The Need to Philosophize
Philosophy has had an important, if not the most important, role in history. Wherever there is to be found a new invention, a new discovery, a new revolution, philosophy is to be found guiding it. In Athens, it was found in Pericles, in Socrates and Plato, and Aristotle. In China, Confucius and Lao Tzu followed it in order to find how to live a good life. For the Buddha, it gave him the means to reach Nirvana; for Jesus, the means to teach and spread love. From the founding of America to the French Revolution, to the Civil war and both World Wars, all the way to the present day, philosophy has made its impact everywhere.
And yet, as time has gone on, the role of philosophy in our lives and in society has been diminishing. It is not from the simple lack of philosophers: there are still a great many, writing and lecturing and conversing, with some even making appearances on cable news and TV or in movies, and others appearing in many a YouTube video. It seems as though we have an overflow of philosophers in this day and age.
The problem is twofold: Firstly, philosophy has become trapped behind academia, or more specifically, the spirit of academia. What does this spirit consist of? Unlike the scholarly spirit of questioning ideas, the academic spirit consists of merely “proving” ideas. And how does one “prove” these ideas? Simply, focus on those facts, data, or other ideas that support the thesis; do not focus on the contradicting statements or ideas. This spirit comes from the foolishness of intelligence, the boastful pride in oneself, the idea that one knows more, and is thus better, than others. Simply put, it is pride in one’s own ignorance of other’s ideas.(1)
Secondly, and feeding from the first, is how we receive philosophy: instead of contemplating and thinking on what these philosophers say, for the most part we consume it nonchalantly, uncritically, unthinking. The packaging of such info into slogans or sound bites and small clips used either to denounce or praise the subject only worsens such a problem, commodifying thinking, and thus degrading it to some product of Capitalism to be taken in without reflection.
This tendency, to become uncritical, to not question, and to almost become animalistic in our hate for another’s opinion, or sheep-like in our acceptance of ideas from ourselves or our “people”, leads ultimately to the destruction and dissolution of rationality itself. And what comes after this destruction? The tribalistic and brutish practice of demagoguery, of populism, of that ultimate beast and evil ideology: Fascism. Thus will the downfall of man come, at the same time that Fascism becomes not only a political norm, but the norm of how we think, the norm of our soul.
Such uncritical consumption also robs us of what these thinkers were trying to do in the first place: to make us think. Philosophy doesn’t want us to blindly follow one thing or to blindly denounce another; it doesn’t want us to merely self-validate our own ideas; it wants us to question, to be curious. It wants us to ask, “why is the world what it is? What made it that way?” as well as deeper questions of, “what is meaning? What is truth? What is right?”
The essence of philosophy, in its questioning and curiosity, is thus a crucial characteristic of any revolutionary movement. Karl Marx may have claimed that, “Philosophers have merely interpreted the world in different ways; but the point is to change it”(2), but it would be near impossible to change the world if philosophy had not given us the gift of interpreting it (and being able to question those interpretations) in the first place. Without questions, there would be no such thing as Revolution.
Just as philosophy has lost its esteemed place in contemporary society, so can it be rejected in such movements, and replaced with a more dangerous and insidious object: ideology. While philosophy heeds people to think, ideology tells them to only listen; while philosophy asks people to question; ideology demands them to follow; while philosophy offers the light of doubt to shine the road to enlightenment, ideology keeps all under its power under the shadow of prejudice and ignorance, while fooling them into thinking they absolutely know what is true or right or good. We have seen where such a turn has led movements: from the revolutionary fervor of freedom and justice to the chains of totalitarianism and fear.(3)
In regards to the current Liberty Movement, the disease of dogma and ideology has already started making itself at home. The prejudices and biases have taken control of people, making them blind on who their enemies and allies actually are. They have begun cultivating the “little virtues”, letting small-mindedness and trivial disagreements poison their minds and hearts. In that way, the movement will become even less than a mere shadow of itself: it will become an abomination, of hate and fear, that will consume and destroy everything in its path, whether physically or spiritually.(4)
When looking back at philosophy’s history, it is strange that a movement with freedom and liberty at its core would reject philosophy: it is filled with that questioning of established authority that is central and parallel to all thinking on freedom. From the ancient thinking of Socrates, to the challenging of the Church by Luther; to the liberal thinking of Locke and Paine, to the skepticism of Voltaire and Hume, to the musings of Marx, Proudhon, Bakunin, Thoreau, Spooner, Douglas, or even in recent times King, X, Dubois, Chomsky, Konkin, Rothbard, Hess, the list goes on and on and on! Yet still we see ideology begin to choke out any semblance of self questioning and reflection, and with it any sort of philosophizing, out of the movement, making its soul sick.
The only solution to this problem, the only way to exorcise this demon decaying the minds and souls of the people, is to bring back that practice which shines the path to wisdom: philosophy, and the act of philosophizing. We must, in essence, become like children again: open to learn, curious and questioning, as well as having an open mind and big heart. In that way, we shall be able to open ourselves up to the world, learn from it, as well as learn those great virtues espoused by our greatest thinkers and by all the stories we tell our children.
It will not be easy. We are guided by our emotions most of the time; it is what has caused us to be in this problem in the first place. But we are also guided by our thirst for knowledge; and through this can we make our way back to the path of philosophy. With that saving grace, we are able to bring back some sanity in a mad world.
What is the best way to bring people back? Very simply, it is the same way virtue can be taught: through example. We must become guides, leading through actions, and exemplifying that open-mind and questioning attitude. Through this as well we help bring philosophy back down to our own life: while the academy still honors philosophy, it has made it so alien and abstract that it has helped in kicking it off its pedestal in contemporary society. We must return philosophy back to our lives, whether it’s wondering about what makes our actions right or simply reflecting on an apricot cocktail. Either way, we must bring back philosophizing by philosophizing. And others will follow our example.
It will take time and patience and lots of work, but if we wish to restore the movement back to its roots, to truly radicalize it by bringing back its fundamental principles, then we must, with all our power, bring philosophy back to the center. We are left at the edge, and must make our choice of either/or: to embrace life, to be open, to philosophize and question, to love each other; or to shut ourselves in, to hate, to unquestioningly follow or despise, and thus, to reject life in totality. It is a matter of life or death; but it is our choice in totality, non the less.
- It does not help any more that such people, in the ivory towers of academia, create a good scapegoat and stereotype of philosophy for those populists and demagogues who are as much under this spirit of pride as they are.
- Karl Marx, “These on Feuerbach”, Thesis 11
- One need only look to the French Revolution or Russian Revolution and its aftermaths as examples of such devolution.
- Such an abomination is well known by its name as stated earlier: Fascism. I would recommend reading Rob Rieman’s “To Fight Against This Age” for a more detailed overlook, though Michela Murgia’s “How To Be A Fascist: A Manual” is also a good dissection of Fascism, while Patricia Roberts-Miller explains Fascism’s sister movement, Demagoguery.
