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This episode is brought to you by Blinkist, so there’s a type of comment we get pretty often that really drives me nuts. The gist is that some people want us to stay away from political and social issues and get back to doing “actual philosophy.” Now, this both annoys and fascinates me because it begs the question: what is “actual philosophy” supposed to do in the first place? And for that matter, does it even have a purpose in a world where science has solved many of our biggest problems?
Many of us turn to books like Plato’s Republic, or a Critique of Pure Reason, or Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals when we want to scratch that philosophical itch. But why do we assume that these old, difficult texts can still teach us anything? Many of them were written before the discovery of the theory of evolution, much less before the discovery of the concept of the burrito bowl (also, Chipotle, if you’re watching, just sponsor us at this point - I have your food in my belly for one out of three videos. We’re doing - you might as well just be paying for that food to be in my belly).
And as we recently discussed, many were written by dead white dudes who, at best, were ignorant of things like racism, slavery, and patriarchy, and at worst, enthusiastic participants in them. So maybe philosophical ideas are interesting as historical texts, but it’s not like anyone other than historians of science would spend time slogging through Newton’s Principia because the field of physics has gone way, way beyond it. So why doesn’t philosophy progress in that same linear way?
And even if we narrow the scope to contemporary academic philosophers, we’re talking about folks who dedicate their lives to very specific and often very technical questions whose work is pretty much only read by fellow specialists. So what does philosophy really have to do with anything? What is spending time getting a degree in philosophy or reading super dense books or watching playlists of YouTube videos actually doing for us?
Well, let’s find out in this Wisecrack Edition: What’s the Point of Philosophy? Now, one way I’m constantly trying to figure out the usefulness of philosophy is by reading both more philosophy and about philosophers, but it’s hard because I only have so much time - which is why I’m really excited that this video is sponsored by Blinkist.
The Blinkist app gives you access to over 5,500 non-fiction books and podcasts, most of which you can get your head around in about 15 minutes and they have things on so many topics and stuff that I know you guys are all super interested in. A book that I recently checked out with the help of Blinkist is Becoming Beauvoir by Kate Kirkpatrick. Now, you’ve probably heard us talk about it before, but Simone de Beauvoir is one of our favorite philosophers and someone who doesn’t get enough credit, and this book is really great because it both gives context about her philosophy but also her life and how the two relate.
In thinking about the usefulness of philosophy, it’s such a helpful book because Beauvoir, like a lot of the existentialists, was concerned with what philosophy is about - the living of life. And it’s incredibly cool that, in 24 minutes, I was able to listen to really important parts of this book and learn a lot of stuff.
They also have a really cool new feature called Blinkist Connect, which allows every Premium plan to be shared by two different accounts. So maybe you and your partner will want to share the account, or maybe you and one of your friends want to share the account, but you can recommend things to each other. That’s something I’m excited to use with my friends here at Wisecrack, because we’re constantly talking about ideas and books.
So I’m stoked that maybe - if someone will share my account with me - I can tell them what books I like. Click the link in the description or go to www.blinkist.com/wisecrack to get your own Premium account at 25% off, and you can also get a 7-day free trial so you can see if you like it.