[The following was originally published on August 1, 2014. I thought that revisiting the question could be a fitting and fun activity for World Philosophy Day, which is today.]
[Tom Wesselmann, “Study for Mouth, 8”]If I’m remembering correctly, T.M. Scanlon recounts a story in which a person sitting next to him on a plane asks him what he does for a living. Scanlon admits he is a philosopher, and the fellow passenger asks, “What are some of your sayings?” Jonathan Wolff has an old column that mentions this story (he has apparently heard a few different versions, so perhaps he did not have Scanlon in mind), and he takes the point of telling it to be to “illustrate the deplorable ignorance of the sort of person” who would ask such a question. But I don’t think the story was initially intended that way. I recall a certain kind of ruefulness to it. A sense that, at least in part, it’s a pity that we don’t have something pithy and practical and memorable and wise to say to nonexperts that could convey some of our ideas, that we don’t live up to the popularly imagined ideal of the philosopher.
I think philosophers should have sayings and be untroubled to share them with the public. They are good PR for philosophy, I think, and at the very least they are helpful mnemonic devices.
Hilary Putnam cautions: “any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs in one.” Fine. Don’t put the whole philosophy in the nutshell. There may be specifications and qualifications and exceptions and justifications left out. Your fellow philosophers will tacitly understand that. If you see your sayings as prompts for further reflection, rather than as comprehensive summarizations, you will be able to give people an idea to take with them and think about, without feeling as if you are being philosophically careless.
The quotation (to “illustrate the deplorable ignorance…) is from Jo Wolff’s column, but as the rest of the column makes clear, he doesn’t repeat the story to make that point.
I think a slightly different take on the story is that it illustrates how little the public knows about what philosophy is about. I have got used to finding the philosophy section in bookshops (which is usually quite small) by looking out for the “self-help” section (which is usually quite big), but my heart sinks a little each and every time… (my father – an applied mathematician and cosmologist – usually finds the “astronomy” section of bookshops by looking out for “astrology” and records much the same reaction.)
Having “sayings” of the kind you suggest won’t help much with that.
I can relate to this post in general, but it also made me think of this specific quote: “…and whatever a man knows, whatever is not mere rumbling and roaring that he
has heard, can be said in three words.” – Ferdinand Kurnberger.
The physical world is constantly branching into countless parallel universes.
(Does that count as philosophy?)
Jerry Dworkin
12 years ago
There was once a very wise old man, a sage, who lived at the top of a tall mountain. One day a novice sought him out to ask a question.
“What holds up the earth?”
“The earth rests in the hands of a giant.”
“But, then what holds up the giant?”
“The giant rests on the back of an elephant”
“What holds up the elephant?”
“The elephant rests on the back of a turtle”
“But, what holds up the turtle?”
“My son, from there on down, it’s turtles all the way
Jerry Dworkin
12 years ago
A Philosopher is someone who worries that what works in practice will not work in theory.
PV
12 years ago
The meaning of life is….cardboard!
mlr
12 years ago
This could easily become a post-graduate version of lolmythesis.com
1. The enemy of genuine self-understanding is taking either the historian’s attitude to one’s past or the curator’s attitude to one’s present.
2. In all fairness, it’s only Whiggish history and priggish curation that pose the problem.
Matthew
12 years ago
This reminds me of when my microbiology/immunology lecturer asked me whether I wanted to major in microbiology or immunology. I told him that I was thinking of studying philosophy and asked him if he had any thoughts on philosophy. He laughed and responded by saying something along the lines of “I have my own philosophy”.
JPL
12 years ago
Now if we can only get these people to ask us, “What questions are you pursuing?”
Quine thinks that to be is to be the value of a *bound* variable. My saying makes the unbelievably radical and bold claim that we should extend this to *free*variables.
You can and should try to do better than hold responsible.
Animal Symbolicum
2 years ago
The bumper-sticker version of my dissertation:
In mathematics, writing systems can show us things written natural languages merely tell us about.
Matt Dean
2 years ago
What makes someone’s life go best? (Parfit, but the question mark is mine).
Eric M Campbell
2 years ago
First my own, then a related one from Mary Oliver.
“You are never angry or suffering for just the reason you think.”
“Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast terrible shadows, that each of the so-called senseless acts has its thread looping back through the world and into a human heart.”
Sam Duncan
2 years ago
No one making less than $75,000 a year will ever tell you money doesn’t matter.
Talk of “late capitalism” is to folks with humanities PhDs what talk of the “end times” was to my grandmother who dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
Logan Mitchell
2 years ago
My two favorite Zen sayings (with big philosophical implications!):
“Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”
“The obstacle is the way” Now that I think of it, not too far from Nietzsche: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” Or “ignus aurum probat, miseria fortes viros.” All same ballpark.
A few I’ve heard myself say: “Nothing is what it seems.” “Things can always get worse.” “An argument must start with an agreement.” “That’s a technical problem not a logical one.” “Prove it.”
Hermias
2 years ago
“Try being human first”
(For when I get carried away with seeking the unconditioned)
If nothing matters, then that doesn’t matter either, and we can approach our lives with joy and good humor instead of despair. (Adapted from the last line of Nagel’s “The Absurd”.)
Reading that my freshman year of college was a big part of why I wanted to do philosophy, and has since rescued me on a number of occasions.
We have to be realistic about how realistic we can be.
The quotation (to “illustrate the deplorable ignorance…) is from Jo Wolff’s column, but as the rest of the column makes clear, he doesn’t repeat the story to make that point.
I think a slightly different take on the story is that it illustrates how little the public knows about what philosophy is about. I have got used to finding the philosophy section in bookshops (which is usually quite small) by looking out for the “self-help” section (which is usually quite big), but my heart sinks a little each and every time… (my father – an applied mathematician and cosmologist – usually finds the “astronomy” section of bookshops by looking out for “astrology” and records much the same reaction.)
Having “sayings” of the kind you suggest won’t help much with that.
“Philosophical sayings will not fix bookstore shelvings.”
That made me laugh.
I enjoy the blog, thanks.
“The unlived life is not worth examining”. Something I think many of us workaholic academics forget! 🙂
I can relate to this post in general, but it also made me think of this specific quote: “…and whatever a man knows, whatever is not mere rumbling and roaring that he
has heard, can be said in three words.” – Ferdinand Kurnberger.
Real objects have real boundaries.
The statue and the clay – one, and yet not one.
Don’t start none, won’t be none.
Act so as to make the world the way you ought to want it to be.
Yikes! You’ll never get out of that normative rabbit hole.
Act so as to make the world the way we all ought to want it to be.
“Philosophy never sleeps” (and also my motto).
Still my motto
Think indifferent.
Know your limitations (h/t Socrates, Clint Eastwood).
The essence of enframing is that setting-upon, gathered into itself, which entraps the truth of its own coming-to-presence with oblivion.
Hah! You should embark on a project of saying this when people ask you to summarize your philosophy and then report back with the findings.
Sadly, I don’t think it would be much different from the reactions to most of the suggestions.
Those who can do, those who can’t teach. I teach ethics.
That is very similar to Eric Schwitzgebel’s saying, I think. (Replace the “I” with “some”.)
I have some sympathy for this one – and you can get it on a T-shirt
http://www.zazzle.co.uk/coercive_paternalism_it_s_not_as_bad_as_it_sounds_tshirt-235633612808722619
One rarely has time to be a philosopher: one is so busy as a professor of philosophy.
Sophia as agôn: Sometimes a Platonist. Sometimes a Nietzschean. Always both.
It’s complicated.
Everyone who is more dogmatic than you is an idiot and everyone who is less dogmatic than you is a lunatic.
Much of the misery of the world can be traced to mistaking certitude for certainty.
The physical world is constantly branching into countless parallel universes.
(Does that count as philosophy?)
There was once a very wise old man, a sage, who lived at the top of a tall mountain. One day a novice sought him out to ask a question.
“What holds up the earth?”
“The earth rests in the hands of a giant.”
“But, then what holds up the giant?”
“The giant rests on the back of an elephant”
“What holds up the elephant?”
“The elephant rests on the back of a turtle”
“But, what holds up the turtle?”
“My son, from there on down, it’s turtles all the way
A Philosopher is someone who worries that what works in practice will not work in theory.
The meaning of life is….cardboard!
This could easily become a post-graduate version of lolmythesis.com
Maybe lolmyresearch?
“It’s a sad state of affairs.”
“Certainty is knowledge with sprinkles.”
…uttered in an upper level/grad seminar on epistemology this year.
“The falsest of all false paths, philosophy”
1. The enemy of genuine self-understanding is taking either the historian’s attitude to one’s past or the curator’s attitude to one’s present.
2. In all fairness, it’s only Whiggish history and priggish curation that pose the problem.
This reminds me of when my microbiology/immunology lecturer asked me whether I wanted to major in microbiology or immunology. I told him that I was thinking of studying philosophy and asked him if he had any thoughts on philosophy. He laughed and responded by saying something along the lines of “I have my own philosophy”.
Now if we can only get these people to ask us, “What questions are you pursuing?”
Don’t drive with your Strawsonian reactive attitudes switched on.
To be is to be the value of a variable.
Um, that’s not yours.
Quine thinks that to be is to be the value of a *bound* variable. My saying makes the unbelievably radical and bold claim that we should extend this to *free*variables.
Heraclitus Has entered the chat.
Your mind is alive!
This was Steve Yablo, I think!
“The Nothing that is, and the Nothing that isn’t.” (Emerson)
Sure, you will hold and be held responsible. But you can and should try to do both better.
You can and should try to do better than hold responsible.
The bumper-sticker version of my dissertation:
In mathematics, writing systems can show us things written natural languages merely tell us about.
What makes someone’s life go best? (Parfit, but the question mark is mine).
First my own, then a related one from Mary Oliver.
“You are never angry or suffering for just the reason you think.”
“Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast terrible shadows, that each of the so-called senseless acts has its thread looping back through the world and into a human heart.”
No one making less than $75,000 a year will ever tell you money doesn’t matter.
Talk of “late capitalism” is to folks with humanities PhDs what talk of the “end times” was to my grandmother who dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
My two favorite Zen sayings (with big philosophical implications!):
“Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”
And from Thich Nhat Hanh, “No mud, no lotus.”
“The obstacle is the way” Now that I think of it, not too far from Nietzsche: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” Or “ignus aurum probat, miseria fortes viros.” All same ballpark.
Classically equivalent to Nietzsche’s line, but somehow more resonant to me: “What doesn’t make you stronger will kill you.”
With great power, comes great responsibility.
A few I’ve heard myself say: “Nothing is what it seems.” “Things can always get worse.” “An argument must start with an agreement.” “That’s a technical problem not a logical one.” “Prove it.”
“Try being human first”
(For when I get carried away with seeking the unconditioned)
If nothing matters, then that doesn’t matter either, and we can approach our lives with joy and good humor instead of despair. (Adapted from the last line of Nagel’s “The Absurd”.)
Reading that my freshman year of college was a big part of why I wanted to do philosophy, and has since rescued me on a number of occasions.
Everything that matters comes in degrees.
Live every day as if it might not be your last.
Not mine, but one I say often:
“If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live.”