Saturday, February 20, 2010
Stargazers
In Book VI of the Republic, Socrates compares the treatment of true philosophers in Athens to a ship where ignorant sailors will doing anything(drugging the ship owner) to gain power on the ship while the someone who is adept at navigation not noticed because he is spending is time looking at the stars. While this serves its purpose well and offers a clear analogy for true philosophers vs. the corrupt philosophers that Adeimantus refers to, when I view passage in terms our class discussion about the value of philosophers particularly in modern times, I can't help think some people truly are just stargazers. They may study philosophy with a sense of bewilderment even coming up with ideas that provide them a sense of calm, but they do not take that leap into navigation. To use another metaphor of Socrates they do not become "midwifes" of other peoples ideas.
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This describes perfectly the issue many have (including myself) with the idea of philosophy. I can appreciate ideas, growth, and understanding the soul. I cannot appreciate people who just come up with over-thought nonsense and call it a theory. I believe that the field is corrupted by far too much of that tendency. This is why I stand by the idea of "practicality" in philosophy. One can use it as a better way to understand many other fields and more thoroughly examine ones self and others. Even Socrates used his philosophy by discussing it. Just as faith is dead without works, philosophy is dead without the betterment of the soul.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, is it not, that Socrates seems to place the burden for "making philosophy useful" not on the philosophers themselves but on the people in the city who fail to use them (489b).
ReplyDeleteThinking may be worth doing for its own sake so that those who do it well may desire nothing more.
We must first realize that we need the philosopher (which is not likely but we readers of the republic have a head start), then we must put on the philosophers responsibilities they cannot shirk, without turning them into anything other than a philosopher (who knows if that will work or how it will).
At any rate, Socrates invites you to reconsider where to put the blame, Mr. Davidson.