The Philosophy of Philosophy
July 29th, 2008 | by Matthew Smith |If Philosophy is the art of asking “Why?” then the first natural question to ask when starting to study the field is “Why?” Why study Philosophy?
Our first weeks readings in my course have offered some reasons for studying philosophy. Both of the authors felt the need to defend philosophy from the old it’s a useless waste of time argument. Interestingly, they didn’t exactly disagree with this assertion. Philosophy, unlike the other sciences has no direct tangible outputs. On the other hand, you could argue that all of science is an output of philosophy because one of the first thing that happens when philosophy discovers that something might be useful is that it is spun off to form a new branch of science.
For example, imagine the first philosophers asking what makes a tree different from a rock or a person. If you cut them into ever smaller pieces do we eventually end up with common building blocks or are they a homogenous substance that cannot be separated into component parts? Philosophers probably argued over this for hundreds of years and the science of chemistry was born and later on particle physics.
But both authors also agree that philosophy is more importantly highly beneficial to the practitioner for the sake of opening one’s mind, learning the skill of being able to assimilate things that are of the “other” and becoming aware of what makes up your self and all of the assumptions that are inherited into our selves from our culture. In other words the practice of philosophy equips one with valuable thinking skills but also the ability to see beyond our immediate circumstances into a wider context.
Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions … but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. (Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy”, 12)
References:
John Perry, “On the Study of Philosophy” in Introduction to Philosophy, 1-6.
Bertrand Russell “The Value of Philosophy” in Introduction to Philosophy, 9-12.
Perry, J. and M. Bratman (eds). Introduction to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
2 Responses to “The Philosophy of Philosophy”
By Andrew on Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
But to quote Marx, “Philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways; the thing is to change it.”
That is to say, the reason to study philosophy is to understand the world so that you can then change the world.
By Matthew Smith on Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
Heh, well I admit I am far less ambitious than Marx. I will be content with changing my world at least… Having been to my second lecture, I’m realising that this introductory course is hardly going to touch the sides.