Why Philosophy Is A Virus
They tell me philosophy is dead — but they don’t understand it was never alive.
Philosophy is what you study if you want to be unpopular.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Socrates, perhaps the first great public philosopher, annoyed the great and good of ancient Athens to such a degree, they had him executed. It turns out that people rarely appreciate it when you break apart their foundational beliefs and point to the inconsistencies. Who knew?
I’m cool with it, though. My students laugh when I talk to them about this. They understand that philosophy is training them to take an instinctive critical attitude towards new ideas, to look for flaws in arguments first and only accept them if they withstand rigorous scrutiny. I call it being an attack-dog of the mind. Other people have used very different language.
The problem is that it’s difficult to switch this attitude off and people take it personally when you examine the weaknesses of their position before the strengths. If I went to any dinner parties (which I don’t), I’d be terrible at them.
I think part of the problem is that many see philosophers as overly critical, whilst not really adding anything to contemporary discourse. Biologist and renowned sceptic Richard Dawkins said as much in a recent…
