In the Pursuit of (Palin-less) Knowledge

This is Plato. You may remember him from such prior posts as this one

The word Philosophy comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), literally meaning 'Love of Wisdom'. Therefore, a philosopher is a lover of wisdom. The popular stereotype of a philosopher is an old, Platonic sort of man, who sits in a study at the top of a spire in Oxford or Cambridge pondering for long hours into the night about humanity's existential and all other sorts of stential matters, which we normal, ignorant people cannot possibly understand.

However, with the advent of twentieth century socialism, cheap paper backs and Open University, we can all become philosophers. This means that knowledge and social affluence no longer have to be as intertwined as they have been historically. We can all learn to understand elaborate concepts about the questions of who we are, why we are here and what will make us happy in our myriad of modern forms (perhaps some of these questions will lead us to the finer intricacies of pop lyrics...)

I think that philosophy should be taught in schools. We are taught how to learn, how to pass tests, how to decode mathematical and linguistic symbols. We are taught how to remember but we are not necessarily taught how to think. We are certainly not taught to enjoy what we are learning. As such, is it not surprising that the pursuit of knowledge is difficult at best and undesirable at worst. Thinking laterally is not considered very trendy, or very essential. However (WATCH OUT! POLITICAL REFERENCE COMING!) in lieu of the Recession and the subsequent budget cuts, perhaps concentrating on the patterns of thought and reason would benefit everyone. Either that, or we could all mindlessly route around in the earth searching for the dinosaur bones Sarah Palin believes were planted there by Satan to test our faith. (Remember, we haven't got rid of her - she's running for office AGAIN! OH SWEET ALASKAN JESUS!)

This is Sarah Palin. You may remember her from such
mindsets as RANDOM BACKWARD CHRISTIANITY.

But, hopefully this can be avoided by appealing to Human Intellect instead of Human Superstition. Utilizing the fast-paced, media-saturated society we live in at the moment, philosophers have stepped up their game. Now you can download and listen to KNOWLEDGE on your iphone or ipod (note the dominance of Apple in this field. Incidentally, I'm typing this on a MAC) from websites such as iMinds. Or, if you prefer to learn completely for free, then there are little video snippets of interest over at TED, which is a pretty wicked website. You can basically watch a video about anything. It's like Youtube for the inquiring mind.

If we put our minds together, we can keep Sarah Palin and similar extremists who stand in way of Reason where they belong, with the dinosaurs. (Or, if John McCain had his way, in the kitchen.)

A segment on the BBC's Culture Show inspired this post. You can watch it over on BBC iPlayer.

I think, therefore I am the Greek version of Bridget Jones

So I just finished reading Plato's Symposium. Don't go to sleep, there are still pictures in this post (all of which appear to be orange for some reason). I sat down expecting several long hours of laborious, obscure metaphors about some intangible concept of love but instead encountered a mash-up of drunk students inarticulately trying to discuss philosophy after a night at the union playing FUZZY DUCK with the pre-Christian answer to gay, male Bridget Jones. There are even a few jokes.


There are some beautiful sentiments and ideas too, of course. The image that true love (or spiritual love, as one of the students says) happens when we eventually find the half of ourselves that we were split from before birth, is wonderful, if kinda creepy also. What is remarkable from the perspective of our culture is the way homosexuality is treated by the almost exclusively male speakers in the book. It is treated as the norm, possibly because women were regarded as so inferior at the time. And they have slaves - it's not all great. An attitude I found especially intriguing was that a man who yearns for another man does so as before birth they were joined to one. He finds masculinity attractive and is therefore considered more masculine due to his appreciation of it. It is interesting to note how in our culture the reverse is true; a gay man is thought to be emasculated by his attraction to men as he is seen as taking on the traits of a women. This, again, is going under the assumption that women are not equal to men. Women get a fucking raw deal all the time, don't they?

'Dude, you've totally got leaves in your hair. Maybe I can get them for you... oh woops! my hand just slipped right down!'

An incredible philosophy book I read a while ago was Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner. If you have any interest in Western philosophy at all but don't know where to start then start with this book. By it's own admission it is, 'the history of philosophy disguised as a novel.' Gaardner writes so clearly about such mind-blowing matters it is easy to see why it is an international bestseller.

I think every eighteen-year-old should read this. It might cause a few melt downs, but I think it is more likely to increase the number of people who think before they act. Which might keep down the obesity and teen pregnancy levels. Either that or a whole generation of kids who think 'God is dead' and keep constantly quoting lines from the Big Lebowski. AKA, this moment:

The Big Lebowski - We F*&%# You Up!