Mehdi Ghafourian's essay “What Is Philosophy? (Introducing Philosophy to the Uninitiated)”

Usually, when we hear the names of many academic disciplines such as chemistry, mathematics, medicine, history, psychology, theology, and various types of engineering, an image of their function and application forms in our minds, leading us to immediately ask about their job prospects and income potential. But often, upon hearing the name of philosophy, a question mark forms in our minds, which leads to a question about its function and application! Sometimes, our mental image of philosophy is a collection of grand, difficult, abstract, and remote-from-life questions, based on which we cannot help but issue a verdict of its futility and uselessness!

In the following essay, I will try to trace the presence of philosophy, that is, philosophical questions and beliefs, in the warp and weft of our lives, and in this way, introduce philosophy to those who are unfamiliar with or uninterested in it. Of course, this essay is neither innovative nor likely captivating, but I have tried to make it clear so that the reader is encouraged to take the philosophical questions of their life seriously and not consider them alien to themselves. It is worth mentioning that the following essay is an elementary introduction, presenting a concise picture of philosophy that can show the importance and nature of philosophical activity in a general overview.

1_ By looking at how we spend our lives, we realize that we can never be free from thinking; that is, during our waking hours, we are constantly weighing things up, rejecting and accepting, preferring one opinion over another, and deciding and choosing a behavior based on our thoughts. The pervasive and ubiquitous presence of our thinking is such that even if we wanted to forgo it and stop thinking, we would still have preferred one opinion (not thinking) over another (thinking), and consequently, we would have thought!

2_ By paying close attention to our thinking, which here means preferring one belief over another, we see that we naturally consider some beliefs to be true and others to be false. More precisely, each of us has conceptions and notions regarding the truth and falsity of our own and others' beliefs, such that our views on the rightness and wrongness of various matters are an inseparable part of the very thinking from which we saw there is no escape or avoidance.

3_ You and I possess a capacity within our being by which we can distance ourselves from ourselves and look upon our beliefs, feelings, desires, and behaviors from a height. This is a capacity called Reflective Consciousness [1]. It is by virtue of this ability that we observe our thoughts, states, and actions and become concerned about the correctness or incorrectness of our beliefs, decisions, and behaviors; that is, at every juncture of our thinking in different situations, we are concerned that our belief be true and our decision be correct. This concern and worry usually manifests in our everyday speech, where we ask: "What if I've made a mistake!", "How do we know you're right?!", "I think he did the wrong thing," "How can I know this theory is correct and not that one?!" and the like.

4_ Now that our situation is such that we seem compelled to think, and our thinking is also within the framework of opinions and beliefs we hold to be true, and at the same time, we desire their accuracy and correctness, our condition necessitates this recommendation:

"Since we are thinking anyway, why think badly? Let us think well."[2]

It is clear that according to the above analysis of our situation, what is meant by thinking well is striving towards conscious thought and taking seriously the concern we have for the correctness of our beliefs. In contrast, what is meant by thinking badly is sloppiness, a lack of conscious engagement with the ins and outs of our beliefs, and indifference towards them. Acting on this recommendation requires attention to our inner world, especially the beliefs and opinions that, so to speak, fill the container of our mind, and this needs a degree of slowness and avoidance of hastiness; we must reduce the speed of our belief-forming, opinion-holding, decision-making, actions, and reactions, and set our thinking on "slow motion"[3] so that we can reflect on their correctness or incorrectness.

So our choice is not between thinking or not thinking, but between thinking well or thinking badly.

5_ It is not wrong to consider this "thinking well" as a child of the importance we place on truth; we are in search of truth and desire it, and we flee from falsehood and error. This is the very state we call truth-seeking; we want our thoughts and beliefs, our actions, and the overall style and manner of our lives to be possessed of truth, and the path we tread not to lead to nowhere. But what are the requirements of truth-seeking? It seems that love and passion for truth and striving in its way necessitate possessing certain characteristics, without which we cannot truly consider ourselves truth-seekers:

a) I desire the harmony of my beliefs and behaviors with truth. So, truth is meant to be an attribute of my beliefs and behaviors. Therefore,

b) I always allow for the possibility of error, mistake, and non-conformity with truth, and I know that a feeling of certainty and assurance does not necessarily mean my beliefs and actions are right. So,

c) I am one who searches, converses, learns, and studies; I am not stubborn, prejudiced, narrow-minded, or dogmatic. At the same time,

d) For the sake of companionship with truth and loyalty to it, as long as I deem something correct, I maintain a theoretical and practical commitment to it and accept responsibility for it.

Truth-seeking manifests itself in the demand for reasons; that is, we demand reasons for the correctness or incorrectness of our own and others' opinions and beliefs, and we turn to reasoning for the whys of life.

6_ Now, when we seek the reasons for the correctness or incorrectness of our beliefs with the intention of truth-seeking, we see that, in the final analysis, the totality of our beliefs can be divided into three categories in terms of the method of evaluating, judging, and discerning their truth or falsehood. [4]

One category of beliefs can be judged by referring to experience, including introspection and sensory experience; that is, ultimately, their truth or falsehood must be determined by resorting to experience. We call these empirical beliefs.

I think you are being formal with me. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, you must look into yourself to reveal its reality.)

The asphalt of this road is worn out. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, I must refer to observation and sensory experience to reveal its reality.)

Computer war games increase aggression in children. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, I must refer to observation and sensory experience to reveal its reality.)

Another category of our beliefs are those whose truth or falsehood is determined by referring to historical documents and records; that is, to judge them, one must look into the past and examine historical evidence and clues. We call these historical beliefs.

My parents took me on a trip to Mashhad when I was one year old. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, I must ask my elders and refer to photos from that time and such evidence to reveal its reality.)

"Pocket full of emptiness" is an allusion to having no money at all. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, I must refer to Persian dictionaries to know what meaning Persian speakers, throughout the history of the Persian language up to today, have intended by this proverb.)

The Iranian Calligraphers Association was founded in 1950. (To determine the truth or falsehood of my belief, I must refer to historical documents and records to reveal its reality.)

The last category of beliefs are those for which neither introspection and sensory experience, nor reference to historical documents and evidence, are effective in determining their ultimate truth or falsehood; rather, one must sit in judgment of them through thinking. We call these rational beliefs.

In relation to others, you should only consider your own benefit. (Determining the truth or falsehood of this belief is not resolved by resorting to experience or referring to historical evidence.)

I consider life meaningful and valuable, not absurd and futile. (Determining the truth or falsity of this belief cannot be settled by appealing to experience and referring to historical evidence.)

The scientific method is the sole method of discovering truth. (Determining the truth or falsity of this belief cannot be settled by appealing to experience and referring to historical evidence.)

7_ There is a domain in our lives where the questions are such that they cannot be settled by observation, experience, experimentation, poring over books, or asking this person or that; and in it, we inquire about the correctness or incorrectness of beliefs that can only be answered through thinking. This is the realm of philosophy, where the ultimate arbiter of its questions about the correctness or incorrectness of beliefs is the rational method.

Beliefs whose truth or falsity we must examine through the rational method are usually unexamined; we have taken them as certain and assumed, and sometimes we are even unaware of them, and in this respect, they function as our presuppositions.

What is meant by a presupposition?

A belief seemingly is just a belief, but in reality, it relies on many other beliefs and conceals several items of belief within itself. To determine the truth or falsity of belief A, our path naturally leads to beliefs B, C, and so on, which are present in the deeper layers of belief A; here, the truth of belief A is conditional upon the truth of beliefs B, C, etc., such that until we have clarified our position on those underlying beliefs, determining the truth or falsity of the supervening belief (belief A) is impossible.

Let us suppose you believe that Babak is a financial consultant for large companies. The truth of this belief is contingent upon the truth of another belief, namely that Babak is capable of performing simple mathematical calculations; that is, if this latter belief is false, your primary and original belief cannot be true either. Of course, this is a simple example; we can call the beliefs that, in relation to each individual belief, reside in deeper layers and must be discovered through reflection and investigation, presuppositions. Presuppositions are of the nature of beliefs, and they themselves, possibly in the role of a primary belief, rely on other presuppositions.

These kinds of beliefs (presuppositions), which are present at the very foundation of our set of opinions and in the underlying layers of our thought structure, and upon whose truth many of our opinions depend, can be called basic beliefs. They are so fundamental and radical that they direct our way of looking at ourselves, others, life, and the world, and play an influential and decisive role in our manner of behaving with others and our type of reaction to everyday events and incidents. Philosophy strives, by posing questions in the domain of basic beliefs, to give an appropriate response to our truth-seeking concern. For example, the opinion that "child abuse is wrong" is based on presuppositions without examining which we cannot have a clear and defensible picture of it; we must raise questions about what the meaning of the rightness of an action is? What makes an action right? Why should we be moral in the first place? Hence, there are more fundamental beliefs behind my opinion, and until I have assessed their truth or falsity, I cannot rationally be at ease about its truth. Holding any position regarding the rightness or wrongness of actions plays a fundamental role in our way of life.

Examples of basic beliefs include beliefs about values, the meaning of life, moral oughts and ought-nots, God, and the limits of our ability to know things.

8_ Our basic beliefs are an inseparable part of our lives and determine our overall perspective on it, such that we think, decide, react, and act within and through them. Therefore, whenever we turn to our basic beliefs to do justice to the truth by reasoning and thinking about their correctness or incorrectness, we have engaged in a philosophical activity and become a guest of philosophy. From this perspective, it is not out of place to say:

“All men and women are philosophers, though some more so than others… [They] may not realize they have philosophical problems, but they have philosophical prejudices in any case. These prejudices are often theories that they unconsciously take for granted… These are prejudices in the sense that they are adopted without examination or critical assessment, even though they may be of great importance in people’s practical actions and in their entire lives.” [5]

9_ It is good to take a step further and see how philosophical, truth-seeking intellectual activity is carried out, and what is meant by examining philosophical prejudices? In a general overview, and regardless of the details, we can identify and articulate the map that philosophical-intellectual activity (which bears the name of philosophizing on its forehead) follows, in five major intellectual activities.

1) First, we discover and extract our presuppositions to see what we think and how we think about the fundamental and important issues of life. In this way, our fundamental beliefs, which have probably been unconscious until now, or conscious but unexamined, become apparent to us so they can be subjected to examination and testing.

2) Since we intend to engage in intellectual activity, we must see what the principles and rules of thinking are so we do not go astray. We must ask ourselves how we draw conclusions from the premises and evidence at our disposal, what reasoning is, and what characteristics make a reasoning correct. (Logic)

3) Now we must see what the constituent parts of those fundamental beliefs are, what key concepts they are composed of, and what their meaning and significance are. Many of our beliefs are replete with concepts that we use extensively but have not scrutinized, such as truth, knowledge, God, determinism, free will, value, good, bad, love, faith, science, beauty, rationality.

4) Then we must engage in discovering and extracting the presuppositions and logical implications of those fundamental beliefs themselves, meaning we must see, firstly, upon the truth of what other beliefs the truth of fundamental belief A is based, and secondly, the truth of fundamental belief A necessitates the truth of what other beliefs. For example, consider the belief that “the only thing that makes life meaningful is pleasure, i.e., sensory and bodily pleasures.” The truth and correctness of this belief is based on the truth of another belief that “matters such as the search for truth, love, the flourishing of talents, and moral virtue play no role in giving meaning to life” (presupposition). Also, the belief that “the only thing that makes life meaningful is pleasure, i.e., sensory and bodily pleasures,” entails, that is, necessitates the belief that “someone who cannot or does not want to fill their life with sensory and bodily pleasures lacks a meaningful life” (implication).

5) After this, we must examine the truth or falsity of our fundamental beliefs and seek to construct and develop theories about life and its various aspects. We want to know what position to take regarding our fundamental issues. For example, we address our perspective on existence (the branch of metaphysics or ontology in philosophy) and ask questions such as: Is the reality of existence material or immaterial? Is the human being limited to the body or possessed of dimensions other than the body? We reflect on the capacity and limits of human knowledge (the branch of epistemology in philosophy) and ask questions such as: What is knowledge, and when can we speak of knowing something? Does the human being have the capacity to know all matters? Through what means is knowledge obtained? We think about how to live, what values to follow, what oughts and ought-nots to adopt in our behaviors, and, in general, the value and meaning of life (the branch of axiology in philosophy).

10_ So philosophy is a permanent feast with perennial questions, because our nature as humans (recall the capacity for reflective awareness) is such that we question the truth of our beliefs and the correctness of our life’s path, and this questioning and truth-seeking inevitably takes us to a city where the fundamental questions of philosophy await us. Therefore,

"Whether we like it or not, we cannot escape philosophy; for no matter which path of knowledge we travel, philosophy lies in wait for us with its questions."[6]

Endnotes

[1] “Reflective Consciousness” in APA Dictionary of Psychology (Second edition), Gary R. VandenBos (Editor), 2015

[2] I read this phrase years ago somewhere, but after extensive searching, I was unable to find a trace of it.

[3] An expression from John Campbell, who says: "Philosophy is thinking in slow motion." See:

Lacewing, Michael, Philosophy For As and A Level (Epistemology and Moral Philosophy), Routledge, 2017, p 6

[4] I learned the basis of this classification from Mr. Mostafa Malekian. For example, see: Malekian, Mostafa, Rahi be Rahayi (A Path to Liberation), 3rd edition, Nashr-e Negah-e Mo'aser, 2008, p. 88. For a more detailed and slightly different explanation, see: Hospers, John, An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis, translated by Musa Akrami, 2nd edition, Tarh-e No Publications, 2008, pp. 31-32

[5] Bontempo, Charles J., Odell, S. Jack, The Owl of Minerva (Philosophy as Told by Philosophers), translated by Masoud Olya, 2nd edition, Qoqnoos Publishing, 2014, pp. 70 & 79

[6] Stace, Walter Terence, Selected Essays of Stace, translated by Abdolhossein Azarang, 2nd edition, Hermes Publishing, 2001, p. 67

What Is Philosophy? (Introducing Philosophy to the Uninitiated)

Mehdi Ghafourian (PhD Graduate in Philosophy)

[email protected]