Philosophy is a gargantuan topic, an entire world unto itself

In which don't even begin to try to approach the topic from an educational perspective, but rather, an experiential one

Mar 22, 2023

If I think about the question, "what is philosophy?", I become overwhelmed pretty quickly. But I really think David Abram's description is one answer, regarding a specific perspective and its problems:

“...European philosophy has consistently occupied itself with the question of human specialness. Ever since Aristotle, philosophers have been concerned to demonstrate, in the most convincing manner possible, that human beings are significantly different from all other forms of life…Such demonstrations were, we may suspect, needed to justify the increasing manipulation and exploitation of nonhuman nature by, and for, (civilized) mankind.”

—David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous1(after which he goes on to talk about Descartes and dualism and the problems therein which have led to said manipulation and exploitation of the earth and all beings)

My introduction to philosophy however was through the works of Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran, when someone handed me an old, beautiful book for my 18th birthday. It was A Treasure of Kahlil Gibran and within it I found a deeply poetic, potent, wondrous way to not only look at the world around us, but speak of it as well. Gibran famously resisted the title of philosopher, referring to himself as a poet and a visual artist. But as an observer of the wonder, beauty, and realities of the world; he was a philosopher nonetheless.

I’m not really sure how useful it is to address the history of philosophy in the Beyond the Altar seminar series, through yet one more litany of philosopher and theorist heritage. I’ve never been very good at this kind of recitation in the first place but also, there’s just so much material already out there on this. So what is our point of departure here, then? Maybe it’s simply to muse on philosophy, philosophically; to meander in what it means or how it shows up in the world, at least for me. Philosophy is the place where we give pause to wonder. We indulge our questions without concern for any answers, but in the pursuit of our curiosity. To philosophize is a catalyst to converse, contrast and compare observations and theories, to muse on conclusions, to engage in a friendly debate with other thinkers, and wonderers. And among the greatest questions of all are the ones that ask what it means to be human. Now, more than ever, we must also ask what it means to be one being among an infinite number of beings with personhood, agency, and relationships to us, the earth, and the cosmos (and our interconnectivity to each other within it).

I pulled this quote from David Abram’s The Spell of the Sensuous that described the explicit branches of philosophy we must move away from, for the reasons he identifies. I'm not invested in the philosophy David Abram references; and of course, I don’t believe he is, either. I think the illustration he makes is a big part of the point—Abram goes on further to discuss language and the ways in which written language has evolved to create abstractions out of our world in ways that oral traditions of language didn’t. And this is where my heart resides, a lot of the time, as someone who both explores ideas through written language but who also very much wants to take these and embody, feel, and live them in the world. My heart says, these ideas are important; but the way we talk about them, and act on them beyond just ethereal musing, is more important than ever.

So as I reflect, I find that language is in fact the very hang-up I’ve been facing in my own practice. In looking at the essay I thought I was going to write around this topic, I found myself asking, “Where is the heart in all of this, where is the passion and the vision and the magic that I’m experiencing through philosophy, in what I’m writing about philosophy?” I have to tell you that in getting caught up in the old familiar pattern of expository writing, as well as a desire to somehow fulfill my desire to explain these concepts, ideas, and histories; I’d essentially forgotten about the thread of passion and prose I’d hoped to find and reclaim throughout the whole of this project of writing that is at the core of Beyond the Altar. I suppose this is me saying, I am resuming my search, and my exploration, to find it.

All that said, parts I can recover from the old essay do remain and I’ll go into them here.

I began Beyond the Altar—and in fact, the entirety of my curatorial work and writing over the last 14 years—because I have never believed or observed that only philosophers philosophize, as many lettered academics do. I think philosophy—which in my opinion stems from a robust combination of curiosity and criticality, observation and analysis, and creative imagination alongside future dreaming—is embodied by every questioning human to some degree, which I know because the most philosophical and eloquent observers of the world I’ve ever known have no degree and no fame. They wear Carhartt's unironically and work with their hands at jobs in the trades. Even my own history of working in kitchens for 17 years recalls this truth. The number of intellectuals I met at the fires of those crucibles of wit, strength, and mettle remains unparalleled. It’s to them I probably owe the most credit, and gratitude—had it not been for the gift one chef gave that I didn’t understand at the time, a book by Wendell Berry, I may have never embarked upon this journey I’m on, today. The lesson I learned is, we all live in this world, and move through it accordingly, responsively, with some profoundly keen insights from our position amidst everything else. The world is not an abstraction. Everything about it is markedly concrete. And so are our thoughts about all of it.

So you see, philosophy isn’t about the memorization of other, often dead, peoples’ ponderings. It’s about being watchful of the world and the way all beings move through it, are influenced and impacted by it, who influence and impact the world in return. It’s about recognizing the vastness of space around our own very small part of existence and as such, it’s about the between spaces, and the between states. I think in this way, philosophy is inherently spiritual; regardless of our worldviews or cosmologies. So it surprises me when people aren’t interested—or what is more likely the case, don’t realize they are interested—in a way of thinking that is not only their birthright, but possibly even just the natural state of being human.

Philosophy has inspired some of the greatest, most confounding questions throughout time. Philosophy still compels us today because it brings a richness to our life, encouraging us to look at our world, the universe, and each other, as the complex, multifaceted, infinitely dimensional wonders we are. Philosophy is about the contextualization and synthesis of the immaterial with the material, together. We can apply it concretely, or mystically. It creates space to think deeply. Of course thinking takes time. But we have that. Thinking is not the sole purview of the scholar—we’re always thinking, all of us. Whatever we’re doing as we work, wherever we work, our thoughts are with us. Philosophy is a way of processing and examining something that changes the way we think but also the way we act in the world. If we’re given to a discipline that requires us to slow down, consider multiple perspectives and views, to weigh out ethics and possibilities of the known and unknown, then it stands to reason that our behaviors in the world will follow suit.

So for this module I didn't really want to give you an overview of philosophy, nor did I want to try to provide the history which is literally centuries in the making and also cross-cultural between Central, Southwest, South, or East Asia, North Africa, and Europe; all of that would have been far beyond my ability. So, rather, what I thought might be interesting is to focus on how philosophy functions, what philosophy looks like, how philosophy reads, and how we read and interpret philosophy. Instead, I had originally intended for this module to perform and display and engage in philosophy, collectively, and in my own writing. Over the course of the next few months, I hope that I can still demonstrate this, even as we move through different topics, by embodying the more spirited, ecstatic, joyful, and creative prose that philosophic thinking inspires in me.

And I hope that you join me! Please continue to share your thoughts, whatever it is that you’re reading, questions or observations, or criticisms you have; everything is up for debate and discussion!

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