Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy? Rough Transcript for Lecture 1: What is Philosophy?

Hello! Welcome to the course. Idea is to give you a brief intro to some of the main areas of philosophy Aim for this week: to think about what philosophy is Five short parts: Introductory part, where we try and get an initial idea of what philosophy is Next 2 parts where we try and assess some common claims made about philosophy: that its (somehow) fundamental and that its about important questions Case study: how a philosopher (or anyone) might address the question what is the meaning of life? Finally, well look ahead to the rest of the course, thinking about how the topics well cover there relate to what weve said about philosophy this week. So 1. What is Philosophy? Easiest definition: Whatever it is that philosophers do - This is what the course is designed to show you! - Might be true that this is the most important def: Ill suggest philosophy importantly involves activity, so actually doing it is the best way to understand what it is - So youll learn more about what it is by working your way through the course than by (just) listening to what I have to say 2nd easiest definition: The love of knowledge (from the Greek philosophia ) - But what does it mean to love knowledge? Will any knowledge do? 3rd easiest (route to a) definition: Google what other people have said about it: - Wilfrid Sellars: The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things, in the broadest possible sense of the term, hang together, in the broadest possible sense of the term. - Martha Nussbaum quotes Epicurus: Philosophy is an activity that uses reasoning and rigorous argument to promote human flourishing - Barry Smith: Thinking clearly and well about reality and our place in it. - Attempt to think systematically about the presuppositions of a given topic I think these are all right, and our job for this week is thinking a bit more about what they mean. Stab at a definition of my own that tries to capture what I think is important in all of them: Philosophy is the activity of working out the right way of thinking about things

"!

Introduction to Philosophy - On this understanding, what is philosophy is a philosophical question Were trying to think about philosophy in the right way. So were doing philosophy about philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

- Note that many philosophers wont agree with what Ive said. - In this case Id listen to them, Id try to understand the reasons behind their disagreement, and Id think about whether or not I wanted to change my mind about anything I previously believed or perhaps Id want instead to try and change their mind about something important I thought they were wrong about. - This is an instance of the general process of philosophy working out the right way of thinking about things so at the end of every video on this course, you should spend some time stepping back and thinking about whats just been said: - ask yourself if you think its consistent: do all the points that have been made make sense together? Can they all be true at the same time? In this case, Ive said a few of different things about philosophy can they all be true together? Tensions? - And ask yourself if its compelling does whats been said seem right to you? If not, can you say why that is in particular, can you say why in a way that would convince those who you disagree with to change their minds? - In this case, do you think Ive said anything about philosophy that's just wrong, or that doesnt make sense? Or do you think that Ive left out some important aspect of philosophy in talking about what philosophy is? How would you convince me that I should agree with you? - To get the most out of this course (and to get the best understanding of what philosophy is), you should step back and think critically about the points that are made on this course as often as you can. 2. Is Philosophy Fundamental? - Often said that philosophy is essentially concerned with fundamental questions - A sense in which this doesnt seem right there are lots of things you dont have to study or do philosophy in order to do. Most people seem to get on with their lives and do fine without studying or really thinking about philosophy. But I think theres another sense in which it is fundamental that we cant escape from it . E.g. of skepticism (next week): whether or not this jumper really exists. - Doesnt seem like a very interesting question of course it does! - But thats not the question philosophers are interested in they want to know how we know the table exists what is it to know something? What is this capacity we have to be in touch with the world, to get things right or wrong about it? - Now, perhaps you dont think this sounds like a very important question and that might be fine. But then what do you think is an important question? - Those who are interested in these sorts of questions about knowledge and our capacity to have it are driven by the thought that these are questions about some really fundamental and interesting aspects of who and what we are.

#!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

- If you dont think this is right, then what should we put in their place what are the most fundamental and interesting aspects of who and what we are, or of the universe and our place in it? - Perhaps you think that the most important thing about us is our capacity to speak, or to make art, or to feel deep emotions like love. - Now, note that if you do disagree, then youve taken a philosophical stand you think that we should think in a different way about the issue of the features of our lives or the world that are most interesting, or most important for us to understand. You think that to get a clear picture of whats most important or interesting we need to be asking different questions than the epistemologist. - And as soon as you try and say why this is try to articulate your alternative view of what the really important questions are, youre doing philosophy. - I think that this shows us the sense in which philosophy is fundamental you cant escape from it. - If you want to know whether you, or anyone else, should take your feeling that some philosopher is asking the wrong questions seriously, then you need to articulate it, argue for it, to give reasons for it, even if thats only to yourself. - So the choice is between just accepting, on faith, that some topic is or is not the right thing to be caring or thinking about, or doing some philosophy and trying to articulate your reasons for your acceptance. - Of course, everyone agrees that you cant spend all the time questioning everything we have to get on with our lives! But the questions, and questions about the questions, are always there so thats the sense in which I think philosophy is fundamental. - I said earlier that philosophy was importantly an activity now we can understand this better. - This way of thinking about philosophy were arriving at here means that questions , and the activity of questioning can often be more important than the answers we come up with. - Barry Stroud: 'Often the worst thing to do with what looks like a real philosophical question is to answer it. It can get in the way of fuller understanding of what the problem really is and where it comes from.' - Rorty on this, and the sense in which philosophy is fundamental, in the way weve been considering: The one sort of question that can never get a definite answer is a question that asks about itself . It is precisely reflection on the adequacy of questions , rather than answers, that has determined the history of philosophy. - This accounts for a distinctive feature of philosophy its hard to make progress, and not always straightforward to know what progress consist in: Murdoch: It is sometimes said, either irritably or with a certain satisfaction, that philosophy makes no progress. It is certainly true, and I think this is an abiding and not a regrettable characteristic of the discipline, that philosophy has in a sense to keep trying to return to the beginning: a thing which it is not at all easy to do. There is a two-way movement in philosophy, a movement towards the building of elaborate theories, and a move back again towards the consideration of simple and obvious facts Both these aspects of philosophy are necessary to it. Rorty again: The reason for thinking that there will be no last philosophy is simply that no answer can fail to be an answer to a question, and that no question can guarantee its own permanent relevance. ! $!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

- So philosophy involves asking questions about some topic, in an effort to come to the right way of thinking about it. - But we can always step further back, and ask whether those questions are the right ones whether we might be asking the wrong questions in a way thats obscuring the topic were trying to find out about. - Thats the sense in which I think philosophy involves questions that are fundamental - Again, heres a good place to stop and consider what you think about what Ive said. Consistent? Compelling? - An additional thing to think about Steven Hawking: Philosophy is dead. How do you think I would respond? And what might Hawking say in response to that? 3. Is Philosophy Important? - Suppose you agree that philosophy is about fundamental questions, in the sense weve just been talking about. - Now, Im not sure this tells us all by itself that philosophy is important you might think that getting the dinner cooked and the dishes done is much more important than articulating what you think the most important questions to ask are, and why - Again, theres a sense in which I dont think a philosophical question must, just by dint of being a philosophical question, be important. I can ask lots of philosophical questions about jumpers, or any topic, so long as Im concerned with working out the right way to think about them. Then it seems like Im doing philosophy, but that Im not doing anything important. - Lets think a bit more about why this activity of working out the right way of thinking about things might be a particularly important thing to do. - Weve just seen reasons to think that philosophy often is important its often (and perhaps ideally) concerned with getting a clear view of the things that matter most to us. - We suggested in the last video that sometimes our sense of whats important isnt something that weve put into words or argued for. - But in doing philosophy, thats what we strive to do to get a clear view of the question or topic thats motivating us, and in doing so, perhaps to come to understand why or whether it really matters - Heres a quote from Isaiah Berlin: "[People] cannot live without seeking to describe and explain the universe to themselves. The models they use in doing this must deeply affect their lives, not least when they are unconscious; much of [their] misery and frustration is due to the mechanical and unconscious, as well as deliberate, application of models where they do not work... The goal of philosophy is always the same, to assist [people] to understand themselves and thus operate in the open and not wildly, in the dark." - So we have ways of understanding or thinking about ourselves that we can employ more or less clearly; and that can be better or worse for us.

%!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

- And you might think philosophy is important because it teaches us not to go along with accepted wisdom, or the justifications for some course of action, without examining them, and helps us acquire the skills to do a good job of examining them. - Now, lets try to tie these points about the importance of philosophy together. - There are things that matter to us, that we care about, but sometimes we might not have a clear view of them. The sort of critical thinking and reasoning that we engage in when we do philosophy can help us to get a clearer view. - One way our view can be obscured is by our unthinkingly, or perhaps unconsciously, adopting particular ways of understanding ourselves, or of conducting our lives. This might be a result of just accepting things you were told whilst being brought up, or just going along with the practices of the society you live in. - So perhaps you suddenly realize that your whole life until now has been driven by the acquisition of money and material goods, and youve never stopped to think about whether this is what you really want from life. - It seems like the right thing to do then is to step back, and to ask questions about the presuppositions of your life youve just noticed does this really reflect what you feel is the right way of understanding yourself? Is this the right way of thinking about what you want out of life? - Even if the answer is yes it does! you might think that youre better off for having reflected on the question and justified your stance to yourself. - And in stepping back, thinking about these presuppositions, and working out whether they reflect what you think is the right way of understanding things, youve engaged in the activity that, Ive been suggesting, defines philosophy. - So Id like to add a bit to my earlier definition of philosophy philosophy is the activity of working out the right way to think about things. But the most important or worthwhile philosophy is the activity of working out the right way to think about the things that matter most to us . 4. Philosophy and the Meaning of Life So far: Philosophy as the activity of working out the right way of thinking about things; sense in which philosophy is fundamental: because the questions themselves are part of what were trying to think clearly about; sense in which philosophy is important: because often were trying to think clearly about things that are important to us and our lives. This section try to illustrate all these points about philosophy with an example: the question what is the meaning of life? Certainly looks important and philosophical Not going to try and answer the question might or might not think that this is something a philosopher could do [Is this itself a philosophical question? Not sure might think its the job of e.g. religion to answer; or might think that its not a question to which we find the answer by thinking about] Instead, try to think clearly about what the question is asking us.

&!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

Remember quote from Stroud: 'Often the worst thing to do with what looks like a real philosophical question is to answer it. It can get in the way of fuller understanding of what the problem really is and where it comes from.' Perhaps thats what weve got here a question that doesnt really make sense, that itd be misleading to try and answer. Some philosophers say this: a life isnt the sort of thing that can have meaning words, phrases, sentences have meanings, but lives dont. So the question is confused we shouldnt try and answer it. Perhaps were really interested in some different, related question. Is this right? Perhaps seems wrong to give up on the question so quickly. One thing that has arisen is a question about meaning is it right that only words, phrases, sentences have meaning? What about paintings, or gestures, or pieces of music? So one place that thinking about this question can lead you to is thinking about meaning in general what is it for something to mean something? Two broad types of view you might have: 1) to mean something is to designate something to stand for it, or to point to it in the world. So the meaning of a word is the thing in the world it stands for (e.g. jumper) 2) to mean something is to express something harder to explain exactly what this might involve, but key idea is that the expression brings about the meaning. E.g. think of the way that a piece of music can express a particular feeling or mood. In the best cases, you cant capture the feeling, mood, idea without actually listening to (or performing) the piece of music (or watching the film, looking at the painting, or whatever). So importantly, the thought is that the sort of meaning were talking about here is something that we cant explain just in terms of whats being designated we cant explain what the piece of music means by pointing at any particular thing in the world Now, doesnt seem to make sense to ask about the meaning of life if we have the first kind of view (to mean is to designate something) but perhaps it does if we have the second. Perhaps when were wondering about the meaning of life, were wondering about whats expressed in the process of living a life (as we can wonder about whats expressed in the process of playing a piece of music) So this is one road that thinking about the question what is the meaning of life might lead you down thinking about what were asking about when were asking about meaning. If youre convinced that its a good question, then perhaps the way to go is to try and spell out this expressive conception of meaning that Ive just vaguely sketched. Alternatively, if you were convinced that theres something wrong or misleading about the question, perhaps the way to spell that out is to argue that the expressivist view is weird or confused, and the designative view is the only one that really makes sense. Now, suppose you wanted to do this. Then you need to explain why it seems like a good question to so many people what are we really asking about, or how could we formulate the question so it did make sense? Heres one option that seems plausible to a lot of people were really asking about the purpose or significance of our lives were asking what the point of our lives is, or in other words what they aim at. And you might be able to tell a plausible story from there about why asking about the point of something is similar enough to asking about its meaning that its understandable how we could confuse one question for the other. ! '!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

As noted, Im not going to try and answer these questions or even tell you what I think the right way to understand the question is though thatd be something itd be interesting for you to think about and discuss with other people on the course. I just wanted to illustrate some of the things that characteristically happen when you do philosophy. We started with this question what is the meaning of life then saw various ways it can take us. One job was to think about the concepts and presuppositions involved in the question in this case, what do we mean by meaning? And we saw that a whole domain of tricky questions opened up there. Remember this is one of the definitions of philosophy we considered right at the start an attempt to think systematically about the presuppositions of a given topic. And I think thats captured by the shorter formula weve been considering that philosophy is the activity of working out the right way to think about things. Now we just saw an illustration of a point we considered earlier that sometimes the right thing for a philosopher to do with a question is to reject it, not answer it. So we just considered the idea that we should think that questions about the meaning of life are really questions about the point or purpose of life Lastly, I want to give one final quote that I think really helps understand what philosophy is about: (voiceover) Philosophy needs vision and argument there is something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains arguments, however good, which are not inspired by some genuine vision, and something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains a vision, however inspiring, which is unsupported by arguments (voiceover)Speculation about how things hang together requires the ability to draw out conceptual distinctions and connections, and the ability to argue But speculative views, however interesting or well supported by arguments or insightful, are not all we need. We also need what [ the philosopher Myles] Burnyeat called vision and I take that to mean vision as to how to live our lives, and how to order our societies. Under argument here, we can include what we were doing above when we were drawing distinctions between different theories we could have about what meaning was, and trying to think about different points in favour of each theory. But what we were doing there was informed by some vision in this case our intuitive sense of what the question of the meaning of life is asking about. E.g. just dismissing the question on the grounds of a designative understanding of meaning might be a case of having a good argument but lacking vision. Or dismissing the expressive view because we didnt spell it out as clearly as the designative view And just insisting that it is a good question, but without being able to say why, might be a case of having vision but not enough argument. Or insisting that the expressive view of meaning is right, but without being able to say why Putnams point is that you need both. I think this is a good way of spelling out what I said before good philosophy is the activity of working out the right way of thinking about the things that matter to us. 5. Applying What Weve Said to the Stuff on This Course

(!

Introduction to Philosophy

Week 1: What is Philosophy?

So, hopefully have some sense of what philosophy is now. But better to just go and do the rest of the course! Hopefully clear that philosophy can take in a really wide range of topics because we can be interested in coming to think clearly about lots of different things. So course doesnt aim at a complete overview of philosophy: logic, philosophy of language, ancient philosophy and study of other periods in history of thought, political philosophy, aesthetics. But hopefully the material covered on the course will be enough to introduce you to some of the kinds of questions philosophers are preoccupied with and, more importantly, to the kinds of methods they use to address them. So, applying this to stuff on the course: Epistemology: capacity to know stuff about the world Philosophy of science: capacity for scientific knowledge why is it so great? Philosophy of mind: Weve got minds, other things dont how should we understand or explain that? Moral philosophy: things can show up for us as good/bad, right/wrong. Metaphysics: are there conceptual limits on the way the world could be specifically, timetravel!

)!