Hipstersand Hippies and hegel, oh my!
King's Community
As of late, Chapters has become a place I would rather avoid, given the number of suburban new age Starbucks affectionados. During my last visit, as I searched for meaningful literature amongst 50 Shades of Whatever, I spotted alittle book entitled ‘The Five Minute Philosopher’. It contains eighty five minute answers to eighty allegedy unanswerable questions. An example: ‘does the planet have a future?’ Scientifically, no. The sun will one day engulf our planet. Not that it matters much, a sour species will either be long dead or long gone by the time that happens.
People tend to confuse philosophy with platitudes or clichés. Philosophy is not sitting around, muttering ‘change comes only from within’.Platitudes and homilies are the fare of marijuana-smoking hippies. Such catchphrases are, in other words, useless. They serve only to make people feel as though they are thinking on a higher level,without actually forcing them to think at all.
Academic philosophy, on the other hand, is the often pretentious and frequently inaccessible ramblings of old men obsessed with dead Germans. There is undeniably some value in the study of our intellectual history; it is sometimes difficult, however, to apply it to modern times. Rather than their ideas, it is their patterns and style of thought that are important. The true advantage of study philosophy is to learn to think for yourself.
Aspiring philosophers need to find a place in the age of discovery that is being ushered in by new waves of interest in subjects like physics, cosmology, and evolutionary biology. All of these disciplines are essentially searching for the same thing: a place for humanity in this universe. Philosophy can help, but not when it comprises, for the general public, nothing but cliched sayings. It seems to belittle practical use when all philosophy represents for academics is the search for original interpretations of old texts. Philosophy can bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences by interpreting the data supplied by the sciences without their empirical bias, andwithout the spiritual bias of art.
Philosophy does not belong in the arts and humanities, nor does it belong in the sciences. It is the foundation of both. Study it.
Philosophy does not belong in the arts and humanities, nor does it belong in the sciences. It is the foundation of both. Study it.
Clark Teeple is in his fourth year of philosophy. This is his second contribution to the Regis this month.
