9 . Everything Else
I
include this section as a reminder that all other branches of knowledge
can be viewed as being within the purview of Philosophy. For example,
one of the ongoing debates here in the United States concerns the
question of whether or not Creation ought to be taught in schools along
with the scientific theory of Evolution. The view that Creation is just
as valid of a concept as the science of biology is a philosophical
view. In essence, the many proponents of that idea
assert: 1) the epistemological concept that science is an
imperfect vehicle for obtaining knowledge because science is subject to
being misled by false clues planted by God for reasons known only to
God, and as a consequence of this, the only true source of knowledge
comes from reading the Bible; 2) the metaphysical concept that God
is the "supreme truth," and that any scientific knowledge which is at
odds with the Bible must, of necessity, be erroneous; and 3) the
religious and ethical concept that it is very wrong to teach a
fundamentalist Christian child erroneous scientific knowledge which
goes against the religious training which the parents and church of
that child are trying desperately to have that child believe. If you
buy the metaphysical and epistemological assumptions, the conclusion is
inescapable. If you attack those philosophical assumptions, you are
asserting a religious prejudice.
So, even in mundane political
debates over the curriculum of our schools, it is not possible to
escape Philosophy. In point of fact, Philosophy is more basic than
that. Do you obey all of the laws imposed upon you by our society?
Whatever your answer is, it is an expression of your own sense of
ethics. Are there some forms of art and music that you like while there
are others you do not like? Those are expressions of your sense of
aesthetics. On any occasion, if you think a thought which an animal
would not think, you are thinking a thought which is grounded in
Philosophy. No matter what your aspirations in life might be, those
very aspirations are grounded in your own philosophy.
The truly sad part is that,
while this is clearly a universal truth, we no longer make any real
effort to teach Philosophy to our children. The only reason which I can
ascribe to this is that Philosophy makes our children independent of
the thoughts which we (as their elders) seek to impress upon them. If
we truly teach them to think and organize their thoughts for
themselves, we should not be surprised to see them discard many of the
thoughts which we ourselves hold dear, and which we have tried to pass
on to each of them as part of their education.
In essence, the failure to
teach Philosophy becomes a sort of tyranny over the minds of the young;
they cannot discard the value system which we impress upon them if we
do not give them the tools with which to empty their minds of the false
assumptions upon which that very value system is based. Out of our own
arrogance that our own beliefs are "right" for our children, we impose
those beliefs upon them without their informed consent, and fail to
even give them the tools with which to execute the consent form. It is
an unfortunate truth that this has been going on for as long as mankind
has been around.
Thus, while all people are
controlled by Philosophy, only a few will accidentally discover the
tools required for us to manipulate Philosophy and bend it to our own
will. The few of that few who then set out to systematize all of human
knowledge, and to then pass that system on to our young, are all among
the greatest philosophers of all time. It is truly unfortunate that the
vast scope of human knowledge has grown to such an extent that our view
of the "forest" of Philosophy has been lost because so many of the
"trees" of scientific knowledge block our view.
10 . A Philosophical Side Show
Any
serious study of Philosophy will invoke the names of many of the great
philosophers whose beliefs have been committed to paper and preserved
down through the mists of time. We can probably recognize many of these
great names due to our early schooling: Socrates,27 Plato,28 and Aristotle29 were among the great Greek philosophers. We may even have heard of Aquinas30 or Kant,31
but most likely cannot identify with any certainty what any of these
five are best known for, at least in a philosophical sense.
Spengler and Durant both
asserted that these philosophers come to the fore in response to the
needs of their particular times. In Will and Ariel Durants' 1968 book, The Lessons of History, Chapter XII, on page 93, they write:
". . . In ancient Greece the philosophers destroyed the old faith among the educated classes; in many nations of modern Europe the philosophers achieved similar results. Protagoras became Voltaire, Diogenes Rousseau, Democritus Hobbes, Plato Kant, Thrasymachus Nietzsche, Aristotle Spencer, Epicurus Diderot. In antiquity and modernity alike, analytical thought dissolved the religion that had buttressed the moral code. New religions came, but they were divorced from the ruling classes, and gave no service to the state. An age of weary skepticism and Epicureanism followed the triumph of rationalism over mythology in the last century before Christianity, and follows a similar victory today in the first century after Christianity."
The above is
a fairly definitive (not to mention, accurate) portrayal of where
Western Civilization stands today. There is no doubt that Spengler
would agree, as would Toynbee or any other serious historian of the
great breadth of History.
The importance of the above
assertion lies in the fact that the particular people who will assert
any particular philosophical point of view are fundamentally
irrelevant; it matters not whether we are listening to a speech by
Democritus or Hobbes. What matters is that someone (almost?) always
arises at any particular point in any given Culture or Civilization in
order to espouse the proper Philosophy of the times. It is for that
reason that Ayn Rand becomes the defining philosopher for the United
States during the middle of the twentieth century; it was because she
best espoused the views which were "destined"32
to be popular during that period of our history! Now that her time is
past, we are enabled to see the errors of her assertions, and a new
vista of philosophical inquiry opens for us. However, if we are not
careful, we will end up trudging down the same well-worn path used by
the Classical and Arab scholars before us. In other words, we may well
fail to break out of the pattern defined by Spengler, and it is my most
fundamental contention that we must discard that pattern and design a
new one to replace it.
This is the true meaning of
the term "philosophical side show," which I use as the title of this
segment. My main assertion is: a continuously evolving Philosophy is anti-survival; what we need is a process of continuous refining
of our basic ideas of philosophical principles in the same manner in
which we continuously refine our basic ideas for any science. Only in
this way can we arrest the continuous cycles of human Culture and
Civilization which Spengler predicts are the destiny of mankind.
Because Philosophy deals with
subject matter which is so lacking in concrete manifestations, it is
far too easy to discard the entirety of any given Philosophy because it
becomes apparent that one aspect of that Philosophy is clearly
erroneous. Thus, the "God-intoxicated" philosopher, Spinoza, has lost
influence after 1800, as God has equivalently lost influence in the
lives of mankind. But this should in no way imply that there is nothing
of value in the Philosophy of Spinoza merely because it is permeated
with the God-intoxication of Spinoza. In other words, Philosophy is not
merely a fashion which mankind puts on or takes off
according to the particular phase of the cycle of Culture and
Civilization in which they exist. That would be the case if we are to
give full credence to the cyclical theories of Spengler as an immutable
"destiny" for mankind.
Instead, as with the
development of all branches of science, Philosophy should be seen as an
evolution towards the end-goal of a "perfect" Philosophy which we
should instill in all children through their educational process. In
other words, Philosophy should not be an elective subject for only the
most motivated of abstract thinkers in a college environment, but
instead, Philosophy ought to be taught to our children as soon as they
have the intellectual capacity to begin to soak up the subject, just as
we do for mathematics and science. As Will Durant points out, Philosophy is really the most basic of sciences,
and I feel that the failure to instruct our children in this most basic
field of knowledge can only be a manifestation of the desire of our
governmental leaders to leave the bulk of our children in a state of
abject ignorance.
Mankind must never again
recycle around through these same old concepts so that a third set of
names becomes associated with the philosophical "twins" which are
enumerated by the Durants, above. In other words, we have had both
Hobbes and Democritus, so why do we need another person to espouse
essentially those same views? Mind you, we should never discard the
writings of either of these; in essence, part of what I am complaining
about is that we are all to ready to discard an entire Philosophy due
to some error in part of it. But, instead, we should now go in an
entirely new direction, as dictated by our exercise of reason based on
knowledge, and thereby choose an entirely new path to the overall
enlightenment of all mankind.
Considered abstractly, there
is really no reason we should not have some sort of Epistemology
Department in our universities, along with Psychology, Geology, and the
other branches of science. The reason that we do not really has more to
do with the fact that the forces of Religion, State, and Industry each
have so much to fear from Epistemology that none of them would allow
such a thing to occur. If you teach a child Epistemology, you teach
that child the methodology of defining his or her own version of Truth,
which automatically and axiomatically leads to a rejection of the Truth
handed down by the "powers that be." So, to protect themselves, these
"powers" drown Epistemology in a mountain of meaningless gibberish, and
ensure that those who teach Philosophy do so by forcing each student to
read so many of the previous "great" philosophers that they will
quickly become bored and lose interest.
In other words, all modern
courses in Philosophy really teach us a History of philosophers.
Nowhere have I seen someone actually teach the subject matter which
actually comprises Philosophy. The merely average student will be so
lost in this huge mountain of reading that they will never actually
find the Truth. Only "the best and the brightest" will find Truth, and
these will become true philosophers. They will do so in spite of the teaching of Philosophy much like a circus side-show!
27 Lived about 470-399 b. c., and is difficult to distinguish as a historical persona from the character immortalized in the early dialogs of Plato.
28 Lived about 429-327 b. c., and many details of his life are the subject of scholarly debate.
29 Lived about 384-322 b. c., and is most famous as the tutor for Alexander the Great.
30 Lived about 1225-1274, and is a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
31 Lived about 1724-1804, and is considered to be the greatest philosopher of Western Civilization.
32 By "destined" I imply the sort of destiny foretold by Spengler.
