How did I get through my entire education without studying so much as a page of philosophy? It is, after all, the foundation of all human knowledge. In desperate act of catch-up, I’ve attempted in the past few years an often difficult program of philosophical and theological self-study.
Now, before you think I’ve gone way off topic on a homesteading blog, let me counter with a few examples of how philosophy can help navigate thorny DIY questions:
- How should one evaluate arguments for or against compost tea, organic gardening, or Hugelkultur beds?
- Is it ethical to drive/fly/buy stuff in plastic bottles given our ongoing ecological crisis?
- Do the humanities or arts have anything meaningful to contribute to our understanding of nature or is the whole shebang covered under the sciences?
In one of the Republican debates last year Marco Rubio quipped that America needs more welders and fewer philosophers. It’s true that much of academic philosophy has devolved into either arcane navel gazing or a dogmatic neuroscience-based materialist orthodoxy. And good luck getting a job with a philosophy degree. But it’s my hope that the practical side of philosophy can be reclaimed, though that might have to happen outside of the context of the university. As an example the creative folks at the Idler Academy in London offer both beekeeping and philosophy classes. To Rubio’s assertion I would counter that we need people who can both weld and understand a logical or ethical argument.
Attempting my own self-study program hasn’t been easy. There’s been a whole bunch of $50 words to learn and I can’t say that I’m anywhere near the point where I can explain key concepts. It would have been better to have started this program earlier in my life and integrated with all the other things I had to study in school.
But as to how to get that self-study program going, I recently found a book that covers the history of philosophy in a clear and entertaining format: Oxford professor Anthony Kenny’s A Brief History of Western Philosophy. I also struggled through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, a difficult but worthwhile tome that completely changed my view of history. You can listen to a five part interview with Taylor via the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Ideas show (this, by the way, shows the cultural superiority of Canadians–I doubt our NPR would do a five hour interview with a philosopher!). But I’d recommend starting with Kenny’s book. Even a cursory study of Aristotle and Plato unlocks a lot of the key issues and debates in Western culture.
In a few more years I hope to know the difference between my epistomologies and phenomenologies. Then I can move on to welding!
Bertrand Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy” is quite readable. Of course of no use at all about anything since 1946, when it was written, but if it’s Plato and Aristotle and Kant you want to know about, it’s pretty good.
I would like to recommend Matthew B. Crawford’s “Shop Class as Soulcraft.” I think it relates very well to some of the questions posed in your post.
If you are interested in philosophy, I highly recommend the podcast, Partially Examined Life. It makes philosophy so much more approachable, and entertaining.
Added to my podcatcher. I’ll check it out this week on my drives.
I was writing a post about my favorite high school class being a philosophy class taught by the assistant football coach until I started to think about what we actually did in that class and remembered that it was actually Personal Finance…..LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL…..
I did take a philosophy class in high school, though, and it did stick with me. My key takeaway, which I have actually applied for many years, is that every framework has strengths and weaknesses and none of them are perfect. That was actually a pretty valuable lesson.
I like that. Frameworks are never perfect.
I took three philosophy courses as electives in college. It turned out that I was asking the same questions that Descartes had been asking. However, I was only 7 years old riding the school bus to school. I doubted/questioned the names of things, wondering who made up these names. I doubted I was on the bus, thinking maybe I could be dreaming. It turns out, I am a lucid dreamer and had been awake during so many dreams and knew I was dreaming and awake, that it made me wonder when I was awake during the day if I were really awake or dreaming.
I kept all this to myself, thinking maybe I was crazy. Other people did not wake up during a dream. Mama said I was not awake, so I decided I must be crazy.
Imagine my surprise when I was finally vindicated in a philosophy class. Descartes questioned the same things!
Philosophy classes were so easy.
For reading on evaluating arguments, I would recommend Attacking Faulty Reasoning by T. Edward Damer. It only focuses on logical fallacies. But it catalogs several different types and explains how each fallacy works and why people use them. After reading it, it can be fun watching debates as the arguments fall apart–but also depressing seeing people fall into fallacies that they should know.
Yes that was a great series. As a Canadian I’m really proud of this show. I was able to meet Paul Kennedy after a Massey Lecture once and he was really enjoyable to talk with. I’m pondering trying to catch the Toronto Massey this year as I have plans to be near there in the fall.
I think philosophy has plenty of relevance on a homesteading blog.. I wouldn’t worry at all about mission drift there. I’m not much into the classical guys but I think for example that the Frankfurt School (and those inspired by it) is definitely useful when we’re talking about how to live differently.
A few reading suggestions of things I love:
Theodor Adorno “Free Time” (you can find it online)
Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies
Judith Butler, “Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life?” (also online)
Also, even though I just said that I’m not big into the Greeks, I really love Seneca’s On The Shortness of Life.
PS – Seneca was very definitely a Roman philosopher, not Greek. Oops 🙂