what does a philosopher do?

["Alice Evans" <apyyae@nottingham.ac.uk>]

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** For Your Eyes Only **

no, no no, its not about the way philosophers work, the only thing which defines philosophy is the subject matter rather than approach to subject matter. the approach to literature and history is much the same, its analysing concepts and exploring propositions. So when one studies "why truman dropped the atomic bomb" one will look at competing hypotheses, explore inconsistencies, use logical and valid arguments and then come to one's thesis, before criticising this, making a synthesis etc etc. Same method as a philosopher, but different topic. In addition, when studying roger mcgough's poetry we explore his use of sound, visual layout on the page, line length, sentence length, punctuation, metaphors, rhythm etc etc

similar method, different content.


So what makes 'philosophical' content different?


surely it's fairly simple,

a philosopher attempts to analyse the nature of the world and grasp the truth without studying the physical properties of their subject matter.

now for a bit of rhetoric, if this definition is to work it must not be too liberal as to include that which isnt philosophy and musnt be too chauvinist so that anything we want to term as philosophy is left out.

ok, so does it work according to this criterion?

well let's take some alternative disciplines to see whether it is to 'liberal':

1. physicists, psychologists and sociologists attempt to analyse what's going on in the physical world but they rely on experiential data, so no, they fail this test, hence are not philosophers (well at least not when they are solely engaged in this activity but may well 'philosophise' after tea...)

2. historians use data and past happenings, so if we put 'spacial-temporal' under the category of 'physical properties' then such persons are also ruled and out and are excluded under this definition

3. english literature, well ok, make the definition a little looser... dangerous waters perhaps. non-fiction relies on the physical properties of the world (in that it refers to them hence is termed 'non-fiction') so fails, and fiction is also an attempt to replicate and explore the physical world (ok a bit tenuous but actually if u think about it, fiction purports to be a conceivable physical world and hence also relies upon it)

ok, so i think my defintion passes the 'liberal' test

but is it too chauvinist?

is anything we would term as 'philosophy' left out?

1. well, first, what do i mean by 'analyse' - i mean to grasp a concept, make a hypothesis about causal relations, ask questions, explore inconsistencies etc..

so let's take a few test cases,

political philosophy; yes, i think that works, chats about rights, desert, merit, justice, yes it refers to what we do in the physical world but it doesnt actually require a physical subject for discussion. whereas chats about truman kinda require for him to have used the bombs to 'scare' the soviet union etc... atomic diplomacy etc and chats about why characters do certain things. ok, yeh with philosophy, we do study plato's stuff - so it requires him to have done something but thats not my point, all disciplines study 'past masters', what differs is what such persons do. in philosophy they do not use spacio-temporal data

ethics; oooh, dangerous turf, cos maybe it's a bit like fiction, hypothesising about what could happen if x did y... umm... yeh, but theoretical not 'data'.

relation mind/ body ok - yes maybe science is used, so thats a stickler... but "the more science is used the less it becomes philosophy" is my escape route.. does that work? yeh... ish.

i could go on, these i selected as i thought they were the most contentious, i didnt want to lose u all in my rambling...


so philosophy is the exploration of that which cannot be explored by a study of the physical world, hence a philosopher does not use spacio-temporal data in his quests for truth. a philosopher will, however, apply much the same method as historians etc.

ok, trash at will, 

alice

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