Me: Hello everyone, Thank you for coming today. I wanted to sit down and to talk to you guys about the question, “Do you think philosophy can help people learn to respect truth, facts, reality, and one another, and to reject falsehood, superstition, selfishness, polarization, partisanship, and mutual hostility based on differences of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, belief, etc.? If so, how? If not, why not?” Nigel why don’t you go first.
Nigel: Alright, regarding philosophy I think it can be helpful with different aspects of life, hard decisions, stress, and freeing someone's minds. That would be very prevalent in today's society with all the division we have been seeing happening around us in the past few years and especially recently. I stand by the idea that if we all could co-operate and start to be more truthful with facts and ideas that we could push past many instances of mutual hostility. Being more friendly in most instances I think would help I mention this idea in my book A Little History of Philosophy saying, “The best way to live, then, was this: have a very simple lifestyle, be kind to those around you, and surround yourself with friends.”(23) While I am talking about Epicurus and his practical outlook on philosophy.
Me: That was very well said Nigel, I agree that philosophy can be helpful in a lot of life aspects and the idea of togetherness is strong and I would also say hopeful. Julian, would you like to weigh in?
Julian: I agree with Nigel, that the world can benefit from that mindset. Though the approach on philosophy differs depending on where you are. Most situations of mutual hostility have stemmed from lack of insight. The eastern ideas regarding that stem from Japanese and Indian culture. They appointed insight to sages or gurus and these ideas were considered the least philosophical in western culture. Western culture has more of an open-source idea to insight.(24) This has since changed though, I believe philosophy has been a part of many peoples lives even if they do not actively pursue it.
Me: Thank you Julian, well said. Kurt I know you have been waiting so please, what is your take?
Kurt: I can agree and disagree with Nigel and Julian, I agree that philosophy can be used in many ways and that includes the good applications they presented. It can definitely help people with so many different things in life. Though History has a funny way of turning a good thing into a bad thing by taking out some context and key elements. Moral Ambiguity is another trend seen in history surrounding philosophy and that is what keeps me from fully agreeing with the hopeful idea of togetherness regarding truth, mutual hostility and so on. The idea of pressing an idea and changing an entire country's mind over a topic has gone very different than intended in some cases. SO i think that mentality can be dangerous. Take a look at “The Paranoid Style” and how it details JFK’s assassination for example. That made strides in influencing people's mindsets. (215) I would just hold caution with action in those cases.
Me: Thank you Kurt, you all seem to be very well spoken in your ideas. I can see why you are all respected authors! Let us finish out with one more question, “What is this world going to be? What is life eventually to make of itself?" asked by William James. Nigel?
Nigel: We could go on about the many ways the world could turn out, though I think it will turn for the good if we start focusing more on philosophy and have more critical thinking in the populous.
Julian: I also like to think the world will be full of peace and ultimately become more good than bad though that hinges on what we do to try and nudge it in that direction.
Kurt: I talk a lot about where the country has been and ultimately how it will go if we continue on the path we have set. It will take more action than the thought of action to get it going in any direction but even more to get it in the direction we want.
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