"'We can't afford not to think': Philosophy and our Planetary Environment," from Dzikie życie [Wild Life] Feb. 2024

Letter to a friend about philosophy, February 1st, 2026

“Are You a Philosopher?”

Meaning to be kind, sometimes people introduce me to other academics or outsiders by saying that I am a “philosopher.”  It’s awkward when I tell them that I am not.  It could look either like a ploy to actually be a philosopher by throwing things into question or like virtue signaling modesty, since who could ever claim to be a Philosopher?  But I am in earnest.  What I do with my questions and how I check the language game of social status is found apart from philosophy.  It’s because I see something better than philosophy that I am not a philosopher.  With that thing in view, not being a philosopher is freeing and more mature than being one.  What makes sense to me instead is to say, as is true, that I work in the discipline of philosophy and have learned a lot from philosophical traditions, despite their shortcomings; it is worth transmitting philosophical practices and traditions to the next generation; there is much that is worthwhile in studying and practicing philosophy in any number of a variety of ways on any number of a variety of problems worth considering thoughtfully.  Still, philosophy is just a discipline I work in.

What’s better than philosophy is growing up to become part of a community of people who are mature enough to communicate well and form good, deep, long-lasting, and authentic relationships in which people grow.  No doubt philosophy has articulated many of the ideas that inform that ideal; its practices have helped construct it, and both the ideas and the practices contribute to sustaining the actual life of folks trying to live in such a way.  Such a community can even be seen as a projection of elements of modern philosophy and its critics.  Think of the idea of authenticity or the moral category of personal respect, even what it is to grow up.  Around these ideas, practices of personal self-reflection; moral discernment, respect, and accountability; and critical thinking have found their way into many people’s lives.  ...

The point still remains that the horizon of the life that I think is worth living is beyond philosophy, contextualizing its practices and traditions leading back to Ionian colonies roughly 2800 years ago, within a broader pursuit; to grow up, down, or into becoming people, and to live well in community.  The emphasis, too, is not on theory, although theory is no doubt useful, and it is not even on practice, although we must do and be coordinated together to live and to live together.  The stress is on relating well, on good relationships, on personal and interpersonal deepening and on mature and high-quality communication, with philosophy having a part to play in developing, critiquing, or sustaining these.  The main reason why I am not a philosopher but only someone who works in the discipline of philosophy is that I care most about my relationships, not about giving an account of them.  When I die, I don’t want to be remembered as someone who died nobly in a philosophical way, but by those who loved me and by my community as one of its plain members with my own idiosyncratic contribution.  The contribution?  Well, it may have involved philosophy, but it was really about the commitment, not the commitment being about the philosophy.  The commitment to what?  To being a person, not a fake, to being an okay person, not a creep, and to continuing to grow in my pursuits, tasks, and relationships.  These are really commitments to whom.

And these things are small sounding but demanding as all get-out.  To be an okay person is to have a conscience, and that means it is to care for justice and to be accountable to others and for what matters. ...

- from "Can You See Something Better than Philosophy?" Blog of the APA, January 28th, 2022