Philosophy Departments often try to attract undergraduates by telling them about instrumental benefits of philosophy classes: learning generalizable reading, writing and reasoning skills, doing better on the LSAT, etc.
But here is a very real and much more direct reason why lots of people should take philosophy classes. Most people end up having children. And children ask lots of questions. These questions include philosophical ones. Moreover, as they grow, especially around the teenage years, philosophical questions come to have special existential import: why should I be virtuous, what is the point of life, is there life after death, is there a God, can I be sure of anything?
For children’s scientific questions, there is always Wikipedia. But that won’t be very helpful with the philosophical ones. In a less diverse society, where parents can count on agreeing philosophically with the schools, parents could outsource children’s philosophical questions to a teacher they agree with. Perhaps religious parents can count on such agreement if they send their children to a religious school, but in a public school this is unlikely. (And in any case, outsourcing to schools is still a way of buying into something like universal philosophical education.) So it seems that vast numbers of parents need philosophical education to raise their children well.
2 comments:
I LOVE this! I get all kinds of questions from my 2 year old and 4 year old that send me back to philosophy. My personal favorite is a variation of this conversation: Kid: "Why is today Thursday?" Matt: "Because yesterday is Wednesday and tomorrow will be Friday." Kid: "But why?" Matt: "Because sometime in the past somebody decided to name days, and they decided that Thursday would come between Wednesday and Friday." But, honestly, I'm not terribly pleased with my answer. It feels shallow. Lot's of times, I take the tack that a famous man's father (either Carl Sagan or Richard Feynman, I can't remember which one) took. I'll say, "That's an interesting question. Let's look up the answer," or "That's an interesting question. Maybe someday you'll figure it out." But I'm definitely feel the need to go deeper. It also strikes me that, when it comes to WHY questions, one's understanding of teleology becomes terribly practical.
Yes. This is a good point Pruss. I’ve noticed also the necessity of daily robust philosophical thinking necessary for youth ministry. I had one senior ask if we could sin again and heaven, etc. One of the leaders said a definite no, but didn’t explain much more. I expanded on this and asked the student if it would be more perfect or not if there would be sin in heaven. He said it would be less perfect in heaven if there was sin. So even though I didn’t expand too much on the idea of sin, and the conquering of sin and death in the resurrection I noticed I put my philosophy cap on and this student appreciated the clarity.
I also think talking philosophy in the local church is helpful. There are people struggling silently with problem of evil issues, predestination, etc and I feel as I’m just getting into analytic theology that I have some helpful resources under my belt that can help these struggling saints. So it’s interesting how philosophy can truly help all age groups. Thanks for actually reinforcing this in my mind.
I do wonder though how we answer questions like Matthew Kennel’s children have asked, about Thursday being such and such a day and why, etc. If someone is intermediate in their knowledge of ontology of time, then how does one simplify to various appropriate ages.
Helpful notes Pruss
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