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Philosophy, as literally translated from its native Greek to English, is the love of wisdom. Granted, it is pragmatic to know where one stands, and what side of the line they’re on with regards to realism, moral responsibility and skepticism. But after all, that isn’t solely what philosophy is about. Philosophy isn’t strictly a set of axioms for one’s life or lifestyle.
Philosophy is not as black and white as Mr. Gibson’s article (Philosophy Must be at Forefront of Education, Feb. 9, 2009) makes it seem. There is a lot of muddled gray area, a lot of room for inquiry and great possibility to form one’s own conclusions. After all, Plato’s “Apology” is a dialogue of inquiry. In it, Plato persuades people to analyze themselves, effectively putting them on trial while he was on trial himself.
One of my professors would say that “wisdom is not a store house of thoughts,” and “one should never settle.” Both are comments with which I agree whole heartedly. If “confused and inconsistent responses,” as Gibson put it, are all someone is capable of giving at a time, then that is sufficient for what philosophy really is. The only necessity to overcome this is that one continues to be inquisitive and does not settle for one answer.
It seems Mr. Gibson was talking about “ideology,” which in the literal definition stems from idea, and the Greek ‘logos’, for ‘account.’ Philosophy, however, is not an account. Philosophy is a love, which cannot be encompassed in an action.
Gibson also stated that “to really change our beliefs we must bring strong philosophies to the forefront of education.” I must say that I agree with this statement in a sense, yet I highly doubt it is the sense in which Gibson intended the statement to be taken. I believe that the subject of philosophy should definitely have a place in pre-university education. However, Gibson is using the term philosophy as and axiom. If the people who need to change their beliefs have not yet come to a conclusion, nor can they relate, they surely should not be educating themselves in their uncertainty and confusion.
Gibson writes as if philosophy is a means to some end. In the article, he says things like ” . if they even thought to bring the proper tools along,” and “when people don’t have philosophy to guide them …” Gibson’s writing style is vastly conditional, with a lot of “if’s,” “then’s” and “when.” Throughout his article, he continues to place a weight on philosophy as a means to an end. However, other philosophers can easily argue that philosophy is not a means, but an end in itself: Aristotle advocates rational agency as the chief human good.
I believe philosophy is, as definition states, a love of wisdom. Love of wisdom does not equate to fear of its opposite – ignorance. To truly embrace wisdom, one needs to be – and to stay – open minded, and to constantly be critical of the subjective world.
Katie MacDonald is a sophomore philosophy student.
