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heretical postscript
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Horace Walpole (1769)
heretical postscript
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I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept. |
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The four studies gathered here are connected with both scientific curiosity and belief that disobedience is a virtue. Toying with the truths and ‘The Truths’, borrowing from other sciences the methods unusual for philosophical inquiry, applying philosophical discourse to 'mundane' themes ... and thereby provoking the worldviews of professional authorities, it’s award by itself.
I believe one can’t overstate the warnings of Milgram's (1974) obedience studies and Zimbardo's (2012) Stanford Prison trial. Obedience to authority creates a framework for drawing out the worst behaviors from an individual. If social structure abuses this morale’s blind spot, then the militant spirit and the conflict regularly give birth to suffering in the name of obedience to the orders given far away from the frontlines (Zimbardo 2009). Disobedience, one should not forget, that is what makes a third of Milgram's respondents the group you should look upon.
The philosophical community, I apologize for tautology, is also a community. It suffers from the same afflictions as any other: we suffer from the mistakes of group think, we are jealously guarding our own holies. Questioning them results in spontaneous anger (Collins 2002, 47). This community is also a complex network composed of individuals and concepts they deal with. As such, it can be opened to other specialized scientists' networks or interlinked within itself with a small number of links to the outside.
In the first case, the profession is sensitive of, and open to changes coming from other sciences, whether it is new paradigms or redefining the core professional issues. My firm conviction is that in this case only there is a future for philosophy. To advocate the traditional argument of how all the sciences originated in philosophy, or how they confluence at it at some point, speaks more about the perception of our own grandeur than the reputation the profession enjoys in reality. So recent discussions about the significance of the bibliometry, or emphasis on the STEM branch versus socio-humanistic education can be a welcome challenge, not a threat. A good argument for openness is the fact that a traditional institution such as the Papal Lateran University comes out with a proposal for undergraduate study on computer science and philosophy (Basti 2017).
If we decide for the second approach, one of separated dense network, we are left with filigree work on traditional issues, and scientific isolationism. In that case, as much as we are dealing with exalted intellectual issues, we will be consumed in a kind of glass beads game (Hesse 1979), and this will further deepen cognitive dissonance and perception of philosophy as a fundamentally non-applicable discipline. As we are told by the results of complex network analysis (Barabasi 2002), it is possible to have a intensely linked island of specialization, one isolated from the continent and condemned to slowly die out.
I am convinced that we can greatly demonstrate the importance of philosophy for every area of intellectual activity, whether it's natural science or popular culture, the implications of new technologies for society and human identity, or the solution of everyday life problems. New knowledge creates the expansion of existing conceptual networks or forces us to form completely new ones. This is a well-known process in philosophy, when in XIX. st. there was an explosion of philosophies of X, following a similar process in the production of natural sciences. Today, this process continues through directions from bioethics to information ethics, philosophy of information, philosophy and ethics of artificial intelligence - the profession continually shows the ability of healthy adaptation. My comment goes in the direction of a greater emphasis on proactive instead of reactive action, which can be achieved by innovation in the education process: a intentional institutionalized connection with the STEM area, and digital humanities, providing greater emphasis on problematic and cooperative than on the historical... Application of new knowledge and technology is the process of learning where to place them in a meaningful scheme of life. Failure to take the advantage of a philosophy that has been for more than 25 centuries repository of both problems, and the attempts of their solutions means wasting resources. Philosophy should be presented primarily as a repository of solutions, rather than as a mere textbook from the history of thought development that follows the one and only possible path.
The popularization of philosophy through the themes of popular culture, the vocabulary of the same popular culture (see the series of books on philosophy and pop culture of prominent publishers such as Blackwell or Open Court) is just one approach. The philosophy of children, as I may judge by my own modest experience, apart from the transfer of emotional energy (Collins 2002, 14) and the enthusiasm that comes only in work with children, is perhaps the most important lesson for the philosophers themselves - to tailor their own expression to the audience, to be simple but not to simplify and – to give up the futile refuge of the jargon. I'll risk a point on the crackpot scale (Baez 1998) and mention that if you cannot explain something to your own grandma, then you do not really understand it. [1] Philosophical counseling reminds us of the original function of philosophy as a medicine for the soul rather than the intellectual larpurlatism. The history of philosophy really resembles the history of renunciation of applicability (Raabe 2001, 5) and guilty of it is solely on ourselves. Psychology and psychotherapy have occupied that domain, strengthened by the confirmation of clinical studies, but also adopted some philosophical assumptions and techniques, which are easily recognized in therapeutic directions such as May's (1980) existential therapy, Ellis’ (2004, Dumont and Corsini 2004) rational emotional behavioral therapy, Rogers (1985) client centered therapy, to mention just the most famous of over more than 400 recognized psychotherapies (Capuzzi & Gross, 1999; Jones and Butman, 1991; Sharf, 1995), and a number of psychotherapies, 2000).
In the end, let's take a risk, and as far as Glasser's question is concerned, "What do you plan to do today?" [2] at first it seems misplaced, let’s learn that control is ours alone. Walpole's words tell us the same thing, and we know what's in the job description.
[1] Baez crackpot index offers simple calculation of one's potential revolutionary contribution to the physics. For each mention of Einstein, Hawking or Feinmann add five points. It's interesting to note that forementioned statement is attributed to all Einstein, Feinmann, Rutherford, and Hilbert (Wikiquote contributors 2017).
[2] That's the question he asked one patient at onkology dept. and patient's reaction indicated he could not imagine inquiry more stupid. After some time he accepted the concept of control theory and provided himself with more well-being during his hospital stay (Glasser 1999).