How and Why People Learn Philosophy

In a sense, philosophy is simply a singularly determined effort to think clearly. About many things. The nature of the world. How we should go about understanding that world. Right and wrong. In short, the things of ultimate importance.

Philosophers try to arrive at a clear understanding of such matters mainly through the careful, patient application of reason to the best available evidence. This tough-minded determination to ground convictions in logic and evidence alone is one of the main things that differentiates philosophy from religion, since virtually all religious questions are also addressed by philosophers.

Now, there's an interesting implication here: if philosophy is a disciplined attempt to think clearly about the things of ultimate importance, then a quick measure of the intellectual, moral, and cultural health of a society—in short, its sanity— can be had simply by looking at how it regards the cultivation of an understanding of philosophy.

Any reasonably affluent culture that sees an understanding of philosophy as a frill that butters no parsnips is a sick culture—one that, lacking an intellectual compass, will inevitably misplace its priorities, and that will lose whatever wisdom it may ever have possessed amidst a clutter of knowledge and a sea of greed.

By this measure America, at least, is a very sick society indeed. And as the most powerful nation on Earth, this has dangerous implications for the future of humanity.

American cultural conservatives, by and large Christians on the far Right, have laid the American spiritual illness at the doorstep of "liberalism" or Hollywood or, even more absurdly, "political correctness." This is— mostly—false. The fundamental problem with America is, rather, the toxic influence of the American business community, and the superficial, barren, and ecodestructive consumerist "culture" it has so carefully nurtured and to which most Americans have succumbed.

In the end the cure, the only possible cure, is—yes—philosophy.

Here's a pop quiz. Should we:

(A) Work in order to live, or

(B) Live in order to work?

If you answered (A), congratulations. You've got your priorities straight. However, if you answered (B), well, US president Calvin Coolidge would have liked you—a lot. As he famously said "the business of America is business."

But old Silent Cal got it wrong. The business of every just society is to create the conditions for a high quality of life for all of its citizens, not just its CEOs. Contrary to the hyper-mantra of commerce, a single-minded obsession with business and "free" markets just doesn't do that. In fact, when taken to an extreme (and in the US it is being taken to an ever more disastrous extreme), it's aggressively opposed to that aim. We provide some elaboration of these ideas elsewhere. For now, however, the point that we're trying to emphasize is that philosophy is the single best cure for a sick and superficial society.

Once we've developed a clear sense of our priorities, we see clearly that measuring the value of anything and everything by the single yardstick of profitability is a form of mental illness—or at least a case of seriously misplaced values. (Which is not at all to say that living penniless in Tibet is anything short of perilous.) We also find that, in practical terms, an obsession with "free" markets in fact leads to police states in the service of profit, and to such phenomena as sweatshops, where the only thing that comes close to being free is people's labor.

Well, then, how does one go about acquiring an understanding of philosophy (that is, getting clear about the things of ultimate importance)? By dint of mind-cracking effort? Hanging about with bearded gurus in smoky cafes?

That's one approach, perhaps, but it's certainly not necessary. While it's not always easy, philosophy isn't all rocket science either. Acquiring an understanding of philosophy is really a lot like acquiring an understanding of anything else. You find yourself a good mentor, and you start with the basics.

And, above all else, you should start with a clear understanding of why it's worth the bother—or, better yet, why it can actually be fun.

What's needed, then, is a good popularization. Fortunately, there are a few. Just follow the links beneath Silent Cal's Wisdom to Live By below.

• To find out more about all this subversiveness, go to: Philosophy: A Field Guide.
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