Philosophy

Edmund Husserl: Cogitations on First Philosophy

Jun 17

Moravia born philosopher Edmund Husserl spent his life teaching in German universities, and during the course of his intellectual life, he came to be regarded as the leading and influential ﬁgure in phenomenology (which took two successive forms in his own work, descriptive and transcendental). In this Husserl Memorial Lecture from 2009, Prof. Robert Sokolowski speaks on “Husserl on First Philosophy”, where, he argues that in this day and age, Husserl offers the possibility of a return to first philosophy. In Aristotle, first philosophy is defined as the theorizing of being as being. It is also called metaphysics, even though it was not given that name by Aristotle himself. The book in which Aristotle carries out this first philosophy was was entitled ‘ta meta ta physika’ by its editors. They called it the study of issues that are “beyond’the physical things. The study of separate entities comprises only a small part of Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’. His first philosophy spends most of its time examining things like prediction, truth, falsity, contradiction, substances and accidents, definition, form and substrate, and the potential and the actual. Metaphysics theorizes truth. Beyond the physicals – “meta ta physika”. Logic, truth, contradiction and predication, belong to being as being, and not being as material. Aristotle turns to the examination of being as being, which is also what Husserl does. Husserl’s phenomenology can be defined as the study of intellect as intellect, mind as mind, reason as reason.

Immanuel Kant and the critique of reason

May 01

18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant single handedly put Germany on the map as an intellectual power (and lent it the pedantic tone for which it soon became notorious). British philosopher the late Sir Geoffrey Warnock gives us a glimpse into the mind and manner of the man who made sweeping revisions in nearly all branches of philosophy, thereby inspiring other philosophers to stop bickering among themselves and get serious about thinking again. Certainly effected what Kant called a “second Copernican revolution”: The origin of the world as we know it, he insisted, is the human mind itself, which, far from being tabula rasa (“a clean slate”), has an inherent structure through which we filter all experience and which imposes its own order on the world of phenomena (though not on the real/ideal world of “things-in-themselves – German Dinge-an-sich,” which is unknowable). Likewise, humans have an innate awareness of moral law, in the form of the categorical (i.e., unconditional) imperative (i.e., command), a sort of bottom-line ethical “ought.” In attempting to make the world safe for both god and science, Kant managed to restore some dignity to the idea of the human mind; also to destroy the credibility of traditional metaphysics (since we can’t “know” any external reality that isn’t colored by our own “knowing”), to make modern philosophy more subjective than objective (and to prefigure such radically man-centered movements as existentialism), and to widen the rift between philosophy and the physical sciences.

René Descartes: Philosophy and seventeenth century Rationalism

Apr 05

British philosopher and eminent Descartes scholar the late Sir Bernard Williams talks about the relevance and importance of Descartes as a seminal figure of modern philosophy. René Descartes, as a man of science, mathematics and philosophy, known best for his ‘Discourse on Method’ and ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, certainly marks the point at which the world decided to go ‘modern’. His philosophical system based on deductive reasoning and a priori truths, were the basis for seventeenth century Rationalism. Individualistic, lucid and methodical, he believed in innate ideas, ones that do not come to us through experience, and not to forget his contributions to analytic geometry and the mind-set behind the scientific method, Descartes was determined to make a clean sweep of all the comfortable old assumptions, to take nobody’s word for anything, to doubt everything. We are all better for that.

David Hume: Human nature and understanding

Mar 12

Australian historian of ideas and philosopher, the late John Passmore, reveals to us the important 18th century figure of David Hume, the Scottish skeptic who took John Locke’s empirical arguments to their logical conclusion (which Locke had neglected to do) and wound up doubting our ability to know anything at all! I personally enjoy Hume’s skepticism and his effective deflation of metaphysical pretensions – making philosophers quite nervous about their assumptions. According to Hume the ‘Age of Reason’ had clearly arrived at a dead end. His rigour, consistency, and, if I may add, his honesty has a lot of undeniable appeal in the 21st century as well.

Arthur Schopenhauer: Pessimism and the Infraconscious Will

Jan 22

Eminent historian of Philosophy, the late Frederick Copleston discusses the cultured, pessimistic and if I may add, the arrogant, embittered and individualistic Arthur Schopenhauer (arguably a curiosity among western philosophers, for being one of the few pessimists in philosophy). ‘The World as Will and Idea’ (also known as ‘The World as Will and Representation)’, of course, is monumental. Believing that will was inherently evil, he argued that the best one could strive for was renunciation of desire, a temporary absence of pain through the contemplation of high art. Schopenhauer is therefore, probably also the artists philosopher! And yes, he spent a quarter of a century without talking to his mother, and probably one of the few westerners to find proximity in eastern Hinduism and Buddhism. His rejection of the action-minded, essentially bourgeois confidence of the 19th C presaged the individualistic despair of the 20th C. We do know individualistic despair, all of us.

Melvyn Bragg: In Our Time – Analytic and Continental Philosophy

Dec 12

British broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg hosts one of the most invigorating BBC Radio 4 discussion programmes titled ‘In Our Time‘. Over 500 episodes now, Lord Bragg and his various discussion guests engage with the history of ideas, across the plural and complex domains of culture, history, philosophy, religion, science and politics. In this episode of ‘In Our Time’ Bragg and his guests discuss the Analytic-Continental split in Western philosophy. The Analytic school favours a logical, scientific approach, in contrast to the Continental emphasis on the importance of time and place. They go on to discuss the origins of this split and poses queries as to whether it is possible for contemporary philosophers to bridge the gap. The guests for this episode are: Dr. Stephen Mulhall of New College, University of Oxford, Dr. Beatrice Han-Pile of the University of Essex and Dr. Hans Johann-Glock of the University of Zurich.

Western Philosophy (2002)

Oct 09

Populated with a mixed bag of experts, with competencies ranging from ancient philosophy and religious thought to more contemporary philosophical ideas and problems, ‘Western Philosophy’ chooses to trace the evolution of (western) philosophy from classical Greece, its development in Europe through the medieval period and the enlightenment into modern existentialist thought. This audio-visual asks ‘what is philosophy, why it is important’, and examines its intricate relationship with religion, spirituality, and the sciences. Has its moments and misses – probably not a bad way to spend three hours of your precious time. Or should I say, being and time. Split into three parts.

Pierre Bourdieu: Sociology is a Combat Sport

Sep 21

‘La sociologie est un sport de combat’ was how Pierre Bourdieu stated it. My first brush with Bourdieu was through the articulation of ‘cultural capital’ and ‘symbolic violence’. It is quite a challenge to engage with the ‘Bourdieuesque’ deployment of language – complex constructions and almost a maze-like language interface. But, it is all worth the while. Apart from being a prolific ‘sociological genius’, what strikes me most is that he became, through his ‘combat sport’, an inspiration for so many movements opposed to neo-liberalism and globalisation in France and elsewhere. His legacy of social concern lives on, and the world is better for that.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: Faith and Language

Sep 05

Wittgenstein in many ways opened quite a few vistas for me to re-examine my epistemological and existential bearings. The first excerpt here from 1984 gives a rather crisp and lucid account of Wittgenstein’s ‘reliogiosity’ and his piercing contemplation of the notion of Faith-God. The second excerpt (Bryan Magee in conversation with Professor Anthony Quinton) provides a glimpse into his central and important philosophy of language, both the pragmatic view of language as well as the logical view. The first excerpt is split into two parts and the second excerpt is split into five.

Bertrand Russel: Face to Face. March 4th, 1959.

Aug 16

In 1959, as part of the BBC series “Face to Face”, the influential mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russel had an engaging conversation with John Freeman, touching on various aspects of his professional and personal life. Russel comes across as a particularly ‘like-able’ human being, with an abiding mistrust of human war making and hate mongering, and according to him “… love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.” A timely message from back in time for these times of strife and hate.