophy at its best is an activity more than a body of knowledge. In an ancient sense, done right, it’s a healing art. It’s intellectual self-defense. It’s a form of therapy. But it’s also much more. Philosophy is map-making for the soul, cartography for the human journey. It’s an important navigational tool for life that too many modern people try to do without.
In this chapter, we see exactly what that activity is, as well as how to do it well. I show you the power that belief can have in our lives, and I bring you a distinction Plato drew so vividly that it has echoed down the centuries, helping to free people from illusion and lead them into truth.
Philosophy can be a little like a version of the wilderness adventure trekking of Outward Bound for the mind: intellectual spelunking, mental rock climbing, cognitive rappelling, rafting, and reconnoitering. Sometimes, it can even seem like a conceptual version of Extreme Sports.
On those occasions when we push philosophical inquiry to the very limits of our world-views, we find ourselves temporarily letting go of our customary assumptions, intellectually free-falling and hoping the chute will open when we need it. Anytime we do this, the point is to experience the outer boundaries and foundations of our ordinary beliefs, to come to understand the status of our most important presuppositions, those background convictions that support the perspectives and decisions governing our day-to-day actions, and that we normally just take for granted.
We question things as deeply as we can in order to understand as deeply as we can. The ultimate goal is a firmer grip on who we are and what our place in the world really is.
But in another light, philosophy can be thought of as a package of existential survival skills, along with the determined application of those skills in a sort of search-and-rescue mission for the soul. Philosophy is not just a game. It’s not simply a mental sport. It is the most vital use of our minds for getting our bearings in life. It may even act as a path for living well.
Consulting the great thinkers of the past, as we draw our own philosophical maps for the present and future, is like stopping to ask a local for directions, rather than just wandering around lost. It’s getting the advice of those who know, people who have been in the neighborhood before and can find their way around. We inevitably do a little exploring of your own, but any good advice and direction we get can help.
In any expedition into unfamiliar terrain, it pays to have a native guide to lead us, but ultimately we all have to pull ourselves up the side of the hill. We partner with the great thinkers who have gone before us and, with their help try to see our own vistas and make our own way.
The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote these important words that fall short only in referring to just one gender:
“Who am I to think about these things?” each of us is tempted to ask. Well, who did Socrates think he was to be tackling such ideas? Who was Plato? In the first century, Seneca wrote,
It’s every bit as much our business to ask questions about the big issues as it was theirs. But because they already started the process, we can benefit from their thinking and enter a conversation that began long ago, perhaps to make our own useful contributions. As the ancient dramatist Menander claimed, “Whoever consorts with the wise will become wise.”
We consult the writings of the great dead philosophers not for any final word on the ultimate questions of philosophy, but rather to help get us started, using the insights and avoiding the pitfalls already discovered by those who have gone before us. Early in this century, William Ralph Inge explained, “The object of studying philosophy is to know one’s own mind, not other people’s.” So when we are doing philosophy, we go to the books and essays of past thinkers not to take inventory of their thoughts, or to gather up from them all the answers we might want, but, rather, for the assistance and inspiration we need to do our own jobs as thinkers.
Emerson comments, “Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.” I hope in this book to begin to inspire you, as I have been inspired by the books of others, to look into these matters for yourself and fight to attain a bit of your own wisdom for life. Likewise, I’ll be your guide, as I use many guides myself, to make our way forward together.
Let me pass on an important lesson I’ve learned about the role of assumption and belief in our lives. It demonstrates our need for the discipline of philosophy, and in an unusual way.
For a long time, my family had wanted to own a gas grill, the kind that has a fat tank of propane under it. But people had warned me about the dangers of propane gas. It’s really combustible. And, breathed in, they said, it’s seriously toxic. I seemed to remember that I had heard or read somewhere that in its natural state, propane gas is without odor, but that refiners added a smell so that any leaking gas could be detected immediately and avoided.
Socrates wasn’t the only philosopher who enjoyed being involved in a good grilling (Get it? Because he questioned people relentlessly — and if you did get my lame joke, well done!), so when my family offered to get me the long-discussed gas grill for Father’s Day, I agreed with enthusiasm to do my part in making all their charred dreams come true. My wife called a local store and ordered a deluxe model. She also paid to have it assembled and delivered. Philosophers are often not the best at putting together anything but ideas.
Some days later, we received a call from the store that the grill was in, assembled, and “ready to go.” My wife bought the burgers and hot dogs, and all the other normal cookout stuff, and prepared for a feast. When the delivery guys arrived, they pointed out that I would have to hook up the gas tank to the grill when I was ready to use it. They explained that they were required to deliver it unattached. I assumed it was really dangerous to transport the tank hooked up.
They drove away, and with the assistance of written instructions and diagrams, I went to work trying to hook up the tank. I fumbled with the hose and connectors, and kept getting it wrong, and I felt myself getting short of breath. I was doing all this outside so that any leaking propane would dissipate quickly, but obviously there wasn’t enough of a breeze and I was getting too much of it into my lungs. I finally got it hooked up. But when I tried to light the grill, there was no fire. As I hung over it inspecting all the connections, I could feel myself getting light-headed and nauseous from more of the dangerous, deadly gas.
I called the store explained what I had done, and that I was obviously breathing so much propane at this point that I was getting really sick. In my mental fog, I could hear the guy who sold us the grill ask me a question.
“Where did you take the tank to get your propane?”
“What do you mean? The grill was just delivered, and the delivery guy said it was ready to go.”
“Oh, it was, except for the gas. We sell only new tanks with our grills, and they come empty. You have to go to a gas station to buy gas for it. That’s why it won’t light. You got an empty tank.”
Oh. I was being asphyxiated by a false belief. I was having physical symptoms from something that wasn’t there. But a breath of fresh information was all it took, and I was fine. Physically, at least. Mentally, I was embarrassed. My wife and kids laughed a lot. And they went to get some take-out food. I suppose Chaucer was right when he said, “People can die of mere imagination.”
In a way, it’s really good that this happened to me. As a philosopher, I learned something important about the power of our beliefs, and our imaginations, as well as about the hidden assumptions that can govern our thinking, acting, and feeling. The mind is indeed a powerful thing. And false beliefs can have a big impact on us.
Plato had a memorable image for the false beliefs and illusions we too often suffer. He wrote that we are all like prisoners living in a cave, chained down to the floor, our gazes fixed on shadows flitting across a wall, mere images that we mistake for realities.
Plato’s image of the cave was actually quite elaborate, but here is the gist: Imagine that behind us in this cavern, there is a fire burning that casts shadows on the walls that are all we ever see, until the day someone breaks free of his chains, sees our situation as it truly is, and escapes the cave altogether, emerging into real daylight. At first, he is blinded by the glare of the sun, that object of which the cavern fire was but a poor copy. But then his eyes begin to adjust and can see real objects, animals, rocks, and trees. Realizing the difference between the outside world and the poor dim shadow world in which he had been imprisoned, he returns to the cave to convince the others there to break their chains as well and ascend into the light of reality. Philosophy is all about escaping from the cave of illusions where too many people are trapped.
The man who first escapes the cave of illusion that Plato thinks we live in is the philosopher, the one among us who comes to realize that we are all in some way living lives of illusion, held captive by shadows and chains not of our own making. When he brings back into the cave his strange tale of other things and greater realities, he is cheered by some and jeered by others. We have a way of becoming comfortable with our illusions when they are all we’ve ever known. And so we are easily threatened by any strange reports of greater realities. But the true philosopher tries to free as many of his fellow captives as possible, liberating them to live in the broader, brighter realities that lie beyond the narrow confines of their customary perceptions.
That is a vivid image of the ultimate task of philosophy. Its goal is to free us from illusion and help us get a grip on the most fundamental realities of our world.
Think about any illusions you could be living under right now. There may be things you value that really lack the importance you attribute to them. There could be matters you’re ignoring that are really of immense value. You might be making assumptions about your life that are based on mere appearances and not the realities of your situation. Most people are chained down by all sorts of illusions. It’s the goal of philosophy, well done, to help us all break those chains.
We actually have no choice of whether to do philosophy or not, of whether to be philosophers or not. We inevitably operate out of some philosophical worldview, however well-formed or incomplete it might be. Our choice is between bad philosophy, either unreflectively absorbed from the culture around us and the prejudices of our time, or done sloppily without guidance, and the vastly preferable alternative of good philosophy built on critical questioning and sustained thought.
Everyone has a choice. We can be poor thinkers or good philosophers. But quality comes only with care. Careful thinking makes for the best philosophy. Does your philosophy of life imprison you or liberate you? Are you a careful or careless thinker? In this book, I try to dispel some of the myths and platitudes of our own age and get out of the cave of our false assumptions. We seek philosophical enlightenment, philosophical liberation.
The first day of the rest of your life need not begin and end in Plato’s Cave.
Plato helped to launch the activity of Western philosophy, as we know it today, by writing lively dialogues featuring his teacher and mentor Socrates. Someone would have a party, and Socrates would show up. As the wine was being passed around, he’d start up a conversation, asking others present what they thought about some important topic. They’d answer, and he’d gently question what they said, investigating the ideas they brought up, and they would then reply. Then the philosopher would dig even deeper. Or Socrates would be walking down the street and see a friend, who would greet him warmly. A conversation would begin. And philosophical thoughts would soon emerge. The old man was always in action, thinking, probing, testing, and rethinking.
Philosophy is meant to be an activity in several ways. It’s a form of intellectual self-defense as well as discovery. The philosopher works to get beyond mere appearances to the important realities beneath them. The determined thinker actively works to discover new ideas, analyze, and refine those concepts, and then find new ways to put them to use, creatively and well. And this is a part of the activity of philosophy that’s often overlooked. Philosophy isn’t just about thinking hard about big ideas; it’s also about living in the constant light of those ideas that matter. It’s meant to be an adventure in living, a way of proceeding well and wisely in the world. And when you do it right, I like to think you make Plato and his mentor Socrates proud.