Atrekic Buddhism
To be clear, atrekic Buddhism is not a variety of Buddhism. Itâs not un-Buddhist either, I think, but weâll get to that later. The term âatrekic Buddhismâ works in a similar way as âmethodological anarchismâ (famously proposed by Feyerabend) or âmetaphilosophical anarchismâ. The latter is a â more or less â anarchist approach to doing philosophy. It isnât anarchism per sĂŠ (i.e., anarchism as political ideology), but can be thought of as something like anarchism about philosophy. That said, it could be argued that (political) anarchists should also be metaphilosophical anarchists (but not necessarily the other way around), which doesnât...
On Hedgehogs, Koalas, and Other Animals
Outside academia, Isaiah Berlin is probably best known for his distinction between âfoxesâ and âhedgehogsâ based on Archilochus saying that âthe fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thingâ. When I first encountered a reference to this distinction I assumed that it had something to do with broad versus narrow knowledge or learning, with the Renaissance/âEnlightenment ideal of the homo universalis (or polymath) versus the academic (hyper-) specialist, or with Thomas Aquinasâs fear of âa man of one bookâ (homo unius libri), that is, someone who knows one book/âthing really well, but doesnât know much else. I...
Mythos, Wisdom, and Scavenger Philosophy
According to Karl Jaspers, philosophy arose in the âAxial Ageâ as a kind of critical reflection on myth and tradition. Nowadays, there is widespread agreement among historians of ideas that the notion of an âAxial Ageâ is itself a myth, but I think that the other part of Jaspersâ idea is right, that is, philosophy indeed originates in critical reflection on myth and tradition. This doesnât mean that this defines the scope and purpose of philosophy, of course â as a âmatureâ discipline, philosophy mostly reflects on itself â but I believe that reflection on this idea about the origins...
Is âPhilosophyâ Racist?
The term âphilosophyâ without any adjectives or other qualifications is generally understood to refer to Western philosophy. Introductory philosophy or ethics courses typically donât pay any attention to non-Western philosophers (or merely drop a name once or twice in an attempt to feign a broader perspective), and one can easily get a philosophy degree without ever seriously engaging with Chinese or Indian philosophy. While there has been some pressure to broaden the scope of âphilosophyâ, thus far very little progress has been made in this respect. One might (and should) wonder: What explains this resistance to a more inclusive understanding...
Dao and Second-Order Consequentialism
After king You of Zhou fell in love with Bao Si he exiled his wife, Queen Shen. The disgraced Shen family retaliated in 771 BCE by attacking and killing king You. The Zhou dynasty never recovered â although nominally it remained in power for another five centuries, this period was characterized by failing authority and nearly continuous war. Perhaps not coincidentally, this was also the most fruitful period in the intellectual history of China and is commonly recognized as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy. Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and many other of Chinaâs most famous philosophers lived...
Skepticism, Pragmatism, and Zebras
In 1970 Fred Dretske published a paper about a fairly technical issue in epistemology, In that paper he gave a âsilly exampleâ (his words) to illustrate some point about skepticism. Imagine that you take your kid to the zoo to see the zebras. Now, how do you know that the animals you are looking at are zebras? Dretske points out that most of us wouldnât hesitate to say that those animals are zebras: We know what zebras look like, and, besides, this is the city zoo and the animals are in a pen clearly marked âZebras.â Yet, somethingâs being a...
The Nature of Philosophy and its Relation with Empirical Science
In his Confessions, Saint Augustine (5th ct.) wrote: âWhat is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If someone asks me to explain it, I do not know.â You can substitute âphilosophyâ for âtimeâ in this quote and it will remain true: âWhat is philosophy? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If someone asks me to explain it, I do not know.â Perhaps I should refine this claim: the application of Augustineâs quote to âphilosophyâ is true at least for me. I donât know what philosophy is. And that is a source...
Anarchism as Metaphilosophy
Near the end of the prologue of Platoâs Republic, Socrates says to his opponent Thrasymachus that what they are discussing is âno ordinary/insignificant matter, but how we ought to liveâ (1.352d). As in many of Platoâs writings, Socrates here played the role of his mouthpiece: âHow we ought to liveâ was indeed no insignificant matter for Plato, but the starting point and ultimate purpose of his philosophical investigations. Relegating the pre-Socratic philosophers to the disciplineâs prehistory, it is sometimes suggested that Western philosophy started with Plato. Alfred North Whitehead even claimed that the history of Western philosophy âconsists of a...