I read a quote in one of those celebrity columns recently that just blew me away. It’s not that I believe everything I read, especially when it comes to Hollywood, but for
sake of discussion, let’s assume that quote was correctly stated. It was attributed to Angus Young, member of band AC/DC. Think big arena rock, throbbing bass, and screeching vocals. You could identify an AC/DC song in first few measures by its distinctive bass line and ribald lyrics. Many fans have smirked in recognition of adolescent angst celebrated in songs.
So here’s quote attributed to Angus: “I don’t listen to music. I stopped listening 25 years ago when I started making my own.”
Oh, Angus. Wow. That has got to be most radically conservative thing I have ever heard.
What’s so amazing about this is that we all do same thing. We establish certain ideas and opinions about things and we get attached to them. They become part of our identity. We build our lives around ideas we may have had when we were in our twenties. If we’re aware of these ideas at all, we might notice that we’ve changed our minds over years, but for most part, we tend to hang on to our opinions for decades. It’s just easier that way—no need to go there and think through that again!
This thinking and rethinking is what philosophy is all about. Socrates said that purpose of philosophy is to help us become “excellent human beings”. Our experiences help shape our philosophies, but our minds give us ability to think logically and apply our knowledge.
Socrates himself always said that only thing he knew for sure is that he knew nothing. He was fond of saying that there are two categories of beings that do not engage in philosophy—the gods or sages, who are already wise, and senseless people, who THINK they are wise. A philosopher is a person in middle, someone who is not yet wise but at least knows it.
That’s not a bad place to start.
The best philosophers are those who inspire us to think for ourselves. The French philosopher, Rene Descartes, really zeroed in on that idea. He was a brilliant mathematician who later became known as father of modern philosophy, and his “Cartesian Method” remains an integral part of mathematical studies as well as a time-tested approach to scientific research. It basically breaks down process of inquiry into manageable pieces.
Got a problem? First, you break it down into smaller pieces. Then, you arrange these pieces from simple to most complex. Next, you analyze each one, beginning with simple ones and moving on until you tackle most difficult concepts. Finally, his approach required investigator to keep analyzing tough notions, even when they seem unfathomable. We use this approach all time without realizing we’re being so Cartesian.
But most revolutionary concept Descartes introduced was that of universal doubt. Since times of early Greek philosophers, field of philosophy was generally regarded as study of theories of great thinkers, and required a whole lot of discussion around which thinker had most profound ideas.
Descartes came up with a revolutionary notion—that each of us should approach philosophy from scratch. In other words, we could study great philosophers if we wanted to, but then we had to throw out all those ideas, stripping everything down to its most basic elements, and come up with our OWN ideas. This seemed preposterous to many at time. What…we should think for ourselves? But, why? HOW?
Descartes wasn’t satisfied basing his own life philosophy on ideas of others. He believed we should each tackle big questions and think our way through process of reaching our own conclusions. So, in true Cartesian style, he started with most basic concept first. We all know that classic annoying backseat question, “Are we there yet?” Well, try this one on for size: “Are we here now?”
