Midterm Blogpost- Brendan Dye

 I was walking along the streets of downtown Murfreesboro, just walking and thinking as I sometimes do, when I saw a man I thought I recognized. 

Getting closer, I realized it was really him-Kurt Anderson, an author whose book I had recently read. I asked him if he would like to join me for a philosophical conversation, and he agreed. We were walking and talking when I saw another person I recognized. This time it was Nigel Warburton, and we asked if he would walk with us. He also agreed, and we continued walking. Not too long after this, a man approached us, wanting to get in on our philosophical walk, and when I realized it was Julian Baggini, of course I agreed that he could join us. Thinking to myself, what are the chances of encountering three world famous author/philosophers in one day, in downtown Murfreesboro nonetheless, I took the opportunity to pose this 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?”

Kurt was the first to respond, blurting out: “America’s gone haywire! But I think this type of thinking is our only hope of bridging the divides between us and coming together as a unified, truth-seeking society. With the proliferation we are seeing today of “alternate facts,” superstitions, conspiracy theories and the like, looking at reality through a philosophical lens can certainly help us see through all the confusion and discern what is really real.”

Baggini spoke next, saying, “Kurt, I like where you’re going but I think it is necessary to think about what even is philosophy, or rather, whether what we consider as philosophy is really a universal concept. You see, while we in the west have our ideas about human nature and the nature of reality, not everyone in the world thinks about the world in the same way. I believe that the key is to really understand other philosophies, and the similarities and differences between theirs and ours, in order to both live together in harmony and to understand our own world views more thoroughly.”

To which Kurt responded, “Exactly! It’s only when we can accept the limitations of our own views that we can come together in a collective search for knowledge, and this is really the foundation of philosophy as a whole. So, Brendan, in answer to your question, I think philosophy really can help us learn to respect truth and each other, and to dispel the polarization and hostility that is rampant among us.”

Baggini: “Agreed.”

Noticing Nigel hadn’t spoken up yet, I asked, “Nigel, do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Nigel said, “Socrates believed that the key to gaining knowledge or wisdom is to first understand and accept how little you really know, and this seems to line up with what you guys are all saying.”

I then asked him, “Do you agree with Socrates on that?”

To which Nigel responded, “Socrates was a very wise man; his ideas are the basis for most of western philosophy.”

Me: “So…”

Nigel: “…”

Me: “Alright I guess that settles it, it seems like philosophy is the way to go.”