And then, sometimes they let their guard down and complain that nobody takes them seriously \u2013 that the discipline is dying. And they rally together (disciples and heretics of dead white guys alike) to point a common finger at\u2026.. our unfortunate society. \u201cNobody reads the dead white guys we philosophers love so much. And nobody listens to our witty critiques of them either. And if people do<\/span> listen to our ideas, it\u2019s only because we\u2019ve dumbed them down to the point of mangling any coherence they once had. Boo hoo.<\/span>\u201c<\/p>\n Ah, phooey.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Perhaps some form of \u2018Positive Philosophy\u2019 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) \u201cDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders\u201d everyone today is diseased: too active, too depressed, perfectionistic, lazy, neurotic, misanthropic, it\u2019s all in there, somewhere. <\/p>\n Philosophy is worse. It is cannibalistic, not to mention patricidal\u2026 We eat our own<\/span> (the bigger the better), our young<\/span> (tender targets of derision), and of course, our favorite dead white guys<\/span> (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. <\/p>\n Things must change.<\/p><\/div>\n Why is it that philosophers get caught up in such inconsequential minutia \u2013 why is it that they (we) revel in criticizing one another? Why can\u2019t 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-114200121695415365?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\")