Thank you for joining us here at Philosoffee. I figured it would be a good idea for the first post to lay out some of the core ideas of this website, and the project beyond it. The guiding principle of this site is simply summed up by the following three sentences:
There is a certain pleasure to intellectual exercise. It is fun to parse out an argument and offer a rebuttal. It is fun to discuss lofty and abstract ideas. It is equally fun to critically discuss and examine more practical daily concerns or goals.
In short, intellectual stimulation is its own reward, to a certain extent.
One of the core principles of Philosoffee is the fun of the argument. This isn't to say that ideas, including ideas we'll be discussing here, don't have real consequences and importance. Rather, it is simply to say that underlying this project there is an air of enjoyment. While I do think that philosophy can have practical beneficial consequences for individuals and for society (and such benefits are worth explicitly aiming for), I also think it is important that we embrace the pleasures of intellectualism instead of perpetuating the harmful myths that intellectual fun is "snobby", "pointless", or "boring".
So, just as exercising the body can be both personally beneficial regarding one's health and socially beneficial regarding one's continued productivity, so too can exercising the mind be beneficial in several ways at the same time. Intellectual pleasure and social/personal benefits are not exclusionary towards one another.
Make no mistake, ideas rule this world. Capitalism? Idea. Democracy? Idea. Socialized healthcare? Idea. Granted, all of these things manifest in material reality as real things done by real people, but to the extent that they do it is only because enough people take the basic ideas seriously. If no one took the ideas underlying democracy seriously, then we wouldn't bother with it (or at least paying lip service to it). If no one took the ideas underlying why a nation would desire socialized healthcare, then no nation would bother with it. If no one took the ideas underlying capitalism seriously, then we wouldn't bother with it.
And who are the idea makers? Well, look around. There is no special sub-species of human being that is born to generate ideas. In principle, anyone can have an idea that is worth sharing. This isn't so much naive optimism as it is practical reality. The human brain, clearly, is good at occasionally coming up with powerful ideas. With over seven billion human brains currently operating, the odds of some of them churning out a decent idea or two (given some effort, training, and a bit of luck) are fairly good.
This is one reason why philosophy can't be thought of as just something that a certain sub-set of people (namely philosophy professors) do.
A population that has more philosophers (or should I say hobby-philosophers? those who pursue philosophy for personal pleasure and growth, but not for a career) is going to be a population that is better positioned to critically evaluate its own ideas. Thus, the practical benefit of more people doing philosophy could be, to name only one thing, a population better able to have intelligent debates and discussions regarding its politics and laws.
One philosophical tradition that tried to counter this was Existentialism, born in post-war Europe. Coming from a place with the desire to center the human experience as the most crucial data philosophers could analyze, and the good life as the most crucial problem to be solved, the Existentialists set about trying to impose some illumination on the chaos of the emotional, messy, contradictory elements of the human mind.
Existentialism came and went as a fad, and while there are still many philosophers who make the quality of human life their aim, I find that on the whole the good thing that Existentialism proper got started has not been well maintained.
Personally, I openly call myself an Existentialist. My aim in doing philosophy is to try and understand, and perhaps improve, my own life. If, while I'm at it, I can help understand and improve the lives of others too, so much the better.
In the end, I think this aspect of philosophy...as a work of self-improvement and an attempt at living "the good life"...is something that should make an abrupt and powerful comeback. In the absence of sound personal philosophy, all sorts of snake-oil-like belief systems have developed. Astrology is once again actually on the rise; neo-pagan ideas are being adopted without care about whether or not they are true; a bland encouragement to "be nice" and "be yourself" is taken as all that can be said about answering the question as to how one ought to live.
Firstly, we aim to have fun. We want to explore philosophical ideas and debate them because it can just be plain fun to do so. Intellectual play is no less vital and enjoyable than physical play. To that end, we will not shy away from ideas that may be horrifying, or preposterously abstract, or just plain weird. If it seems like an interesting topic, then if for no other reason than the sheer fun of discussing the absurd or debating ideas, we will discuss it, if we wish.
Secondly, we care at least somewhat about society. No, we cannot "fix" it. No one endeavor can. But we care enough to not let important topical subjects slip by analyzed. We remain convinced that one of the best practical services philosophy can offer up is the critique. In critiquing the current social order, we aim to help people identify ways that they have been duped, screwed over, lied to, or just plain mislead. While we cannot hope to undertake so vast a goal as "fixing" society ourselves, we understand that the more people take the time to seriously engage with philosophical critiques and ideas, the greater the net-benefit to society stands to be.
Finally, we want philosophy to matter. Each person contributing to this project, by definition, is someone who has both taken an interest in philosophy and in some way been personally changed by engaging with it. Abstract investigations into the nature of logical constructions are important and should be pursued, but fundamentally philosophy can, and should, still be about asking the question: "How ought we live?".
Here at Philosoffee, we do not pretend to have answers to that question. However, we are more than happy for you to join us as we have fun discussing some possible ideas along the way.
- Philosophy is fun.
- Philosophy has practical consequences and benefits.
- Philosophy should be something that helps.
Philosophy is fun
There is a certain pleasure to intellectual exercise. It is fun to parse out an argument and offer a rebuttal. It is fun to discuss lofty and abstract ideas. It is equally fun to critically discuss and examine more practical daily concerns or goals.
In short, intellectual stimulation is its own reward, to a certain extent.
One of the core principles of Philosoffee is the fun of the argument. This isn't to say that ideas, including ideas we'll be discussing here, don't have real consequences and importance. Rather, it is simply to say that underlying this project there is an air of enjoyment. While I do think that philosophy can have practical beneficial consequences for individuals and for society (and such benefits are worth explicitly aiming for), I also think it is important that we embrace the pleasures of intellectualism instead of perpetuating the harmful myths that intellectual fun is "snobby", "pointless", or "boring".
So, just as exercising the body can be both personally beneficial regarding one's health and socially beneficial regarding one's continued productivity, so too can exercising the mind be beneficial in several ways at the same time. Intellectual pleasure and social/personal benefits are not exclusionary towards one another.
Philosophy has practical consequences and benefits.
There are consequences to doing philosophy. Whether those consequences are good or bad depends in no small part upon the quality of thinking that is put into the ideas that govern our lives.Make no mistake, ideas rule this world. Capitalism? Idea. Democracy? Idea. Socialized healthcare? Idea. Granted, all of these things manifest in material reality as real things done by real people, but to the extent that they do it is only because enough people take the basic ideas seriously. If no one took the ideas underlying democracy seriously, then we wouldn't bother with it (or at least paying lip service to it). If no one took the ideas underlying why a nation would desire socialized healthcare, then no nation would bother with it. If no one took the ideas underlying capitalism seriously, then we wouldn't bother with it.
And who are the idea makers? Well, look around. There is no special sub-species of human being that is born to generate ideas. In principle, anyone can have an idea that is worth sharing. This isn't so much naive optimism as it is practical reality. The human brain, clearly, is good at occasionally coming up with powerful ideas. With over seven billion human brains currently operating, the odds of some of them churning out a decent idea or two (given some effort, training, and a bit of luck) are fairly good.
This is one reason why philosophy can't be thought of as just something that a certain sub-set of people (namely philosophy professors) do.
A population that has more philosophers (or should I say hobby-philosophers? those who pursue philosophy for personal pleasure and growth, but not for a career) is going to be a population that is better positioned to critically evaluate its own ideas. Thus, the practical benefit of more people doing philosophy could be, to name only one thing, a population better able to have intelligent debates and discussions regarding its politics and laws.
Philosophy should be something that helps.
Unfortunately, some rather bad philosophical traditions were started which eroded the belief that philosophy could help people figure out how to live their lives. Philosophy turned inwards, away from grappling with the messy issue of living, and great effort went into pursuing technical developments in things like logic. The result was a generation of philosophers who were able to pinpoint truth conditions for specific sentences, but who were largely incompetent at offering solid insight on how best to live.One philosophical tradition that tried to counter this was Existentialism, born in post-war Europe. Coming from a place with the desire to center the human experience as the most crucial data philosophers could analyze, and the good life as the most crucial problem to be solved, the Existentialists set about trying to impose some illumination on the chaos of the emotional, messy, contradictory elements of the human mind.
Existentialism came and went as a fad, and while there are still many philosophers who make the quality of human life their aim, I find that on the whole the good thing that Existentialism proper got started has not been well maintained.
Personally, I openly call myself an Existentialist. My aim in doing philosophy is to try and understand, and perhaps improve, my own life. If, while I'm at it, I can help understand and improve the lives of others too, so much the better.
In the end, I think this aspect of philosophy...as a work of self-improvement and an attempt at living "the good life"...is something that should make an abrupt and powerful comeback. In the absence of sound personal philosophy, all sorts of snake-oil-like belief systems have developed. Astrology is once again actually on the rise; neo-pagan ideas are being adopted without care about whether or not they are true; a bland encouragement to "be nice" and "be yourself" is taken as all that can be said about answering the question as to how one ought to live.
The goal...
All of that being said, the goals here at Philosoffee are as follows.Firstly, we aim to have fun. We want to explore philosophical ideas and debate them because it can just be plain fun to do so. Intellectual play is no less vital and enjoyable than physical play. To that end, we will not shy away from ideas that may be horrifying, or preposterously abstract, or just plain weird. If it seems like an interesting topic, then if for no other reason than the sheer fun of discussing the absurd or debating ideas, we will discuss it, if we wish.
Secondly, we care at least somewhat about society. No, we cannot "fix" it. No one endeavor can. But we care enough to not let important topical subjects slip by analyzed. We remain convinced that one of the best practical services philosophy can offer up is the critique. In critiquing the current social order, we aim to help people identify ways that they have been duped, screwed over, lied to, or just plain mislead. While we cannot hope to undertake so vast a goal as "fixing" society ourselves, we understand that the more people take the time to seriously engage with philosophical critiques and ideas, the greater the net-benefit to society stands to be.
Finally, we want philosophy to matter. Each person contributing to this project, by definition, is someone who has both taken an interest in philosophy and in some way been personally changed by engaging with it. Abstract investigations into the nature of logical constructions are important and should be pursued, but fundamentally philosophy can, and should, still be about asking the question: "How ought we live?".
Here at Philosoffee, we do not pretend to have answers to that question. However, we are more than happy for you to join us as we have fun discussing some possible ideas along the way.