The Untidy Business of Thinking - Part 4: The Philosopher: A Terrible Explosive

The Untidy Business of Thinking - Part 4: The Philosopher: A Terrible Explosive

Philosophy is sometimes criticized as too dangerous. Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, called a philosopher “a terrible explosive from which nothing is safe”. This view recognizes that the way people think profoundly alters the world. How lots of people think changes things for nearly everyone. This criticism is far more sensible than claiming philosophy is ineffectual.

The Shock of Revelation

Philosophy is extremely difficult to avoid, even with a conscious effort to reject it. An individual who claims philosophy is useless must measure it against a previously accepted value system. Explaining why philosophy is useless requires talking about humanity’s capacity to deal with complex questions. That person immediately becomes a skeptical voice within the field of philosophy. This skeptical tradition has always existed, spanning from the earliest times to the present day.

Profound differences emerge when fundamental philosophical questions are addressed. Imagine a world convinced that humans cannot answer questions about God’s existence; all inhabitants would become religious agnostics. Consider if no one believed there was a good answer legitimating the political authority states habitually exercise. Such intellectual shifts create vast, undeniable differences in civilization.

Changing the Course of Civilization

Lasting philosophy usually results from deeply felt beliefs or pressing motivations. Thinkers rarely seek truth purely for its own sake. Classical Indian philosophy arose from the internal struggle for intellectual supremacy between Hindu schools and Buddhists. Thomas Hobbes’s famous political theory emerged following the English Civil War. René Descartes wanted medieval views, rooted nearly two thousand years back, to move aside for a modern conception of science.

These thinkers did not merely solve minor puzzles; they entered debate aiming to change the course of civilization. Philosophy began with humanity’s biggest shock: the profound crisis of acquiring self-awareness. Our ancestors were animals acting purely on instinct. They acquired the capacity to ask why things happen and reflect on their own actions.

This awareness introduced options and mysteries, transforming an unquestioning life into one full of choices. Philosophy is the sound of humanity trying to recover from this crisis. This perspective defends philosophy against the claim that it is only a narrow intellectual game. The adventure involves trying to recover our vertical footing, even if we are unsure where the vertical is.

The Untidy Residual

Philosophy can seem strange or abstruse to new readers. This peculiarity occurs because good philosophy embodies a distinct worldview or set of values. If a philosophy’s outlook does not match a person’s existing, unreflective views, the new ideas must seem very peculiar. Good philosophy expands imagination by presenting alien concepts.

The scope of philosophy has varied considerably throughout history. Recently, it became both narrowly defined and broadly meaningless. Its scope narrows when thriving disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, and psychology, separate from it. Philosophy tends to be left in charge of those difficult inquiries. These inquiries include the questions we are unsure how best to formulate or set about answering.

The natural assumption that philosophy equals what university departments teach can be restrictive and misleading. However, philosophical themes are recurrent, spanning centuries and continents. For example, links exist across 2,000 years between Epicurus and Mill, Plato and Hobbes. Understanding philosophy accumulates quickly by recognizing these recurrent themes and variations.