Nancy asked:

I am in an introductory course of philosophy and am having a very hard time understanding the
process of philosophy. I was always under the impression that philosophy was simply asking
questions and discussing different ideas in response to the questions, with the sole intention being to
learn other people's ideas and thoughts, without having to prove or disprove anything.

Now I'm finding that philosophy can only be considered a process if an argument is stated and the
premises and conclusion torn apart and examined in fine detail, as if the professor has the right
answer and the students must accept that answer. Is it true that there is a right or wrong answer to
philosophical questions or is there never going to be a known and accepted truth? I'm not trying to be
snide, I am truly confused about what philosophy and the philosophical process really are.

============

Philosophy is about learning to see things differently. It is also about arguments. As a student of
philosophy, you are learning to expand and increase your powers of vision — your philosophical
imagination — as well as developing your logical and argumentative skills.

It is perhaps true that there will never be a definitive answer to any of the perennial questions of
philosophy. However, when looking at a particular example of argument, it is sometimes — not
always! — possible to be a lot more certain. This is often the frustrating thing for a student. Your
professor thinks that some argument is wrong, but the error might not at first be obvious, and maybe
you don't see it. What then? Do you say, 'Everyone is entitled to their own view, I'm keeping to mine?'

One of the things I tell my students is, be prepared to consider the possibility that you might be
wrong.I apply this rule to myself as well. Some times I find that I have been mistaken, even about
things I thought I was certain about. You could be mistaken too, about whether the argument you
were looking at is good or not. Some arguments are just bad arguments, and this could be one of
them.

Geoffrey Klempner

Your teacher has given you an impression of philosophy as "tearing apart" and "examination in fine
detail" of various parts of propositions. Your teacher obviously has considerable analytical prowess,
but unfortunately the exercise of this talent is not the same as doing philosophy and you have been
given a bad or wrong impression. The object of philosophy is the truth of what is and the process is
what is called thinking. The truth of what is cannot be confronted head on because that assumes that
the truth of what is is a 'thing', and if it is a thing it is one thing among others — but these are the
kinds of things philosophy wants to examine in the first place — and so the truth is allowed to
emerge, obliquely, from dialogue.Dialogue is one process, which although found in written from,
most notably in Plato, is essentially oral. Even Aristotle's philosophy is originally oral. It is not simply
to be found in propositions in his books. The notion that all philosophy is just footnotes to Plato
(Whitehead) shows the truth of another process: that philosophy is the exegesis of a few essential
texts. Exegesis is the vehicle of truth, in this case. Much of the history of philosophy is about
exegesis.

Philosophy is not about knowing the truth, but as the word philosophiasuggests, being on the wayto
it. "We learn to think by giving our mind to what there is to think about" Heidegger says. Philosophers
think about that which is most thought-provoking. But the question then is, what ismost
thought-provoking? The thought-provoking comes first: it appealsto us to think about it, to turn in its
direction.

Hegel said that "Truth consists in knowledge" and therefore an individual only knows the truth as a
function of reflection, that is, of thought. There are basic human questions about the nature of
ourselves and the world which are what appeal to us to think, and what philosophy seeks to know, in
order to know the truth. What is truth? is one of the basic questions. That these questions have never
been answered means that they have a transcendent quality, something which in itself is
thought-worthy, both in terms of ourselves and our world. What kind of persons are we that these
questions are ever before us? What kind of world is it that gives rise to such questions without
answer? At the same time, our philosophy — our yearning after truth — draws humanity on and
redefines our place in the world as well as our perception of it.

Jaspers gives a succinct definition of philosophy and its process: "Philosophy is the principle of
concentration through which man becomes himself, by partaking of reality." Analysis of propositions
has its place in this process but philosophy is in no way reducible to it.

Matthew Del Nevo

www.sicetnon.com