Midterm Blogpost, Gavin Brown
Gavin: I've been posed a 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? I will tell you all what I think and you can give me your opinions on it and how it incorporates into your own personal philosophy. Alright?
Julian Baggini: Sounds good.
Nigel Warburton: Sure.
Gavin: I'll answer first. I do think philosophy can help people learn to respect each other. Philosophy in my opinion is all about formulating an opinion on something or an idea and sharing it with others so that it can be heard, understood, and criticized. If everyone is philosophizing, that means we are all being heard and understood. It is the perfect form of communication. The idea of philosophy is a perfect one, however like all things, it can not be maintained to that standard. Not everyone will understand what someone might say and not everyone are great listeners. Some of us are selfish and only want to be heard and not listen. True philosophers would strive to listen before being heard. Philosophy is something everyone should strive for so that they can think on their own while at the same time hearing and interpreting other's ideas and possibly conforming their own to better ones. This being said, philosophy can not find truth. What I mean to say is that with many of these difficult concepts and ideas, there is often not a single truth. If there was I would argue there's not much philosophizing taking place. It's all about one's opinion of the world around them. It's more about the search for the truth than it is the finding of the truth. Philosophy is not something that transcends one's race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, etc., it is shaped by it. One's perception of the world can be greatly affected by the stated factors. It only makes sense that it would also affect one's philosophy. At the end of the day, philosophy is not about everyone agreeing on one basic truth, but trying to understand other's opinions and accepting that we are all different and that's okay.
Julian Baggini: I agree Gavin, especially with that last part. As I said in my book, "How the World Thinks", "Harmony cannot be achieved if all differences are eradicated or if they are so marked as to make common purpose impossible"(p.323). Philosophy should benefit everyone. Everybody's ideas are different and using all of them in harmony can help us move forward as a society.
Gavin: I really like the idea of everyone working together! What do you think Kurt?
Kurt Andersen: Speaking of society, I think those ideas are what made America so great! We all had different ideas or fantasies. It was the culmination of everyone's philosophy. It helped us move forward far ahead of other countries. Now everyone is talking and sharing their ideas, but nobody is listening. Instead of using our ideas to work together, we are working against one another and disregarding truth in the process. In my book, "Fantasyland", I describe how letting fantasy become reality throughout history is how America has gone haywire.
Gavin: Yeah, I agree. America has had problems with differentiating fantasy and truth. Let's hear from Nigel.
Nigel Warburton: Gavin, I've studied many philosophers and reviewed their history. It sounds like you align with Socrates. As I go over in the first chapter of my book, "A Little History of Philosophy" Socrates loved to ask questions. He was innately curious. This too means that he was openminded. Always open to new ideas. If one has questions, they must be willing to listen. From what you said, it seems like you are always open to listening to others and new ideas.
Gavin: I am! Listening is such an important skill that goes overlooked nowadays. It was so great hearing from you all! Thank you for your time.
"If everyone is philosophizing, that means we are all being heard and understood" - or at least being listened to, not ignored or disregarded, even if not entirely understood. (As Emerson said, "to be great is to be misunderstood"... and to be a philosopher, it would seem, is often to be misunderstood.) More importantly, if everyone philosophized then everyone would be thinking, and if everyone philosophized in good faith then everyone would be listening. And what a world that would be.
ReplyDelete"Everybody's ideas are different" - well, everybody's point of view is different. The pluralistic "philosophy of 'co'" holds that we need every point of view, if we're going to get a comprehensive picture of reality.