Philosophers Explain Philosophy

I stumbled onto a podcast called Philosophy Bites, and the topic of inquiry was What is Philosophy. Intrigued, I clicked and listened.

The episode was a compilation of some of the best philosophers, responding to the question, “What is philosophy,” and these were some of their answers:

“Most simply put it’s about making sense of all this… We find ourselves in a world that we haven’t chosen. There are all sorts of possible ways of interpreting it and finding meaning in the world and in the lives that we live. So philosophy is about making sense of that situation that we find ourselves in.”

~Clare Carlisle

This was my favorite response because it is so raw. Clare captures the essence of existence — finding ourselves here, and making sense of it.

I think it’s thinking fundamentally clearly and well about the nature of reality and our place in it, so as to understand better what goes on around us, and what our contribution is to that reality, and its effect on us.”

~ Barry Smith

This is a practical response. If you don’t understand what goes on around you, how you can contribute? Where does that leave you?

No place I want to be. That’s for sure.

[A philosopher] is a moral entrepreneur. It’s a nice image. It’s somebody who creates new ways of evaluating things — what’s important, what’s worthwhile — that changes how an entire culture or an entire people understand those things.”

~ Brian Leiter

Philosophers ask questions that aren’t apparent. They ask questions that almost seem too simple and obvious…yet if/when they are answered, they shine light on truths that have the power to change the way we think, act, and live.

— Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, the rest of the Stoics, Buddhists, Taoists, etc. —

Lives today are different because of the questions these people asked, and because of the conclusions they came to.

Philosophy is thinking hard about the most difficult problems that there are. And you might think scientists do that too, but there’s a certain kind of question whose difficulty can’t be resolved by getting more empirical evidence. It requires an untangling of presuppositions: figuring out that our thinking is being driven by ideas we didn’t even realize that we had. And that’s what philosophy is.”

~ David Papineau

Philosophy is the definition of thinking outside of the box. It’s like you’re NEO from The Matrix. Philosophers choose the red pill everyday by way of their inquiry. They want to know, and though they recognize that they might never fully know, the possibility is enough.

It’s like conquistadors setting out on a quest with the potential of finding gold — the potential is so valuable, it’s a no-brainer.