#Phi-comm: Who murdered philosophy?
Dear Human Being,
Prepare for a rant. A rant about my beloved western philosophy.
Have you ever felt a gripping excitement as you stand on the porch of your friend's house, waiting for them to open the door and sink in your embrace? Think back to the warm fuzzy expectation tingling your stomach as you prepare for a rambling word-vomit with someone who understands you, as you are ready to step into a comfort zone where you can be you and they can be your fluffy blanket. That is exactly how I felt several days ago walking into the philosophy section of the public library I discovered near my new house. I breathed in the musty smell of books and thought to myself "This is my home, this is where I find minds that have the capacity to entangle me with intellectual satisfaction. Here live my hundreds of kindred souls who have suffered like rest of us, human beings, but had the courage to flash their souls at us." And, yes, I can be an obsessive introvert at times.
Then the sad twist disrupted my bright afternoon. As I walked from shelf to shelf, my hopes shattered and frightening despair tiptoed to their place. What I found instead of neatly ordered writings of my favorite philosophers were sickly-yellowish hardcover books of commentary, analysis, and dissemination of every single word and every single life event of every philosopher of minor historical importance. And frankly...They were boring. Yet I picked up those books, some of which seemed strangely virgin for their age, unread. I skimmed through them simultaneously lost and disgraced. Barely understandable sentences that went on and on for pages looked snobbishly back at me as if saying "You do not have a philosophy degree, you do not get to read us." Suddenly, I was transported back to high school, an awkward teenager again, rejected by cliques and hoping to one day to fit in.
When did philosophy become so cliquish? It is certainly not what it was meant to be. Defined as "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence" it touches upon the very core of our lives - being human, which is one of the most exciting, confusing and complicated activities that we and only we reading this post, share (unless my reader is an alien or a transhumanistic being, in which case I salute you and hope that you have come in peace).
I love philosophy. It has given me a safe space to embrace my existential angst (my excuse for my weirdness), and a peculiar comradery among people I have never met but who have had the same struggles and the courage to think about them. Philosophy was built for us, human beings, by daring thinkers to ease the pain and confusion of existing. It was kindly meant to give or at least attempt to give answers to eternal questions like "What is the meaning of life? What is the source of this soul-sucking anxiety? How do I find love in this world? Why do I feel lonely so often? What am I, apart from consciousness stuffed into a meat sack?"
So when was that dreadful moment when philosophy turned from a shared activity to an inaccessible parallel dimension meant for VIPs only?
A peculiar comparison can be made between western and eastern philosophies. When western philosophy is that awkward kid no one talks to, eastern is the talk of the town, especially among Millenials and Gen Z. With the mind-bending techniques like meditation and yoga, eastern philosophy has found a way to creep into the modern idea of endless self-development and peaceful existence. Thus, the difference between eastern and western philosophy is apparent: it is in the applicability. Is western philosophy applicable to the very human everyday problems? Are philosophers such an exclusive bunch that spends hours debating the definition of life? A little, yes. But in reality, it is quite the contrary! Here are some examples: Do you struggle with anxiety? - Read Kierkegaard and see that anxiety is the price we pay for freedom. Existential angst? - turn to Camus as to why life is actually worth living despite the recursive futility of our attempts to succeed in it. Feel like whining about stupid humans that surround you at work? - Nietzsche is your guy to complain about and maybe find some solutions!
Sadly, nowadays Western philosophy has turned into a punchline major that your second cousin (let's call him Jim) studies. The same cousin all the doctors and lawyers in the family consider a "wasted potential". Funnily, those are the same doctors and lawyers that might actually benefit from an honest conversation with smart little Jim. One bright day they might sit him down and vomit their problems with fear of losing a position and cheating wife and midlife crisis to which Jim will reply with a smirk. Then he will go into a monologue about status anxiety and how to deal with it, about the intricacies of existential crisis and transhumanism as a hope for humanity. Everyone will suddenly love Jim. Sadly, he does not come to family gatherings, barely leaving the university library, always watched by university staff that makes sure he stays very intellectual and on top of his studies. Why would he think of interacting with others when he can talk to his fellow philosophy students and come up with yet another book to discuss. As you, dear human being, might have guessed, Jim is a metaphor for philosophy and he has been recently robbed. What was stolen was practicality.
Thus, I call upon a new concept: #phi-comm, short for philosophy communication. Similar to sci-comm, its idea is to share philosophical concepts in a non-snobby way and to show how they might improve the everyday lives of regular human beings. Academic philosophy is brilliant and has contributed to the development of the field. Only we have barely noticed. The time has come to open the gates and let the philosophy burst into simple lives of complicated creatures - humans.