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http://www.philosophynews.com/op-ed/OE000220000324.htm
March 24, 2000
Op-Ed
Dumbing-down philosophy
by MARTIN COHEN
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Is philosophy getting dumber? Roger Scruton certainly thinks so, which is the reason he wrote An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy.
Scruton is leading a backlash; the guide is a reaction to the invasion of the holy philosophy citadel by the great unwashed. After all, didn't Plato say that philosophy should only be studied by the people with gold in their souls, and then only after reaching age thirty?
It seems that the rot that set in when students were allowed to consider the works of Plato and Aristotle outside the original Greek has progressed to a point where even university professors are unable to tell their Greek squiggles apart. Books are tumbling out of the common-rooms like there's a research assessment exercise tomorrow. (Unfortunately, in the UK, there is.) And even the benchmark of philosophical quality, the journal article, has become something of a wobbly piece of elastic, now that new technology has allowed each and every branch of the subject, indeed each and every lecturer, to have their own specialist publication (usually involving the Internet and lots of "international" contacts). At the same time, the shelves of many bookshops -- if not quite yet, university libraries -- are heaving with brightly tempting packages offering philosophy for "beginners," "children," and "dummies," and even "philosophy made simple." Not to mention the popular story of how a young girl discovers philosophy from a strange but very nice man.
Some of the writings are very good, but most are very dumb. The latter kind cheat their readers by offering no more than reheated and still indigestible gobbets of jargon and philosophical trivia. With their gimmicky cartoons or brown paper printing, such books are mutton dressed as lamb. However, others hark back to an older tradition of "philosophy for all." Bertrand Russell, in his definitive yet also iconoclastic account, The Problems of Philosophy (first published as long ago as 1912), offered a possible rationale for "pop" philosophy: "All acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of the Self, but this enlargement is best attained when it is not directly sought." (Incidentally, in the text that I was looking at, someone -- a young Scruton, perhaps -- had written, in pink block capitals: "IS THIS SELF-ASSERTION?" That, surely, must count as a new incarnation of the "Barber" paradox, to be credited to Russell's book. The barber, that is, who, being hired to cut the hair of everyone in the village except those who normally cut their own -- strictly, or he'd get his hands cut off -- ran away to the hills. Neither the barber, nor Russell, could ever work that one out, so, is philosophy getting dumber?)
Before we applaud the attempts by Scruton and the professors of the great centres of philosophical excellence like [INSERT YOUR SCHOOL'S NAME HERE], recently assembled in Boston for the festival of pomposity, perhaps we should remember that philosophy is not supposed to be kept by an elite, even if it is produced by one. The ancient Greek philosophers valued clarity and communication above all, and for three millennia (say, up to about 1850) the great works of the subject are remarkable in their efforts to avoid technicality and appeal over the heads, as it were, of the experts, to the broad mass of the people. Socrates, famously, never claimed to know more than his audience, only saying that he wanted to explore issues together -- a common, shared search. Descartes, of course, structured his Meditations on First Philosophy in the manner not so much of an "expert" talking down, but of an equal holding a conversation with a friend.
The ancients of not just Europe, but India and China wrote for all, and even as late as the beginning of this century, philosophy was a public enterprise.
At some point, the professional sophists stole everyone's heritage and now keep it locked away in universities. Yet, if the professional philosophers were more alert, they would happily realize that, whatever it is that they are guarding, it is not philosophy, and it is of no value.
Martin Cohen is editor of The Philosopher and a researcher in philosophy of education at the Centre for IT and Education, University College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth. He is author of 101 Philosophy Problems and is writing a "Clear Guide" on political philosophy for Pluto Press, to be published this year.
Copyright (c) 2000 by Martin Cohen.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission. |
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