Friend, this is a powerful and brave essay that speaks truth to the power of modern analytic philosophy. I’d love to share some of my writing with you on this very topic, and I’d love to feature this post in an upcoming post of my own. As someone with training in the field but now “unaffiliated” I appreciate how powerful your words are. Thank you for a terrific post!
Hell, I subscribed thinking I was reading the musings of a credentialed philosopher and come to find out it’s just the ramblings of a lowly street thinker. I want my money back.
Thank you for this, Mike. The practice of philosophy, of learning to think critically, to question our own ideas, to discuss and debate, is so crucial for all of us in society. It's really such a gift of philosophy, to be able to do this, and to do it with community, to have a safe space to question and to search. It's not something we learn in the US as a standard, unlike other countries (like Portugal, for example) where taking philosophy is required for everyone. I think you were on the debate team when you were in school (or did I totally dream that up?). In any case, you have studied thinking and how to do it critically and you have read and continue to read philosophical work, and that sort of constant questioning, even while taking a stance and offering evidence for it, is the real practice of philosophy, and why it is so important that as many as possible are practicing philosophy on whatever level is real for them. Academic philosophy is wonderful in that it trains us how to do this, but it only matters as much as whatever we do it towards. It is something philosophers would want the whole world to do right now, I think, as the very heart and life of the word 'philosophy' makes clear...love of wisdom, and wisdom as what we are creating together here as we learn how to handle the complexities of love, which is quite a challenge
I have no academic experience with philosophy and my resulting poor understanding all the philosophical work that's gone before and my failure in many attempts to remedy that deficit on my own led me to just start writing up my ideas. It's way more fun than trying to figure out what the jargon about past jargon about past jargon is about. And I expect what I call "my stuff" will be soon joining the soil like many academics'.
Meant to also say that the first thought that came to mind while enjoying your piece was the podcast, “Philosophize This” with Stephen West, one of our most accessible street philosophers - who was orphaned at a young age, listened to audio books on philosophy while working as a grocery stocker, and who never earned even a high school degree…
Hear hear! It's because academic philosophers are mostly talking among themselves in seminar rooms that the ranks of philosophy majors are dwindling. Thanks for reminding us that it's never been more relevant, or sorely needed.
Friend, this is a powerful and brave essay that speaks truth to the power of modern analytic philosophy. I’d love to share some of my writing with you on this very topic, and I’d love to feature this post in an upcoming post of my own. As someone with training in the field but now “unaffiliated” I appreciate how powerful your words are. Thank you for a terrific post!
Hell, I subscribed thinking I was reading the musings of a credentialed philosopher and come to find out it’s just the ramblings of a lowly street thinker. I want my money back.
Just kidding! Keep up the good work.
Thank you for this, Mike. The practice of philosophy, of learning to think critically, to question our own ideas, to discuss and debate, is so crucial for all of us in society. It's really such a gift of philosophy, to be able to do this, and to do it with community, to have a safe space to question and to search. It's not something we learn in the US as a standard, unlike other countries (like Portugal, for example) where taking philosophy is required for everyone. I think you were on the debate team when you were in school (or did I totally dream that up?). In any case, you have studied thinking and how to do it critically and you have read and continue to read philosophical work, and that sort of constant questioning, even while taking a stance and offering evidence for it, is the real practice of philosophy, and why it is so important that as many as possible are practicing philosophy on whatever level is real for them. Academic philosophy is wonderful in that it trains us how to do this, but it only matters as much as whatever we do it towards. It is something philosophers would want the whole world to do right now, I think, as the very heart and life of the word 'philosophy' makes clear...love of wisdom, and wisdom as what we are creating together here as we learn how to handle the complexities of love, which is quite a challenge
I have no academic experience with philosophy and my resulting poor understanding all the philosophical work that's gone before and my failure in many attempts to remedy that deficit on my own led me to just start writing up my ideas. It's way more fun than trying to figure out what the jargon about past jargon about past jargon is about. And I expect what I call "my stuff" will be soon joining the soil like many academics'.
whew; multiple broadsides to the nay sayers.
Meant to also say that the first thought that came to mind while enjoying your piece was the podcast, “Philosophize This” with Stephen West, one of our most accessible street philosophers - who was orphaned at a young age, listened to audio books on philosophy while working as a grocery stocker, and who never earned even a high school degree…
Beautifully written and eminently intelligent piece, Mike.
My father was a philosopher. However, working in academia, his range was restricted. Keep philosophy free!
Hear hear! It's because academic philosophers are mostly talking among themselves in seminar rooms that the ranks of philosophy majors are dwindling. Thanks for reminding us that it's never been more relevant, or sorely needed.