On the Nature of Philosophical Activity

I have always wanted to write something with a title beginning with the word 'on'.

I try out philosophical ideas in a similar way to how I try on clothes.* If I come across a new philosophical concept that is interesting and logical, I'll adopt it for a little while. I walk around in it, pondering how it looks from every angle. Is it compatible with the rest of my views? (Can I wear this with my jeans?) Can it withstand the abuse the rest of philosophy can hurl at it? (Is it waterproof?) And, to a certain extent, I step back a little, asking what kind of person it makes me. (Do I really want to be seen in THIS??)

This approach is quite interesting. It means I don't have to sit down for hours at a time, thinking philosophical thoughts. It evolves more naturally and more realistically, as it comes into contact with my everyday life. I develop relevant ideas for my life, which is, I think, one of the reasons philosophy is so important.

Sometimes, though, I realise that I've bought two items of clothing that can't really go in the same wardrobe. Like today, I realised I'd bought a dualist shirt along with a pair of monist jeans. Sartre would have had a right go at me, with my mauvaise foi, believing in both at once. I'll have to take one of them back, but I have no idea which one yet. The rest of the philosophers lean towards dualism, but my gut reaction was monism. I would really like to be a dualist, I think, but I might be too skeptical now. Though I'm currently going through a complete overhaul; I think that I like utilitarianism because it offers a quiet life. But real life isn't like that. Perhaps I like monism for the same reasons; it offers clear-cut physics that works with all the scientific knowledge I have. (Not that I believe all (if any) of that is actually right, but it works with my world view at the moment.) I'll have to keep looking in the mirrors for now to see which one suits me better.

Maybe it makes me seem flighty, but thinking about things gradually works better for me than thinking about them all at once. And gradually, I will become more consistent and maybe one day develop a coherent set of philosophical ideas. Wouldn't that be something?

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* The biggest weakness in this analogy is the fact that I don't like shopping for clothes much. Philosophy is far more exciting!