Philosophy - Short bites. Episode #2 - Take-aways on Philosophy

I want to thank you everyone for this insightful conversation, and as we come to the end of the hour, I'd like to end the conversation the same way that it began, with a tour de table. So one of the premises of this podcast is that there's too much talking and not enough doing. So let's pass the mic and tell us what you've heard today that will inspire you to do something differently than the way you did it prior to this conversation, or any insight or interesting perspective that you'd like to leave others with or for yourself. And I'm going to start by sharing my own takeaways from this conversation to give you a few minutes so you can actually think of what you'd like to say. What I'm taking away from this conversation is two things. First, I found this comment really interesting, that philosophy done right is uncomfortable, should be uncomfortable or unsettling, because this is about going into uncertainty and the unknown. This to me is something that I want to think more And very often I like to talk and think about concept and idea, but it's not really uncomfortable. So I want to push myself further. So that's one. And then the other thing that I've found interesting is almost an answer to the original question, can philosophy be a magic pill to heal society? And to me, The answer is yes, and the reason is philosophy, in addition to being a gateway to change society's structures, is first and foremost a tool that could, can help one to go through a personal journey. So defining what makes sense, defining what is this human experience that we're going that we're experiencing, philosophy can help me raise those questions and can help me in my personal journey. So that would be my takeaway. Anyone willing to jump in and give their— and maybe Melissa, you'll be the last one to kind of close this conversation. So Matt, maybe, or anyone else, Tim, if you'd like to jump in.

I'll go.

Okay.

So I've really enjoyed this discussion. Uh, it's, it's always exciting to just talk about ideas that matter. And I remember 3 years ago when I started the podcast, that was the only thing I just wanted to talk about stuff that mattered. I don't care what your opinion is on it, on it is, as long as we're sharing and conversing, I think that's good. And that's the beginning. And I think a lot of what we talked about today was like material versus non-material and known versus the unknown. And we know So little about what is actually happening here. Science is showing us a little bit, and that's good, and that's helpful. But what philosophy does, what a new idea does, is it can evolve instantly. We can take that piece of information and we can apply it to our lives immediately, where an institution might take a while to adapt to that. So I think that when we begin to apply what we learn, no matter what it is, we can be that change immediately. And if it works, we can share it with somebody else. So I think that this discussion is fantastic. And what I'd like to just share with people, and I said it before, I think that there's so much great information in the world on how we can make the world a better place, but the best thing that I've learned so far for me, and I've meditated and done all those things, is just to do 3 kind acts a day. Do 3 kind acts a day, go out of your way to do it, and don't tell anybody. Don't go boasting about how great you are and how amazing you are. Just do the 3 kind acts and go about your day and just do your best. And try to be kind to yourself. And that's all I have to say. But it's been a great discussion. And thank you guys for sharing all your amazing insights and for your work in the real world.

Thank you, Matt.

Shall I go?

Sure. Go ahead.

I just want to say how much I've appreciated hanging out with a few people who share my strange obsession with questioning everything. And how refreshing it's been to hear from Agnes and Melissa and Gordon about what they're doing in the more mainstream world than I live in, and to hear just the authenticity of their soul come through and why and what they're doing, I think is wonderful. So I'm taking away that spirit really, and then from Matt and that lovely call to action and to kindness and to listening too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Really got to put that in between before action becomes listening.

Yeah.

And listening means opening your heart, opening your mind, you know, I think in a lot of ways. So beautiful, beautiful.

So yeah, that's, uh, and, and to meet you all in this mystery, that's I think the root of it for me, the foundation of philosophy is mystery. It all starts there. I never give a single talk without starting with, I don't know anything. Now, what's my best guess? And to keep coming back to that and start and end there. I think it was Whitehead that said it starts with— starts in the philosophy, starts and ends with wonder.

That's Aristotle.

Is he taking that from Aristotle?

Yeah, that's right from Aristotle.

That's straight from Aristotle.

Well, there you go. Yeah.

Even older.

And sometimes it's so important to come in here is When I see students who have that wonder, sometimes it's difficult for people to own their own gifts, you know, and occasionally I run into students with that kind of wonder and I try to tell them, you got something special. They go, what are you talking about? It comes so naturally. And I do, and that's, that's something I've really garnered from this discussion, both the warmth and the sense of wonder, I think, and, uh, how important it is to have the right atmosphere in a philosophical discussion.

I really appreciate everyone's warmth.

Want. But one of the questions I'm going to be questioning after this discussion is all these parties about question, question, question. I mean, I don't know, I'm not sure from the philosophical point of like, I suppose, yeah, I guess I'm gonna, I wonder a little bit about suppose you have a certain foundation in life, what's, what's, why, why necessarily question everything, you know, this kind of, kind of religious adherence to we got to question, question, question, you know. I'm not, I wonder if there's another way to do philosophy. So that's one of the questions I'll be taking away from this. Fantastic.

Okay, well, this kind of follows up on Gordon's thought. I feel like there were two kind of moods or something, two strands in this conversation. One of them was one that I think Melissa emphasized, the kind of discomfort, the tearing down, the questioning, the challenging. The, um, uh, that's on the one hand. And on the other hand, there was a lot of like us getting along and being really nice to each other and not really tearing much down or criticizing. Um, and for me, this is like a deep question about the philosophical practice, which is that my view is I agree with Melissa that like philosophy is essentially about in some sense tearing down, but I actually don't think we can do that for ourselves. I think we're too, the sense in which we're trapped in wanting to be comfortable with ourselves and what we know is very, very, very deep. You can't just put a philosophy hat on or like to take that off. I think you need other people, like you need other people saying, I don't understand what you mean by that. You can't say that to yourself, I think. That's just a view I have. And so like we need other people. That's what I meant by saying that that necromancy is so important, 'cause like some of the best people to talk to are dead. And so if we can bring them back to life, then we can talk to them. But I think there's this problem about the practice of philosophy, which is that we all like liking each other, and we all like getting along, and kind of praising one another, and being nice. There's just a deep way in which philosophy isn't that. Like, if it's gonna be uncomfortable, it's gonna be uncomfortable in the conversation too. And—

Well, that's nonsense.

And so like, how does one, like this is a legacy from the Socratic dialogues, right? Where people just got really pissed off at Socrates, and they walked away, and eventually they killed him, right? How does one kind of integrate that kind of interpersonal discomfort, and instead of just patting oneself on the back for entertaining the thought, actually engage in it, which I think is a lot harder.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, I guess I'll finish and to respond to Agnes in closing, philosophy doesn't make you popular. I mean, I have never been under any illusion that it's a popularity contest and philosophers win it. I think philosophers are definitely the bottom rung of academic luxury. I think that all of the other academic schools of thought are very cooperative. Science itself, between biology and physics, there's this cooperation, and philosophy gets along with nobody. But I've hosted a lot of Twitter debates that have been awful. And people, you know, my boyfriend says, you know, why are you arguing with people on Twitter all the time? And I say, that's philosophy. You know, it's not that I'm like personally arguing, but the whole point is to have things challenged. So I think with this particular group, everybody is so different. But I think everybody's also so open-minded. And the only thing that I can say is that as I've been speaking, I've looked at all of your faces as I say words like philosopher or say words like scientists. And I've wondered that, you know, even though we're all open-minded, we're still constructing some different identifying qualities behind the word scientist. You know, scientist is There's thousands of people who are scientists, and what person do we think of when we say that word? So I think there will always be this need to debate, but you need someone to show you how they're using the same words as you are, and that's what I've gotten from this. You know, for me, it didn't need to be combative, because as I was listening to everybody else describe things from their own perspective, I could see that we're, you all defined philosopher and scientist differently than I did, which is very enlightening for me because then I start to think, well, crap, I've been using these words thinking that everybody was on the same page as me for a very long time. So even though I love the combative Twitter and even though I have no illusions that I'm going to win the popularity contest, I still think that having you know, a nice conversation, you can still have your illusions undone, you know. And I've had, you know, my conceptualization of philosophy has already been undone like 3 times in this conversation, you know. So it is, it is working even if we're kind.

So very well. Well, thank you so much everyone for spending time today. I think we all think about it. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.