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>>JOHN LACHS: Well, philosophy, as all things, all things that human beings, all activities
that human beings are engaged in is a whole lot of different things.
It's an attempt on the part of folks to think about the ultimate questions to which there
are no clear answers, or no answers that we can all agree on.
>>CRISPIN SARTWELL: My students, as soon as I tell them that these questions cannot be
answered in any decisive way often respond with great puzzlement.
Like, so why even go after them?
Forget it, you know?
>>JOHN LACHS: That's one of the things it is.
It's also a skill, a skill of thinking, thinking in ways that open the imagination and at the
same time are critical.
That's, that's an important part of what philosophy is.
>>ERIN MCKENNA: I think a lot of students when they start out think philosophy is going
to be just them talking about the opinions they already have and that all the opinions
will be equally acceptable and there's a real discomfort in the first few weeks of class
when I push them on their opinions and I try and have them put them in terms of some of
the theories we're studying and all of a sudden they realize this is going to be work and
it's going to be hard work and not only work in first before you can use or argue against
a theory you have to understand it well and I'm going to demand that they give a charitable
and tolerant view of every view that we're reading and then have to articulate their
own view with defenses.
And an understanding of the counter-positions.
They usually say this isn't as much fun as I thought it would be and don't want to do
that.
So I do try and balance it with times to have debate and to bring in those opinions but
I'm always pulling it back to the work that goes with it.
>>MICHAEL ELDRIDGE: What I get paid for is a variety of things and some of it is philosophy
per se, but a lot of it has to do with taking not very well-motivated students -- some are,
some aren't -- and introducing them to some things that the university decides is important.
So I spend a lot of time in getting students to read, reflect, helping them write better.
Grading that.
And there's usually some philosophical dimension to that, but a lot of it is not.
To some extent, I'm getting paid to deal with what some folks would regard as obvious and
I think that's what a lot of philosophers do is take what is right in front of us in
coming to appreciate it and understand it and looking it in a different perspective
than what most people do.
And students and others often have difficulties seeing why we're paying so much attention
to this, that, or the other thing, when they've formed some judgment already and they see
no need to pause and they just want to keep right on going with their lives.
I say well then good.
But if you ever do get troubled by something or perplexed by something, here is how you
could go about thinking about that and getting to a better understanding as needed.
>>JOHN LYSAKER: Everyone always asks what can you do with philosophy.
And I have a smarty-pants answer, which is, be a more reflective, democratic citizen.
And, I do think that the cash value of being a philosopher has to do with a certain kind
of life.
Not that all people who study philosophy get that kind of life.
And not that there aren't people who don't study philosophy who get that kind of life.
But that is the goal of philosophy is to help cultivate a sort of reflective character and
to facilitate the, I'm not ashamed to say it, moral growth of the students.
A question comes up then what does philosophy do in addition to the wide range of occupations,
life activities, if it's not a pre-professional degree.
Well, here are some of the things that all businesspeople say they want.
They want good writing, clear thinking, the ability to articulate problems well.
To reflectively decide on what's the most likely solution, or the best of the available
solutions, or approaches.
There might not be solutions.
And I think philosophy helps with all of that, cultivating analytic skills.
>>JIM CAMPBELL: I think that what you try and do in classes is present people with the
history of certain problems and possible answers and the way people have looked at them and
also present them with problems that they haven't even thought of yet.
That they need to throw into the mix when they're trying to decide things.
But that's all very indirect.
>>GLENN KUEHN: You don't go into this to get rich.
You get into...I think you get into it partly for, I said, for personal satisfaction in
studying things that you find valuable.
The other one is for thinking, for me, is thinking that somehow you're doing good in
the world.
You're in a profession that is not causing harm.
You're not polluting.
You're not...
You're not hurting people.
Yes, thinking causes pain, but it's good pain, you know, like exercising.
You're doing something important.
When philosophy departments are asked to show what are you producing.
You know?
It's hard to quantify that sort of stuff.
Ask the students in five, ten years.
It's hard to tell a review board that, but that's, that's where there rewards are gonna
come from.
Down the line they're going to contact you.
You're gonna run into them again.
You're gonna, you're gonna find out that they did something in their lives that was somehow
influenced by, maybe something you said.
That's tremendous.
>>JOHN LYSAKER: I think in the long run, though, philosophers have to stick to their guns with
regard to the ends that are intrinsic to the practice, to talk like Aristotle and MacIntyre.
And that is the cultivation of a kind of character built around reflection and responsiveness.
Analytical rigor, synthetic imagination.
And, I think, a moral sense of purpose, that it's important to be reflective.
And if someone thinks why ask why is an orientation that's compatible with a full human life we
should take a stand and say we don't think so.
There's a funny joke on this Stanley Cavell line on whether or not the unexamined life
is worth living and his reply is the unexamined life is not worth examining.
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