[Bups-dis] a late reply

[S.F. Erskine]

Hello, 

I think Ron is right that the reasoning we use in 'everyday' situations can 
be the same reason we apply to some sorts of philosophical problems. But to 
say that we are using 'philosophy' to solve problems eg. about whether 
Johnny needs new shoes seems to me inappropriate (even with your own 
definition, it doesn't seem clear that you are significantly increasing 
human understanding by inquiring in THIS way). But certainly reason - one 
of the philosophers' tools, in my opinion - is something we use every day 
of our lives.

However, 'reason' is a difficult term and I think fits a great many 
different ways of thinking. There is a sense of 'rational' quite close to 
the literal meaning of 'reasonable' in which everything that anyone ever 
does is rational since they have (what they think of as at least) some good 
reasons for doing it. Whether it is useful here to make a distinction 
between subjective and objective rationality, I'm not sure. But this kind 
of 'reason' should, I think, be distinguished from the formal, deductive 
reasoning which philosophers often like to apply to problems. So again, I 
think the kind of reason used in eg. working out whether to do your 
shopping first or get a haircut is often a different kind of reason to that 
used in eg. working out whether people survive death, and so on. Obviously, 
though, different philosophers use different methods...

In response to Luis:

I think a distinction needs to be made between different kinds talk of 
purposes. Most objects can be used for a wide variety of purposes if we 
choose to so use them, and it is in this sense that you might use bups-dis 
'for the purpose of' offending me. In the same way, I might use a knife 
'for the purpose of' being part of an artistic sculpture. However, there is 
often (especially with man-made artefacts) an intended purpose for objects: 
most people would disagree that THE purpose of a knife is to be part of 
artistic sculptures, but would say that its purpose is for cutting things. 
Similarly - as far as I can work out - THE (intended) purpose of bups-dis 
is to enable undergraduates to participate in philosophical discussion. So 
I suppose I was asking what the purpose of philosophy is in the sense of 
asking what THE purpose of it is - what it's meant to be used for - rather 
than what people actually do happen to use it for.

Lastly, I'm curious about the fact that you see philosophy as a means to 
self-improvement but don't employ it in everyday life. Do you mean that you 
see it as a means to academic self-improvement? And how does this purpose 
fit in with the recreational one?