Midterm blogpost by Don Enss

 

Midterm Blogpost

 

Don

                        Welcome to this edition of “Don on Philosophy” where we look at current issues and see how we can apply ancient, global, and current philosophy to current issues. With me today are three renowned philosophers, Nigel Warburton, Kurt Andersen, Julian Baggini. Gentlemen how would you prefer to be called.

Nigel

Nigel is fine for me.

Kurt

Kurt is okay for me.

Julian

Julian is okay because you might have difficulty with the pronunciation of my last name.

Don

Thank you, gentlemen. We live in a time when truth is what anyone thinks is truth for themselves, where alternative facts supersede facts. We have experienced these moments in the past, but perhaps to a lesser degree than today. So I would like to get your thoughts on 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? What is truth? We know that Immanuel Kant said that any lie was not acceptable, but does it depend on the perspective of the individual? Notice in the video that the father does not see the irony in his instructions to his son about telling the truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLmJvZ_rkig

Don

Julian, can you please offer some insight from a global philosophic perspective on the question of how philosophy can help people learn to respect truth, facts, reality, and one another, and to reject falsehood, superstition, selfishness, polarization, partisanship do ?

Julian

Eastern philosophy is more focused on the “Way-seeking” and less on the “Truth-seeking”. For them “If you are a truth-seeker fixed on getting your understanding of the world right, you are not going to be satisfied with conceptual vagueness, unclarity or ambiguity. If you are a way-seeker more concerned with how you live, you might not only accept such limitations but embrace them” (100). In an earlier time, harmony was very important in China and they recognized the yinyang relationships between truth and falsehood, but today there is a much tighter control on what is disseminated on the network, so the government controls what it deems acceptable and unacceptable communications. More people in the West should learn more about Eastern philosophy and I believe it would help them come to a better understanding of how they are part of the universe.

Don

Nigel, you have written a compact book on a diverse group of philosophers and I cannot imagine how hard it is to summarize a philosopher’s life and thoughts in three or four pages. Of the philosophers you have written about are there any who can give us some insight into  how philosophy can help people learn to respect truth, facts, reality, and one another, and to reject falsehood, superstition, selfishness, polarization, partisanship.

Nigel

I agree with Julian that most Western philosophers were focused on the truth-seekers, they were focused on the traditional view that “truth means correspondence to the facts” (166). Their focus was science driven. C.S. Pierce wanted “to make philosophy more scientific that it had been…and “for a statement to be true there had to be some possible experiment or observation to support it” (165-6). But I think the most influential psychologist/philosopher on truth and how we can lead our lives is William James. I could not do him justice in a few pages, but anyone who is interested in learning more, should read a short book by John Kagg’s Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life. In it Kagg says that James believed “that truth in ideas is their power to work”…and that “The pragmatic theory of truth demands that one respect, always, the force of empirical fact, but also realize that all facts lead or point to consequences, the meaning of which cannot be exhaustively evaluated in scientist’s lab” (128-9), and “we have to live today by the truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it a falsehood” (137). James was an outstanding teacher and today’s philosophers must be more engaged in teaching at lower levels of education.

Don

Kurt, I kept you for last. Reading Fantasyland was like walking down memory lane. I lived in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I remember the “Birchers,” Oral Roberts Heal-a-thons which I would later learn were just a con game. I attended theme parks, reenactments, and historical restorations. I never realized how I was part of fantasy culture sucked in by the great fantasy entrepreneurs. I watched “The Hobbit” and “Star Trek” and never thought about how unrealistic it was that a hobbit would live underground and pursue adventures in search of a ring or that any spaceship could travel at “warp” speed. So how did we get conned?

Kurt

Most Americans were not happy with whom they were, they wanted to live a fantasy, psychedelic life that would allow them to live in an unrealistic world and unfortunately many still do today. As you would have noticed when you were growing up, “it was unusual to encounter a woman over fifty whose hair was not gray or white” (232). Today, it would rare to find one in that age group who is gray. Plastic surgery existed only for people who had been involved in accidents or needed to correct a physical deformity. Then in the 70s, it took off. People wanted to look like movie celebrities or TV stars, so they turned to plastic surgeons who raked in millions doing facelifts, boob jobs, etc. Not all patients were satisfied, one screamed at the surgeon that “she did not look as good as Sophia Loren” (233). Our identities were subsumed by fantasies and we could not distinguish Disneyland from reality. In the 70’s “the Me Decade, still used as a catchphrase for the touchy-feely narcissism of the 1970s’ newfangled self-improvement schemes” (186).

Don

And now we have a narcissist who grew up in the 70s and is President of the United States.

Kurt

And he has no respect for truth, facts, or reality about COVID-19. He engages in falsehoods and conspiracies and polarizes the citizens by creating hostility towards races and ethnicities. It’s a challenging time, but as philosophers we must continue to teach and shed the light on how we got here as well as how we can return to some sense of normalcy.

Don

Kurt, I am sorry I monopolized your time but Julian and Nigel, would you carry to add your thoughts.

Julian

I think the one benefit for Eastern Philosophy is that it focuses on the collective, what is in the best interest of society. People in Asia are not as likely to engage in conspiracies because the government and society choose not to acknowledge them, and their circulation is more tightly controlled through censorship.

Nigel

I agree, most of my writings are on Western philosophers and there is a greater emphasis on the individual and how and what the individual perceives their role in society in asking why we are here. James’ pragmatic approach is an excellent way to try to arrive at the truth. If you act on an idea and it works then it may be true, but it needs to be tested to see if it only works for you. A perfect example today is the wearing of mask to control the spread of COVID-19. If the president had worn a mask and not contracted the virus, a rational person would think that if it protected him, it might protect the rest of the citizens. Then if he had mandated it nationally two months ago and most Americans practiced wearing it and we saw the case count drop to less than 10,000/day nationally, we would know it was probably true. Conversely, if it increased to 70,000 cases then we might have reason to question it.

Don

Thank you, gentlemen, this leads to my last question. What is this world going to be? What is life eventually to make of itself? I want you to expand on your answer to include what you think a philosophy teacher/writer can do to influence the outcome. First, having listened to you tonight, I have a feeling that in one hundred years there will be a new generation of philosophers still discussing these issues. We will all be dead by then just like many of the famous philosophers Nigel wrote about. So how do we break the cycle. Personally, I think philosophy should be taught as early as young children can grasp some basic concepts and can have their observations of nature confirmed or challenged so that they begin to think critically. Just a show of hands from the audience, how many of you could demonstrate convincingly to a child that the Earth revolves around the Sun? “No hands.” For me that’s the problem, when a child first wanders outside and sees the Sun, they are told it “rises” or “sets.” So, teach them early that the sun appears and disappears as the Earth rotates and that will help them to begin questioning other things they observe as well as untruths they encounter. I believe high students have accepted the myths over their lifetime, so I’m not sure if it is too late to reach them as a diverse group.

                                                                                                Julian,

I like the concept of educating young students, but it seems more focused on a Western individualist approach. Eastern philosophy does not worry about astronomical phenomenon, they accept it and ask what they can do to improve their lives in a collectivist society. I am not sure they could see the merit in an advanced early philosophic education.

Nigel

I agree with Julian. I think it is too Western focused and how can you condense the voluminous writings of brilliant philosophers into a book that an elementary school student could comprehend, but I like the thought maybe like James’ we should find some students and determine the earliest age where we can begin to teach them to think critically, not to be hard core sceptics but questioning human beings.

Kurk

You’ve been hitting the Kool-Aide too much. But you are right, if all we ever do is sit around and talk about it, and don’t try something different, they we will be marred in the same world we are in which is pretty pathetic, so I’m willing to give it a try. Let’s assemble a group of philosophers and create some simple and fun videos and books for young children that raises these questions. If Walt could do it making us believe fiction was reality, why can we guide children back to where reality is nonfiction and magical illusions revealed can be viewed for their creativity and artistry but recognized that they are not real.

Don

Gentleman, I want to thank you for the books you have written and for sharing your thoughts. Next month we will have another engaging round table discussion about philosophy and you. Good day.