Philosophy For Dummies

Tom Morris

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118053546
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Discover how to apply ancient wisdom to your everyday life Philosophy at its best is an activity more than a body of knowledge. In an ancient sense, done right, it is a healing art. It's intellectual self-defense. It's a form of therapy. But it's also much more. Philosophy is map-making for the soul, cartography for the human journey. It's an important navigational tool for life that too many modern people try to do without.

Philosophy For Dummies is for anyone who has ever entertained a question about life and this world. In a conversational tone, the book's author–a modern-day scholar and lecturer–brings the greatest wisdom of the past into the challenges that we face now. This refreshingly different guide explains philosophical fundamentals and explores some of the strangest and deepest questions ever posed to human beings, such as

• How do we know anything?
• What does the word good mean?
• Are we ever really free?
• Do human beings have souls?
• Is there life after death?
• Is there a God?
• Is happiness really possible in our world?

This book is chock full of all those questions you may have long wanted to think about and talk with someone about, but have never had the time or opportunity to tackle head on. Philosophy For Dummies invites you to discuss the issues you find in the guide, share perspectives, and compare thoughts and feelings with someone you respect. You'll find lots of material to mull over with your friends or spouse, including thoughts on

• When to doubt, and when to doubt our doubts
• The universal demand for evidence and proof
• The four dimensions of human experience
• Arguments for materialism
• Fear of the process of dying
• Prayers and small miracles
• Moral justification for allowing evil

The ancient philosopher Socrates (fifth century, B.C.) thought that, when it comes to the Ultimate Questions, we all start off as dummies. But if we are humbly aware of how little we actually know, then we can really begin to learn. Philosophy For Dummies will put you on the path to wising up as you steer through the experience called life.

Part I

What Is Philosophy, Anyway?

In this part . . .

In this part, we look at what philosophy is. What did all those bearded guys in togas actually start? And how should we view the philosophical search for wisdom now?

Chapter 1

Great Thinkers, Deep Thoughts

In This Chapter

Hearing some common misunderstandings of philosophy, courtesy of history’s illustrious thinkers

Examining the importance of the examined life — the life worth living

Looking at the questions we consider in our quest for understanding

Conversation you’re not likely to hear in the 20th century:

Him: “Hey, Honey, what do you want to do tonight?”

Her: “How about some philosophy?”

Him: “Sounds great!”

Her: “Invite the neighbors!”

Okay , let’s face it. For at least a hundred years, philosophy hasn’t exactly enjoyed the most appealing reputation in our culture. But that situation’s about to change. This deepest, most exciting, and ultimately most practical activity of the mind has been misunderstood for long enough. We’re going to do something about that. You and I. In this book.

A Few Nuts Spice the Cake

There may be no intellectual activity more misunderstood and wrongly maligned as philosophy. The great American historian Henry Adams once characterized the entire enterprise of philosophy as consisting of nothing more than “unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.” As far back as the 16th century, the prominent French essayist Michael de Montaigne proclaimed that “philosophy is doubt.” And, of course, who enjoys doubt? Doubt is often uncomfortable. Doubt can even be scary.

The 19th-century philosophical wild man, Friedrich Nietzsche, took it one more step and even went so far as to characterize philosophy as “an explosive, in the presence of which everything is in danger.” So, then, it really comes as no surprise to see Nietzsche’s predecessor, the English poet John Keats, asking, “Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy?”

In ancient times, the famous Roman statesman and author Cicero complained, “There is nothing so absurd that it hasn’t been said by some philosopher.” Of course, he, too, was “some philosopher.” But what about the other human beings who bear that label? What’s our view of them?

More fans of philosophy

The following quotes show what some prominent historical individuals have had to say about philosophy and philosophers:

Philosophy is such an impertinently litigious lady that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits as have to do with her.

— Sir Isaac Newton

It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.

— Montaigne

Philosophy will clip an angel’s wings . . .

— John Keats

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense; but some are greater nonsense than others.

— Samuel Butler

Philosophy consists largely of one philosopher arguing that all the others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.

— H.L. Mencken

If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.

— Frederick the Great

There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

— William James

When he who hears doesn’t know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks doesn’t know what he himself means — that is philosophy.

— Voltaire

There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or the other.

— Descartes (the Father of Modern Philosophy, strange and unbelievable as that may seem)

I have tried, too, in my time to be a philosopher but, I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking through.

— Oliver Edwards (18th century)

Philosophers? Crazy! Philosophers? Otherworldly! Philosophers? Gloomy! When we hear the word, we tend to have this modern image come to mind of badly groomed academics, carelessly dressed in tweed sport coats, wrinkled shirts, and rumpled pants, who go through life coated with chalk dust, stroking their beards, bearing scowls on their faces and arcane thoughts in their heads, all the while writing on blackboards in capital letters such weighty words as “DEATH,” and “DESPAIR.”

In 1707, Jonathan Swift wrote the following comment:

The various opinions of philosophers have scattered through the world as many plagues of the mind as Pandora’s box did those of the body; only with this difference, that they have not left hope at the bottom.

In our own era, the widely read American journalist and literary critic H.L. Mencken even once went so far as to announce, “There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher.” (But, hey, remember that these guys never met me!)

So what’s the deal here? Philosophy, done right, should be the opposite of all this gloom and doom stuff. It should be exciting, liberating, provocative, illuminating, helpful, and fun. Philosophers themselves should...