What is the Value of Philosophy?
Each year on the third Thursday of November, UNESCO celebrates World Philosophy Day to highlight the importance of philosophical reflection and encourage people across the world to share their philosophical heritage with one another. Albert Atkin explains how it has influenced his activism and aspirations.
It’s now a decade since UNESCO introduced World Philosophy Day. For UNESCO the value of philosophy is clear – in her message to mark the 2011 event, Director General, Irina Bokova stated “the practice of philosophy is a process benefitting the whole of society. It helps to build bridges between peoples and cultures and heightens demand for quality education for all.” Nonetheless, the point of pursuing philosophy is quite simply lost on many people – why bother with something so removed from daily life. Isn’t philosophy simply irrelevant? Isn’t it a pastime for those with the privilege of not having to care about the real world?
It should be unsurprising that, rather like UNESCO, I think the answer is “no”. This is not to dismiss the concern – the interests of many professional philosophers can seem esoteric, and self-indulgent to the point of excluding all real concern with the world outside of academe – but I maintain that Philosophy is relevant and deeply valuable. There are lots of reasons I might give here, but I’ll mention two – one more general, about the value of a philosophical temperament, and one much more personal about the value of philosophy in my life.
The very nature of philosophy, properly pursued, is to deem all things open to questioning – everything should be subject, in principle, to the question “why?”. In some ways, this inclination to ask questions is what makes philosophy frustrating to many. As Bertrand Russell said, “the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it”. However, as Russell also notes “Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions […] but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation”.
The value of the philosophical temperament then is simply that it opens our minds to alternatives; it paves the way to solutions. Society, as it currently stands, simply cannot afford dogmatism and the privileging of ideas. Too many political and social challenges are pressing and insisting that certain cultures, ideas, or interests are to be elevated above rational scrutiny is to consign ourselves to failure – real philosophical spirit says no position should be sacrosanct and nothing immune to questioning. Progress comes from recognising that we need to move forward, and recognising the need to move forward comes from our ability to ask “why?”. “Why would we want to stay the same? Why is the current way the only way, or the best way?”
Again, many might complain that this is all very abstract – the value of philosophy comes from the value of a philosophical temperament – but so what? How does this cut it in the real world? So let me give a personal example of the value of philosophy.
I am from Europe, British in fact, but I am also a member of a racial group – the Roma, commonly called “Gypsies”. This racial group endures some of the worst prejudice imaginable across Europe, and in many countries “the Gypsy question” is raised with blithe indifference to the echoes of the Continent’s awful past. British Roma, for instance, make up around 1% of the population and experience lower life expectancy, higher child mortality rates, and fewer educational opportunities than their non-Roma counterparts. They are generally at the poorer end of almost every socio-political indicator in the country, and are frequently subject appalling and unchecked racial prejudice. This presents a challenge to many Roma who, like me, want us to take control of our own future as a racial group and find ways to define ourselves that break free of mainstream characterisations of Roma as illiterate, criminal, and dirty outsiders. And in a year when UNESCOs World Philosophy Day focuses on the question of Future Generations it is appropriate, I think, to note that the main value of philosophy in my life has been how it enables me to work towards a positive future for Roma.
I think hard about race and racial definitions in my work. I try to answer questions about how we Roma can create a positive future for ourselves. And I use ideas from across the philosophical spectrum – philosophical notions of definition from analytical philosophy; the concept of recognition from continental European philosophers; even the broad practicalism of American Pragmatism plays its part in my thinking. And all of this gives me practical answers about how we Roma we can make a future for ourselves, how I can be active in making that future, and importantly, it allows me to make good on the things that I owe to my racial and ethnic background. These are not esoteric questions designed to tantalise the unworldly mind of philosophers in Ivory Towers. These are real issues about how to live, and how to change the world. As I said, this year’s topic for the UNESCO World Philosophy Day is Future Generations, and I know that my concern with Roma futures is deeply practical, deeply committed to genuine action, but remains profoundly philosophical for all that.
Albert Atkin is a lecturer in Philosophy at Macquarie University. He is interested in a various philosophical questions, but concerns himself primarily with the Philosophy of Race, Pragmatism, and the Philosophy of Language.
