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Philosophy is Lost
Philosophy has lost its way. It is inconsistent with itself. It is not living in conformity with its nature. It believes itself to be profound and important, but what is characteristic of its daily activity is trivial and it produces trivialities.
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A Philosopher’s Difference
Philosophers chase what matters and so neglect what doesn’t. Most people neglect what matters and so chase what doesn’t.
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The Musician Allegory
As a musician, to play out of tune and not realise it is one thing. But to realise that you are playing out of tune and to keep playing: that is absurd. Such a person is ridiculous. If you realise that you are playing out of tune, you stop playing. You don’t start playing again until you have tuned yourself up.
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Artificial Intelligence
‘I went down to the university yesterday to talk about Plato’s cave with the academics.’ If I say this to an AI, it would miss everything that matters in this sentence and see everything that doesn’t. But if I say this to a philosopher they would reply: ‘I see you are making a point.’
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Minds over Matter
Francis Bacon, in urging the introduction of the then-new science, complained that universities produced ‘minds empty and unfraught with matter’ having not ‘gathered that which Cicero calleth sylva and supellex, stuff and variety’. Now I complain that universities produce minds fraught with matter but empty of what matters. Their heads are full of stuff but incapable of judgement.
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Lovers of Wisdom
We are not lovers of wisdom but adulterers. We say we love wisdom but we are always pursuing something else: a job, a publication, a citation. These are our affairs.
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Cleverness and Wisdom
Cleverness does not correlate with wisdom. For many clever people have not even tried to be wise, and how wise is that?
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Luxuries
Luxuries are a creeping and relative thing. The more you have the more it seems reasonable to have. And the more it seems reasonable to have, the more it seems unreasonable to go without. Soon you will call them necessities.
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Reflections
I use the word ‘reflections’, and reflections is exactly the correct word. I reflect, philosophically, and give serious thought to my own thoughts. But these thoughts ought also to be a reflection of what is in you; they ought to show only what you already know but have forgotten.
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The Maxim Writer
The maxim writer: all wit but no substance. For all their craft, they vacillate and go against themselves. Would you choose to be one of them? And are they good guidance? But if I were to, I would do so in the spirit of Socrates and write only for the purposes of improvement, in myself and the reader. Then they are powerful things.
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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