Philosopher is like a child
"You can compare what the philosophy is doing to what a child is doing when he is continuously asking why, why, why in response to something. So the philosopher is a bit like the child always asking more and more questions, always demanding that we step back further and further.
But philosophers are also in the position of the person who's trying to talk to the child and trying to explain things to the child. So the philosopher doesn't just have to ask the questions, he also has to try and come up with answers or at least try to think about what would be involved in coming up with answers."
Consequences that can be drawn from the suggestion that philosophy is the activity of working out the right way to think about things
1. Philosophical questions can arise almost anywhere.
2. Philosophy can be very difficult
3. Philosophy can asks fundamental questions
4. Philosophy can asks important questions.
Philosophical questions can arise almost anywhere
"We can create a philosophical question or problem in any domain, where we're thinking about stuff and trying to do that in the right way.
We could always step back and ask for a justification, or articulation of the particular assumptions, or presuppositions of what we are employing, or thinking about something in some way."
Philosophy can be very difficult
"Philosophy can often be a difficult and frustrating activity. And I suggested that perhaps this is because it's often asking about things that we simply take for granted in our thinking and acting in the world."
Philosophy is an important subject.
Philosophy asked questions that are big or important
Philosophical questions and philosophical questioning often are very important
"We can see that due to what I said a moment ago about how philosophical questioning often concerns things that we usually take for granted.
If we just kept on taking the framework assumed by medieval medicine for granted, then presumably, we'd be in a much worse state as a society and as people than we are today, right? We'd die much quicker; we'd suffer a lot more. So, it's really important in that case that somebody at some point stepped back and thought, is this really the right way of thinking about diseases and how to treat them.
And we can think about lots of other examples where it was really important that people stepped back and thought: ‘hold on, is this really the right way of thinking about the world and the things that are in it?’ So, at various times throughout history, it seemed okay to people to commit genocide or to enslave people or to discriminate against people on the basis of their race or on the basis of their sex.
When we look at history, we find so many examples of ways of thinking and acting that just to us seems crazy as soon as you step back and reflect on them."
There's a sense in which I don't think this is necessarily true
"There are lots and lots of philosophical questions we can ask that just don't seem very important. So I can ask philosophical questions about jumpers and zips and microphones and things like that."
Philosophy is fundamental as a subject.
Philosophy asks fundamental questions
There's an important sense in which philosophy is fundamental
"Whatever we're doing or thinking about, we can always step back and try and articulate and justify the presuppositions that we're employing (употреблять) when we're acting or thinking in that particular way."
There's a sense in which I don't think it's true to say that philosophy is fundamental as a subject
"There are a lot of things that you can do and do really well, presumably, lots of things that you can think about and think about really well without doing or thinking in a philosophical way.
Imagine you are a brain surgeon or a bomb disposal technician. If you did spend your time stepping back and asking yourself those type of questions, then that would make you a much worse brain surgeon or bomb disposal technician."
SOURCES
'Introduction to Philosophy' course (the University of Edinburgh)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy