an international and interdisciplinary journal of postmodern cultural sound, text and image
Volume 7, May-June 2010, ISSN 1552-5112
What is a Philosopher?
First
of all - do not ask an academic. You will likely receive a typically fearful,
woefully sanitized, cautiously undergraduate response like, "That's a
matter of opinion." Sort of like the cop-out in the New York Times - Opinionator: "There are as many definitions of
philosophy as there are philosophers – perhaps there are even more."[1]
Philosophy - and philosophers, of which we must add, there are sparingly
few, involves taking a stand. And that is exactly what so few people are
willing to do. Stop right there - we are not talking about the 'history' of
philosophy.
You often hear of philosophers and philosophy departments, 'doing
philosophy,' somewhere. But that's mostly the administrative accounting of
philosophy that is quietly pissing all over what philosophy truly exists;
passing for 'philosophy' in utter blasphemy.
Socrates, a real philosopher, took a stand. Philosophy has nothing to do
with the love of wisdom. What would it mean to 'love' wisdom? Nothing. Loving
wisdom, is like loving chocolate. Sweet, satisfying, safe - and meaningless.
Philosophy is not safe, non-metaphorically speaking. If it’s safe – it’s not
philosophy.
And philosophy is certainly not "a series of footnotes to Plato," or
anyone else. Philosophy is a question that is answered with actions. Not simply
the question - nor the answer, but rather, the whole circle through to
completion. No, not Hegel, or some postmodern variation thereof: let the soft
parade (Zizek et al.) march down that rabbit hole. You might join them, but
then you are not 'doing philosophy' and instead, engaging in psycho-literary
historical studies, which I admit at times, is not without merit and intrigue.
There are philosophers. You may know one or two. But they probably do not work
in universities or colleges. These places do not generally employ philosophers
(they love historians, however) - they generally employ philosophical
accountants, and equity analysts of philosophical publishing, whom in that
setting of pedagogical distribution, generally function as student customer
service representatives (CSR).
It's all part of the broader dismantling of higher education.
There
are exceptions - we hope to God. An example? First there is more to discuss in
the commercially sanctioned 'piece' that elicited my response. In another
institutionalized observation, Critchley identifies time as the philosopher's
culprit: "...we might say that to philosophize is to take your time, even
when you have no time, when time is constantly pressing at your back...The
philosopher, by contrast, is free by virtue of his or her
other-worldliness, by their capacity to fall into wells and appear silly."
But philosophers are no more or less concerned with time than anyone
else. And unless one fathoms 'freedom' as time, for leave to hop from
sabbatical to conference to low teaching loads, and back again, all while doing
nothing to increase justice, or diminish abuse, or curtail tyranny - then that
is all philosophy can be: otherworldly, silly, marginalized.
Again, Socrates was none of these things - and that is precisely why he
was murdered by the State.
I
have always preferred the concept of a theory-fiction, to explain what the CSR
rationalists have hijacked and deem 'philosophy.' Philosophy, is something
else. When Jean Baudrillard described his work as theory-fiction, it was
because he knew philosophy was a far more activist endeavor. And Baudrillard
was the first to admit he was no activist.
On the other hand, there are careerists, and other associated objectivists
involved in didactic dissemination of what passes as philosophy ('teachers' of
philosophy, etc.). It is such a conglomerate institution that is apt, while
stuffed with administrators, and administrative hopefuls, to believe and
cultivate the metaphysics of accounting. This Baudrillard described as a
particularly inane attempt to control the totality and distribution of orthodox
postulates - conspicuously engaging in the analysis of the world, largely, so
as to control it, while plump with the ambition, expectation, obsession - and
phantasm - of material world possession. All variances of megalomania under the
pettifogger rubric, quibbling over trifles and the like.
No, philosophy requires something different - something to the effect of putting
your money where your mouth is, no? Alas, we entertain very few philosophers
these days...plenty of writers, though. Of every sort and genre: fiction,
non-fiction, theory-fiction, creative and otherwise.
Now is about the time someone will remember a certain Sartre, and his writing
'commitment': "...the freedom of writing implies the freedom of the
citizen. One does not write for slaves. The art of prose is bound up with the
only regime in which prose has meaning, democracy. When one is threatened, the
other is too. And it is not enough to defend them with the pen” (Sartre, in ‘What
is Literature?’ circa 1950).
Hence a philosopher, generally is not an academic, which begs the
question - "Where are the philosophers?" - as they are largely not,
in the corporatist academy. Yes, a philosopher may teach, but that cannot be
her primary practice, otherwise she risks being simply that, a teacher. However
meritorious teaching may be, 'tis another endeavor indeed, as we've just
established. And now, we have entered the realm of philosophy, and
philosophers, with a word: risk.
Now the list you have been waiting for - some philosophers: Socrates, Thomas
Jefferson, Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth, Antonio Gramsci, and others, as you can
imagine. Some have written treatises - some have not.
And then, some non-philosophers: well, I'll leave that for you to decide. But I
will say this - the most pressing question philosophers must answer today is:
Why is the world failing in its promise of justice for all?
Is it because
the idea of justice has not been properly theorized? Editorialized? Analyzed?
Declared? Philosophized? Unpacked? Teased apart? Duly considered and legalized?
Legislated? Not enough lawyers?
A hypothesis: justice escapes
us for truly one reason alone– there are too few philosophers.
an international and interdisciplinary journal of postmodern cultural sound, text and image
Volume 7, May-June 2010, ISSN 1552-5112