2008 Woodie Awards
Philosophy is simpler than just theories
Fred Bauer, Special to Le Provocateur
Issue date: 9/30/04 Section: Viewpoint
Every Five-Year-Old Has a Philosophy.
G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic writer, thought so: "We think that for a landlady considering a lodger it is important to know his income, but still more important to know his philosophy." W. James, the great American thinker, agreed: "I think with Mr. Chesterton in this matter. I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds."
Every five- or six-year-old who can play the game of Twenty Questions--who knows the difference between persons, places, mineral things, vegetable things, and animal things--has a philosophy or worldview. Each one's higher education, whether it begins with kindergarten or first grade, must of necessity build on that philosophy which, since it is 'common' to every human of whom we have any record, is commonly called "common sense."
From those simple premises, it follows that whoever agrees with Chesterton and James must also agree that there exist in this world, in 2004, several billion philosophies or worldviews.
Like mine, yours is just one of those billions. Like mine when I was a freshman in college, your philosophy is probably overloaded with vast amounts of clutter. By 'clutter,' I mean beliefs that are false. Among the clutter in my mind when I was eighteen was the belief that there exists a single, collective body of knowledge named "philosophy." At the same time, my philosophy had a huge gap in it. I was utterly unaware of what Chesterton and James knew, namely, that I had a philosophy. The result was predictable. I was completely gullible when I was told in my first 'philosophy' course, that philosophy is cognitio certa per ultimas causas procedens sub lumine naturali rationis. Translated, that means that philosophy is knowledge that is certain and is by way of ultimate causes; it also operates by the light of natural reason. Well, I certainly didn't have that kind of knowledge.
G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic writer, thought so: "We think that for a landlady considering a lodger it is important to know his income, but still more important to know his philosophy." W. James, the great American thinker, agreed: "I think with Mr. Chesterton in this matter. I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds."
Every five- or six-year-old who can play the game of Twenty Questions--who knows the difference between persons, places, mineral things, vegetable things, and animal things--has a philosophy or worldview. Each one's higher education, whether it begins with kindergarten or first grade, must of necessity build on that philosophy which, since it is 'common' to every human of whom we have any record, is commonly called "common sense."
From those simple premises, it follows that whoever agrees with Chesterton and James must also agree that there exist in this world, in 2004, several billion philosophies or worldviews.
Like mine, yours is just one of those billions. Like mine when I was a freshman in college, your philosophy is probably overloaded with vast amounts of clutter. By 'clutter,' I mean beliefs that are false. Among the clutter in my mind when I was eighteen was the belief that there exists a single, collective body of knowledge named "philosophy." At the same time, my philosophy had a huge gap in it. I was utterly unaware of what Chesterton and James knew, namely, that I had a philosophy. The result was predictable. I was completely gullible when I was told in my first 'philosophy' course, that philosophy is cognitio certa per ultimas causas procedens sub lumine naturali rationis. Translated, that means that philosophy is knowledge that is certain and is by way of ultimate causes; it also operates by the light of natural reason. Well, I certainly didn't have that kind of knowledge.