So in the last section, I made the suggestion that philosophy was the activity of working out the right way to think about things. And I tried to illustrate and explain that a little bit by talking about how that relates philosophy to other subjects. So in this section, I want to draw some more consequences for what philosophy is and how we should think about philosophy from that definition. The first consequence that I want to draw follows pretty straightforwardly from what I've been saying about the intimate connections that philosophy has to other subjects. So the first consequence is that philosophical questions can arise almost anywhere. Because I think philosophy just is the activity of working out the right way to think about things. I think you can create a philosophical question or a problem In any domain where we're thinking about stuff and trying to do that in the right way. We can always step back and ask for a justification or articulation of the particular assumptions or presuppositions that we're employing when we're thinking about something in some way. Because of this, I think that you can compare what the philosopher is doing to what a child is doing when they're continuously asking why, why, why in response to something. So presumably, people have had this experience with children, they ask you why, why some thing is the case, you try and give them an answer and they just ask you why again. No matter what you say to them, they're always demanding more reasons, more justification, and more articulation of your reasons for responding and thinking in the way that you are. So the philosopher is a bit like the child who's always asking more and more questions, always demanding that we step back further and further. But they're also in the position of the person who is 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. They also have to try and come up with answers or at least try and think about what would be involved in coming up with answers. I think this feature of philosophy tells us something about why people often try and describe philosophy as a subject that's fundamental. Fundamental is a word that people often reach for where they're trying to characterize philosophy's status as a subject or trying to characterize the sorts of questions that philosophy asks. Now there's a sense in which I don't think it's true to say that philosophy is fundamental as a subject. So for example if you are a brain surgeon or a bomb disposal technician you don't ever have to step back and think philosophical questions about what is it to dispose of a bomb or what a brain is in order to be really, really great at your job. In fact I've picked those two examples because presumably if you did spend your time stepping back and asking yourself those sorts of questions then that would make you a much worse brain surgeon or bomb disposal technician. So, there are a lot of things that you can do and do really well. Presumably lots of thing that you can think about and think about really well without doing or thinking in a philosophical way. But I think that there's an important sense in which philosophy is fundamental and that's just the sense that I've been talking about. The sense in which a philosophical question is never too far away, because whatever we are doing or thinking about, we can always step back and try and articulate and justify the presuppositions that we are implying when we're acting or thinking in that particular way. I think, thinking about this example of the child continually asking why, also lets us see some more important things about philosophy. The first thing is that philosophy can be very difficult. So we knew that if we are in this position of continually being asked why for whatever we say. Then it can be very challenging and frustrating experience. And it seems that part of the reason for this is that often we're being asked to give reasons or articulate the presuppositions behind ways of thinking and acting that we usually just take for granted and get on with. So I think the fact that philosophy is hard and can be frustrating in this way also puts us in a position to see something about the sense in which philosophy is an important subject. So this is another word that people often reach for when they are trying to categorize what philosophy is, or what philosophical question are. It is often said that philosophy asks question that are big or important in some special sense. And like the case of philosophy being fundamental there is a sense in which I don't think this is necessarily true. So we've seen that philosophical questions can arise almost anywhere. No matter what I'm thinking about I can step back and ask a question about the way that I'm thinking about things. That are suggested is a philosophical one. Now because of that there are loads and loads of philosophical questions that 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. And we might not think that those are particularly important or interesting questions to concern ourselves with. So I think it's fair to say that just in virtue of a question's being philosophical that doesn't necessarily make it an important one. But I do think that philosophical questions and philosophical questioning often is very important. And I think we can see that because of what I said a moment ago about how philosophical questioning often concerns things that we usually take for granted. So think about the example of medieval medicine. In our previous video section. 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. We 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. And it seems to us now, that as soon as we step back and try to articulate a way of thinking that makes those practices. That makes genocide or slavery or racism seem okay. We just can't do it. Okay. So it seems to us that as soon as we step back and think about it, we realize that the way of thinking about things that committing genocide or being involved in slavery presupposes can't be the right one. Let alone the best one, okay? As soon as we reflect on it we see that that seems like a crazy way to think about the world. Because when we look at history we find so many examples of ways of thinking and acting that just to us look crazy as soon as you step back and reflect on them. It seems that we should wonder whether or not any of our ways of thinking about the world or acting in the world are going to look equally crazy and indefensible to future generations. So examples of this might be or practices of farming animals for food or attitudes towards our responsibilities to the planet or the suffering of people in distant countries or cultures. But the point is that it's hard for us to know which of these beliefs or practices might look that way to future generations. Until we actually do the job of stepping back and reflecting on them and scrutinizing them. And so that's the sense in which, I think, looking at the bad ways of thinking and behaving that people have used in the past can show us why stepping back and reflecting on those ways can be a really, really important thing to do. [BLANK AUDIO] So in this part I've trying to articulate some more things about philosophy that result from thinking of philosophy as the activity of working out the best way to think about things. So I've said that thinking about philosophy in that way, helps us understand the sense in which philosophy is fundamental in the, in that philosophical questions can arise almost anywhere. I suggested that it tells us why doing philosophy can often be a difficult and frustrating activity. 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. And lastly, I've suggested that thinking about philosophy in this way lets us see how it can sometimes be a very important thing to do.
