By John Immel

Today, we talk about Philosophy.

In the mind of many, this word is synonymous with useless ideas batted around like so many beach balls at the intellectual equivalent of Thelonious Monk concert: really abstract with endless indecipherable phrases.

The idea of philosophy has been further tarnished because the bible doesn’t speak too favorably on “vain” philosophies. So most Christians usually turn their mind off when the word comes into a conversation. The tragedy is everybody has a philosophy. Actually, better said, they have a whole basket full of philosophy but rarely do folks know they are carrying the basket, let alone what that basket contains.

So let me cut to the chase: what is this thing that nobody seems to want, yet carry around unaware? Here are some examples.

Do you recognize these comments?

“Give it over to the Universe…”

“No one can know anything for sure…”

“Jesus died for our sins…”

Some of you have even said one or all three of these comments, fully expecting to be understood. Our culture is full of such common phrases. We call comments like this conventional wisdom. In fact, these are philosophical statements: collections of ideas that have been boiled down to a slogan.

“Give it over to the Universe,” is an increasingly popular modern truism. This is also a philosophical statement, reducing into words elements of Quantum Physics with various religious assumptions.

“No one can know anything for sure,” is a philosophical statement that presupposes that there is no objective truth that can be found and established and understood by all.

“Jesus died for our sins,” is a philosophical statement that summarizes the abstractions of Original Sin and Federal Guilt, atonement and the ratification of a New Covenant.

Humans are the sum of their collective ideas. From the time we are born we are integrating the world, from concrete to abstract ideas. From the first time a baby realizes that just because mommy can’t be seen under a blanket she doesn’t cease to exist, to the integration of the thousand and one intellectual abstractions that make space flight possible. People are forever taking ideas, categorizing them, and placing them in systems for use. Without this ability, we would still be waiting for the gods to shower fire rain down so we can make meat not be bloody.

Humans are built to think; to engage the world we live in with our thinking. They way we get better at thinking (and the way we get better at living a prospering life) is in the accumulation of effective ideas. The way we decide what ideas we have, where we got them, and which ones are good or bad, and how we should use those ideas in context to other people is the study of Philosophy. Said another way, Philosophy is the art/science of evaluating our Assumptions, Presuppositions, and Filters.

So now you know…when I talk about philosophy, I am not tossing about intellectual beach balls. I am referring to evaluating the content of ideas: how we know what we know, where ideas came from, their objective value, and how those ideas impact our (human) interaction.

John Immel


He's a generally ornery pot string iconoclast that loves to make people think. He's harmless (well, mostly harmless). And don't forget lovable in an affectionately blunt sort of way. Whatever your first feelings, read and listen long enough and you will come to agree with him.


  • John Immel says:

    that would be Suchong … or wait… Maybe Skinner?  Who is doing Manchurian candidate stuff now?  
    LOL

  • John Immel says:

    Yeah… sorry Ellie,

    A big inside joke between Dan and I.

    you know…   philisophical statments that get implanted in peoples mind so they perpetrate all manner of bad things.  Manchurian candidate stuff.

    get it? 

    hahaha…

  • Sorry Ellie — I was continuing with an inside joke — ever hear of an Xbox 360 game called BioShock?

  • Silly boys! 😉

    I’ve heard of it, but don’t know much about it, Dan…I am sure that I will one of these days as my son has decided that a 360 is something he just has to have…

  • Yes, I know, boys will be boys.  Let me know if I can help.  I own and run a video game store in Maryland.

    John, back on topic, I think philosophy can be as much a part of our Assumptions, Pre-suppositions and Filters (meaning it helps us form them) as well as part of our constant process of evalution of the world around us.  The difference is subtle, I admit, or am I just saying the same thing?

  • John Immel says:

    Dan,
     
    We are saying the same thing.  Strictly speaking, Philosophy is an iterative process of evaluation:
    How we define the nature of existence: Metaphysics
    How we know what we know: Epistemology
    How we value what we know: Ethics
    How we interact with other people: Politics
     
    We are always using the content of these categories to evaluate our world.  Of course, I would contend that the more explicit this process is, the better ideas we come up with.   

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