Philosophy: wut i lernd 2day, or, airing academic angst

Why is it that philosophers get caught up in such inconsequential minutia – why is it that they (we) revel in criticizing one another? Why can’t we all just get along? Find a common cause to devote our fantastical brain-power to? (one professor of mine has reminded us several times that we are the elites – that there are far more people who don’t understand any of this philosophy stuff and can’t). So we’re the best of society, intellectually? So what do we do with that? Some devote themselves to propping up obscure dead white guys, others show the incessant error of those same white guys. Some ‘merge’ strands of philosophy, some criticize merging.

And then, sometimes they let their guard down and complain that nobody takes them seriously – that the discipline is dying. And they rally together (disciples and heretics of dead white guys alike) to point a common finger at….. our unfortunate society. “Nobody reads the dead white guys we philosophers love so much. And nobody listens to our witty critiques of them either. And if people do listen to our ideas, it’s only because we’ve dumbed them down to the point of mangling any coherence they once had. Boo hoo.“

Ah, phooey.

Philosophy needs to be relevant! It needs to be comprehensible! It needs to change the way people see themselves and their world, for the better.

Perhaps some form of ‘Positive Philosophy’ could be conceived; much in the way Martin Seligman rightly criticized and revolutionized the discipline of psychology. Thanks to modern psychology and its 40 pound (and growing) “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” everyone today is diseased: too active, too depressed, perfectionistic, lazy, neurotic, misanthropic, it’s all in there, somewhere.

Philosophy is worse. It is cannibalistic, not to mention patricidal… We eat our own (the bigger the better), our young (tender targets of derision), and of course, our favorite dead white guys (first marinating them in platitudinous praise). All in the service of, and almost always unwittingly, progress in technology and ideology. Striving too much, struggling too much, dueling with windmills of language and history, structure and time. Seeking proper manipulation, awaiting salvation, hoping for grace; or conversely criticizing all of this, tearing it to rubble.

Things must change.