A Philosopher’s Toolbox
Practical Philosophy must be lived. It is not sufficient to pontificate in a classroom about what wisdom is.
Written by Carl Brauhart
Philosophy is literally the “love of wisdom”, but what is wisdom? It can be well defined as “the knowledge a person requires to enable life to be true and happy” It is not specialist knowledge that an architect or a doctor requires for their job, and it is certainly not the preserve of intellectuals who study philosophy in universities. The knowledge referred to is the general knowledge that all citizens require if they are to reach their full potential in life. For the first time in history, the common man has access to knowledge from cultures across the globe and across the centuries. The depth and breadth of this resource is dazzling, but the works of some great minds stand apart for special consideration. Their words are recognised as wise across cultural barriers, and their ideas have stood the test of time. The “words of the wise” are an invaluable resource if one wishes to probe into the fundamental questions surrounding the living of a good and happy life, and this endeavour will be especially fruitful if it is conducted in good company. The words of the wise may come from any age and any tradition or religion. The only test of their veracity is Reason.
Practical Philosophy must be lived. It is not sufficient to pontificate in a classroom about what wisdom is. To this end, a toolbox of skills can be assembled that are invaluable to leading a good and happy life. The essentials of a Practical Philosophy Toolbox are:
1. Reason. Reason is the ultimate authority in philosophy and it is a tool available to all. It does not reside in our discursive mind (that part of our mind that communicates to us in words). The discursive mind simply reports what our intellect (our reason) has to say. Reason operates reliably when the mind is calm, but not so well at other times. It can be helpful to have an internal conversation to weigh up the pros and cons of a situation, but the true work of reason is done later when we fall still. If reason is applied from a basis of stillness, the decision that we arrive at afterwards is generally the correct one.
2. Recognising the true seat of happiness. Happiness lies within. This is a famous statement, but ever more profound the deeper one delves into it. Modern life encourages us to seek happiness in a long list of external pleasures including food, sex, entertainment, clothes, travel, and gossip. However, the Greek philosopher Epicurus said that after our needs for shelter, food, and clothing have been satisfied, our three basic needs are freedom, thought, and friendship. It is on this basis that Alain de Botton argues that when we buy the latest four-wheel drive it is freedom that we seek, that the appeal of the luxury holiday resort is time to reflect, and that any number of alcohol commercials are exploiting our desire for friendship. All too often we end up with the four-wheel drive, the luxury holiday, and some alcohol, but miss out on freedom, thought, and friendship. Our happiness is innate and is satisfied by very simple things. Against all logic we so often seek it elsewhere.
3. Detachment. One of the reasons that we seek happiness in the wrong places is the concept of attachment. We attach ourselves to ideas about all sorts of things, such as what my job is, what car I must have, my minimum standard of housing and what I must have in that house, what I want other people to think about me, how my child must behave, and that I must get that seat on that plane. A job can be a source of great satisfaction, but once it is important, for example, that I am a principal geologist and I must be well regarded by my peers, I have greatly lessened my capacity to simply enjoy the role of being a geologist. Similarly with money, wealth in itself is no problem, but it burdens our soul if we fear losing it tomorrow, because, if that is the case, we are no longer truly free to enjoy it. The key is to know that it would be unpleasant to lose our wealth, but that it would be perfectly possible to remain happy if this happened. Detachment is not a nonchalant attitude to my job, my money, my house, or my child; it is simply the freedom to play my role properly by stripping away unnecessary and illogical pressures that I created without thinking things through properly.
4. Stillness. Stillness of mind is essential before embarking on, and at the completion of any task. A day in the life of somebody who has no stillness can be likened to a paragraph of text without punctuation. No full stops, no commas, not even any spaces between the words. Every activity blurs into the next and no time is taken to recharge the mind and body. Is it any wonder that “modern man” collapses with exhaustion at the end of a busy day? Exercises in stillness are one of the critical disciplines taught by the School of Practical Philosophy, the pillars of which are morning and evening meditation. Being alert and relaxed is a rare state for many people. They have two gears, awake and in a frenzy of activity, or relaxed but daydreaming. Finding and making regular use of third gear is one of the keys to living a good and happy life.
5. Being Present. The mind is recognised as a tremendously powerful tool if used correctly, but it is also recognised that the untrained mind is not always our faithful servant. It drifts into the future, where it generates anxiety about events that may never happen and that we can commonly do nothing about, or it revisits the past, dwelling on memories from which there is nothing left to learn. Contemporary writers have also emphasised the critical importance of being in the present moment, and paying attention to our five senses as much as possible. Abstract thought is very powerful when we have a job to do, but allowing the discursive mind to dominate at other times is unhelpful. Listen to your discursive mind for half an hour if you think that yours is not particularly active! Incidentally, attention to the present moment is one of the keys to a still mind. An unsettled mind is always in the past or the future.
6. Dialectic discussion. In all human relationships, discussions are either rhetorical, where people hold a position and argue their case, or dialectic, where the truth of a matter is all that counts and everyone’s efforts are directed at finding that truth. Almost all modern discussions are largely or completely rhetorical and this is hardly surprising given that one must forgo any attachment to truly engage in a dialectic discussion. Witness our adversarial legal and political systems in Australia (never mind that they are among the best of their kind in the world). They are rhetorical environments to the core. In general life, for almost everybody, their automatic reaction when faced with a difference of opinion is to engage in rhetoric. If we have a position, our instinct is to defend it. It takes courage and a sense of detachment to surrender one’s opinion to the dialectic process. Science was founded by the Greeks on dialectic principles spelt out in the scientific and Socratic methods, but in modern science much rhetoric must be waded through before the scientific method can truly be applied and a new provisional truth arrived at.
Spirituality. Spiritual enquiry is an inevitable extension of philosophy. All rational philosophical enquiries into such questions as “What is my true nature?” “What is it to be truly happy?” and “What is the mind?” lead to the domain of spirituality sooner or later. The reason is simple. These questions probe into the force that animates us. Words like “soul” or “spirit” are used to try and convey this reality, but it is a quality that can only be experienced. We cannot measure the mass of a memory, or the length of our feeling of love for a child. Confusion commonly arises at this point because a reality that cannot be captured adequately in words, or described in a three dimensional material reference frame lies outside of the bounds of science. Therefore, many people reject spirit as unknowable, or worse, non-existent. This is a great pity because the quality of spirit is not beyond the scope of logic and reason, if approached from a philosophical frame of reference. Counter to Western religious traditions, however, the journey to God is not outward in the direction of heaven, but inwards. The force that animates us is “God” and it lies within us. It is us.
The importance of where the seat of spiritual reality is sought cannot be overstated. There are three mutually exclusive possibilities; it lies within us (non-theism), it is external to us (theism), or does not exist at all (atheism). That is the first and fundamental division upon which the validity of any spiritual code stands or falls. An allied topic of investigation is into the true nature of consciousness. Is consciousness an, as yet, poorly understood complex physio-chemical property, as atheism would contend; or is it something quite separate to physical reality, as indicated by non-theism? Clearly, I strongly favour non-theism. The case for theism has been dismantled both scientifically and theologically beyond all reasonable doubt. Atheism, on the other hand investigates consciousness through the prism of scientific enquiry, where many of its effects can be documented, but, thus far, scientific enquiry has spectacularly failed to provide satisfactory answers as to what consciousness really is.
Every citizen should be provided with the framework to consider these three possibilities and then make informed spiritual choices for themselves. It is right and proper that everyone makes this decision independently. The role of education should simply be to inform them of what the possibilities are. In the main, society has not matured sufficiently to undertake this profoundly important task, but it does appear to be moving in the right direction.
Fusion. Psychology, philosophy, and spirituality fuse together around such ideas as stillness, the paramount importance of the present moment, and the true seat of happiness. Cognitive behaviour therapy encourages us to apply reason to our thought processes, and use those processes that are constructive. Fretting about the future and regretting past mistakes are recognised as cognitive distortions; unhelpful thoughts that serve no purpose. Attention to the present moment and what can be done now are presented as the preferable alternative. Above all, a relaxed and still frame of mind is vital to be able to pursue the difficult task of rejecting old ways and replacing them with better alternatives.
The key messages of practical philosophy are identical. By rejecting the clutter of the untrained discursive mind, and embracing the gift of stillness to help us perform life’s tasks, we become aware of the true seat of happiness. It lies within, and does not depend on circumstances in the external world.
