Stephen Law - The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking

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Contents

For Tilda

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to a number of philosophers, including Anita Avramides, Alan Carter, Michael Clark, Michael Lacewing, Scott Sturgeon, James Rachels and Stephen Williams. Im especially indebted to Nigel Warburton, who read and commented in detail on many of the chapters.

Addition help was provided by Elene Kostas, Maureen and Bill Law, Chris Michael and Emma Webb, David Mills and Catherine Pepinster. Tony Youens, of the Association for Skeptical Enquiry, assisted me with the chapter on miracles. A special thank you to Mick ONeill, Taryn Storey and John and Karenza Storey for their very useful advice.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wondered where the universe came from? Whether a machine might think? If time travel is possible? Whether its morally acceptable to design children genetically? Then you have already begun to think philosophically. Each chapter of this book provides a short, easy to follow introduction to such a philosophical puzzle or mystery, taking you through key arguments and ideas in an accessible, and, I hope, entertaining way.

What is Philosophy?

What is philosophy, exactly? Philosophy deals with certain questions. The first thing to notice about these questions is that they have a depth that appears to make them unanswerable by science.

One of the deepest philosophical mysteries the first addressed in this book is: why is there something, rather than nothing? Why does the universe, or indeed anything at all, exist? An astrophysicist might tell us that the universe began with the Big Bang. But this merely postpones the mystery. For the question then becomes: and why was there a Big Bang? Whatever scientists posit to explain why there is something rather than nothing itself becomes part of the something the existence of which needs explaining. Science cannot solve the mystery of why there is anything at all.

Moral questions are also important questions that science cannot answer. Take the question of whether we should genetically design our children. Science may one day allow us to do so. It cant tell us whether we should do so.

Its with such questions that philosophers grapple; deep questions that appear to reach beyond the point where science might provide us with answers.

True, its not just philosophy that addresses these questions. Religion also offers answers to many of them. Religions typically try to explain the existence of the universe, e.g. they claim it was created by God. And in many cases they lay down moral commandments. For example, there are passages in the Bible that condemn stealing, killing and homosexuality.

So how do philosophy and religion differ? One feature of philosophy that can set it apart from religion is that it is supposed to be an essentially rational enterprise. Philosophers are interested in justifying their answers to these questions. While religion tries to provide answers, it doesnt always attempt to make a reasoned case for accepting them. Often, the answers are handed down by a religious authority to be accepted on faith. Where that is the case, philosophy and religion part company.

Its easy to come up with a philosophical position on something. Ask me where the universe came from and I could suggest it was created by a huge yellow banana called Duffy. The trick, of course, lies in coming up with grounds for supposing this answer is actually correct. In the Western tradition, no one is much interested in someones philosophical point of view unless they are able to justify it. Unless I can present a reasoned case for supposing the universe was created by a huge yellow banana called Duffy, no philosopher will take me seriously. And quite right too.

Applying Philosophy to Life

People sometimes ask what philosophy has to do with everyday life. Perhaps more than they think.

Even if we have never studied philosophy, or heard of it, we all hold a great many philosophical beliefs. Take, for example, the belief that physical objects continue to exist even when no one is experiencing them. Thats a belief we all share. Yet it is, for all that, a philosophical belief, a belief famously challenged by the eighteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley.

Other examples are not hard to find. Belief in an afterlife is a philosophical belief. So, too, is the belief that death is the end. The majority of us believe that morality is not just a matter of subjective preference. We believe that infanticide is wrong, period. Its not wrong-for-us but right-for-anyone-who-thinks-otherwise. Again, thats a philosophical belief. And of course so, too, are atheism and belief in God.

Clearly, many of these beliefs have a direct impact on day-to-day life. Take, for example, someone who believes in reincarnation. They may for that reason lead a rather different sort of existence from someone who does not. They may be less frightened of death, for example. And an individual who genuinely believes morality to be nothing more than a matter of subjective preference may be much more likely to cheat and steal if they think they can get away with it. Our philosophical attitudes play a fundamental role in shaping our lives.

Philosophy can also help us with innumerable practical questions, particularly questions about what we ought or ought not to do. The chapters that follow provide a number of concrete examples. Is it right to sacrifice the life of one conjoined twin to save the other? Is gay sex morally permissible? Should children be sent to religious schools? Is it morally acceptable to eat meat? You will discover how all these questions can be illuminated by a little philosophical thinking.

Other Reasons to Think Philosophically

Even where philosophy might seem to lack any direct relevance to everyday life, it remains valuable.

Most of us live out our lives within a very narrow envelope of concerns. We worry about how to pay the mortgage, whether to buy a new car, what to cook for dinner. When we start to think philosophically, we take a step back and look at the wider picture. We start to examine what we have previously taken for granted.

I believe that those who have never taken a step back who have lived wholly unexamined lives are not only rather shallow, theyre potentially dangerous. One great lesson of the twentieth century is that human beings, no matter how civilised, tend to be moral sheep. We are disastrously prone to follow without question the moral lead provided by those around us. From Nazi Germany to Rwanda, you find people blindly going with the flow.

An advantage of a little philosophical training is that it can provide the skills needed to think independently and question what others might take for granted. It can also help fortify your courage in making a moral stand. As the philosopher Professor Jonathan Glover points out in an interview in the Guardian :

If you look at the people who sheltered Jews under the Nazis, you find a number of things about them. One is that they tended to have a different kind of upbringing from the average person: they tended to be brought up in a non-authoritarian way, brought up to have sympathy with other people and to discuss things rather than just do what they were told.

Glover adds, teaching people to think rationally and critically actually can make a difference to peoples susceptibility to false ideologies. Admittedly, theres no guarantee that someone who has been encouraged to think critically will avoid such pitfalls. But, like Glover, I believe the greatest risk comes, not from a society of autonomous critical thinkers, but from a society of unreflective moral sheep.