Philosophy

Last Sunday, I gave the commencement address to graduates of A.B. Philosophy at Rogationist Seminary College in Parañaque City. Here is an excerpt:

When I was myself taking up philosophy — and that was admittedly a lot of years ago — I was always asking the question, What is philosophy? All the answers I read or was given never satisfied me, until one teacher, a Jesuit, probably out of exasperation rather than from his lesson plans, said, “Philosophy is what philosophers do.” Strangely enough, that quieted me down, and I have never asked the question since.

What, then, do philosophers do? In real life, probably everything that non-philosophers do — eat, drink, sleep, go to the bathroom, that sort of thing. In their professional life, probably also everything that all professionals do, which is to talk to their fellow professionals, to read papers by their fellow professionals, to go to meetings and conferences to meet their fellow professionals, to have Facebook pages with friends who are all professionals in philosophy.

What is wrong with that? That is not wrong, after all, when we talk about, say, medical doctors. Medical doctors do have to talk to each other. They do have to read medical journals and to attend medical conferences. They do have to have friends, on Facebook and in real life, who, like them, work in hospitals and save patients and charge a lot of money.

As a writer, I certainly go to a lot of writers’ conferences. I have a lot of friends who are writers. I read what other writers write. I love being in the company of writers.

I do not think, however, that philosophers can afford to talk only to themselves.

I say this because I know what the world out there is like. It is a world without philosophy. It is a world without an anchor, a world without a center, a world without meaning. Everywhere, not only in our own country, people are talking about movie stars breaking up with their former loved ones, people going to war against other people, people asking people to put them in office, people doing or avoiding violence, people using other people, people in general not really connecting with other people.

That is not the world as imagined by any philosopher, except, well, perhaps the solipsists. But, in general, that is not what philosophers wish the world would be. The world needs the imagination of philosophers, because only philosophers, only philosophy, can save our world.

Sadly, the word “philosophy” today means something very different from what you graduates studied in school. Go to Amazon.com and search for the word “philosophy.”

Believe it or not, these are what you will find: “Philosophy Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser; Philosophy Hope in a Jar Daily Moisturizer, All Skin Types; Philosophy Miracle Worker Anti-Aging Moisturizer; Philosophy When Hope is Not Enough Serum; Philosophy Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash; Philosophy Help Me Retinol Night Treatment; Philosophy Take A Deep Breath Oil-Free Energizing Oxygen Gel Cream Moisturizer; Philosophy the Cookbook Gift Set.”

If you search only for books rather than beauty products, the book that tops the list is “Superheroes: The Best of Philosophy and Pop Culture.”

Why are we talking about whether the President shows any emotion when talking about his sister and her estranged husband? Why are we talking about whether soldiers massacred on an island have anything to do with a royal army invading a sovereign country? Why are we talking about whether a mobile phone has a better camera than a camera? Why are we talking about anything at all, in fact?

We cannot answer any question that begins with the word “Why” without philosophy. Between the rarely-quoted view of Socrates that “an unexamined life is not worth living” and the often-quoted line from Spiderman that “with great power comes great responsibility” is an incredibly wide chasm ranging from deep insight to flippant sound byte. Unless philosophers speak up, unless philosophers become what today are called “public intellectuals,” the human race will continue its headlong rush to — forgive the word — stupidity. The physics term “entropy,” which means, of course, a gradual decline into disorder, applies not only to matter and energy, but also to the world’s intelligence. The longer the human race stays on earth, the sillier we become.

I challenge you, graduates of philosophy, to enlighten the world, to speak to us non-philosophers, to tell us what’s what. As you move out of this campus, move out also of your intellectual campus. Join the dialogues going on outside the world of philosophy. Teach the world lessons it will never forget.

But never, ever forget philosophy. You have to go out into the world to share the insights you have learned from philosophy, but you should never be just another Facebook friend. Always be, to take the words of our Lord in vain, not of this world.