How to "get" Philosophy

You have to understand a few things about philosophy.

• Philosophy represents some of the smartest people who ever lived thinking about important topics. Sure, they may have lived two thousand years ago, but the things Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius says about living a good life, or the lessons that Socrates teaches us about virtue are as valid today as back then. You can tell that a work of art is important when people still talk about it long after it was done. Most modern music and television fails miserably here: as soon as it is not popular any more, it will cease to be discussed. But some dramas, some conversations, some literature, some music -- some ideas hang out for hundreds or thousands of years. People still talk about them. Good philosophy is the smartest people we've ever had spending their entire lives thinking about ideas that men have discussed since Stonehenge was young.
• Philosophers have a tendency to run on a bit. Since in many cases this is their life's work, they usually wrote a lot of text. And I mean a LOT of text. In fact, the amount of text a philosopher puts out has nothing to do with how many interesting and relevant ideas he might have discussed. So to sit down and try to plough through the tomes of Wittgenstein, for instance, begins to focus on the man instead of the ideas. The signal to noise ratio is simply too low for most of us to put up with learning about philosophy this way.
• Philosophers always overstated their case. If there is one common them among philosophers, it's that some guy comes up with a great idea and then applies it to life, the universe, and everything. Philosphers take their ideas way too far. This is natural, since if you've spent your life working on a few great ideas, you'll start to see everything as relating to the work you're doing.
• People look to philosophers as some kind of leader, rock star, teacher, or Jesus replacement, instead of just another human being working through some tough questions. Perhaps it's the world we live in, but those who do get interested in philosophy many times are looking for "truth" -- they want some guy they can trust to base their worldview on. Hey Kierkegaard, you've got all this faith and reason thing worked out, you're the guy I'm betting on. You're the guy I'm looking up to.

  
  Young people ,especially of high school and college age, want somebody to idolize, somebody to emulate. When (or if) they finally get involved in philosophy, they take their 21st century hero-worship mentality and apply it to philosophers. Colleges, being full of once-young students who are now professors, perpetuate this view of rock-star thinkers. Are you with Wittgenstein or Sapir, Whorf or Chomsky? The ideas get mixed up with the people, and we view philosophy as some kind of huge sports match where star players advance one team or another towards victory. In short, we view philosophers and philosophy the same way we view sports stars and sports teams -- winners and losers, heroes and fools, lords of all they survey. It's not philosophy that is broken, it's us.

• Philosophy ain't logical. It doesn't have to make sense. This is a critical one, and related to the previous point. Philosophy is not some attempt at creating the truth to everything. There's not a wrong or right answer here. As much as we (currently) want to dress it up in logic, set theory, and reason, it's really about worldviews -- ways of looking at your life and the world around you. Nietzsche famously said that most philosophy is more autobiographical than anything else. Most philosophers, instead of telling you something important about the universe, are really telling you a lot about themselves.

  
  If you're looking for some ultimate truth, I think philosophy can help you get there, but not unless you know and understand the important lessons above.

So philosophy is really smart people talking about important things. They have a tendency to talk and write way too much. Once they get a good idea they usually try to apply it to everything instead of understanding it's probably only useful up to a point. These guys are not super-human: they had the same problems you do, and aside from a few great ideas, are probably as messed up as anybody else. Philosophy isn't some sort of geometry proof on a blackboard where student after student attempts to solve it, eventually getting the "right" answer. There is no right answer. There is no proof. There is no huge picture of philosophy that somehow it might add up to something, to be completed. It's not a mystery novel or a religious tome.

So what's the point? If I spend my time learning programming I can go out into the real world and get a job programming. If I learn advanced math I can take those skills and apply them somewhere -- even if it is just research. Why should I spend my time with something that obviously seems so pointless?

When I was a kid, I grew up as a Protestant. We had a pretty simple dogma and an easy-to-understand belief system. We had a lot of activities, including Sunday School, Summer Camp, and such, but one I remember the most was something called "giving your testimony"

Giving Your Testimony basically consisted of standing before the group and telling your story -- how you struggled with various issues, lessons you've learned, things you wished you would have done differently, etc. When done from the heart, it was a powerful emotional thing to experience: another person baring their soul for introspection, and for others to observe as they introspect.

It's a common theme. There was an old TV show called "This is your Life" which was a very crude example. In 12-step programs one of the meeting types is a person telling their story to a larger audience. Modern group therapy is basically people introspecting while others watch.

Most people view this type of activity as some sort of sign of weakness. Who cares about how Bob handled his divorce? But imagine you are thinking about death, or about the meaning of life, or about what truth, beauty, or virtue is. Now imagine you're in a room with some of the best thinkers that existed in the last two thousand years. Wouldn't you want to listen as each of them stood up and took ten minutes to honestly tell you the best answer they knew to your question?

Nietzsche was right: philosophy is a deeply autobiographical experience. But he completely missed the boat if he thought that was a put-down. Instead it's the key to enjoying it. It's personal and it's human. Philosophy is the beginning of all science because it's humans wondering aloud at the mysteries of life. You can share that experience -- you can sit at the feet of great people and hear what ten years of thinking about these questions got them. You can be a member of a special club of people of experts in the very things that you wonder about.

Or you can re-invent the wheel.

I know in consulting many times I see people re-solve problems that have long been solved. Not happy with doing some research or taking advice from others, every problem is huge, new, and sometimes insurmountable. It's the "Not-Invented Here" syndrome.

You have to find a way to the club, however. Find a way to "tune-in" to philosophers and philosophy that doesn't involve learning Greek or spending years reading dusty books. I've been happy with listening to various professors talk about people like Socrates or Plato during their lectures. There are some lectures that go over great thinkers, one at a time. What better way of getting your feet wet than to listen to somebody talk about some famous guy for just an half hour?

If you've struggled with some really tough timeless question in your life, like "How can I lead a good life?" or "How can I be religious without giving up reason and science?" or "If there is a God, how can he allow so many bad things to happen?" or "What's the point of life, anyway?" you basically have three choices.

One, you can give up. Nobody knows the answers to these questions. They're tough. Maybe nobody knows, or there is no answer.

Two, let somebody else think for you. You can adopt an idol or hero. It could be the local minister, some famous scientist, or a famous author. After all, if he/she thought through it, why go to all of the work yourself? Kierkegaard called this the difference between riding on a horse somewhere and sleeping in the back of a hay wagon as it rolled down the road. Technically, in both cases you are driving a horse, but in one case you're in charge. In the other you're simply along for the ride -- the horse is in charge.

Three, you can hang around the water cooler with the great minds of history, listening as they spent decades going over the same questions and arguing with each other; hashing out the pros and cons. Then, once you understand all sides of the argument, you can make your own decision. And you can own it.

I know what I'll be doing.

EDIT: Some commenters have taken me to task on the quote "Philosophy ain't logical", pointing out that most philosophy since Russell consists of a lot of logic. In fact, it's easy to see where some people might think it's all logic.

All I meant was that philosophy as a whole was not self-consistent and it doesn't add up into some kind of unified whole. No matter how much predicated logic you use, you're not going to end up with Epicureanism. In fact, I personally don't believe philosophy is even linear -- it's not growing towards some kind of conclusion. Instead, the conversation in certain areas gets sufficiently interesting that it spawns new fields of science. Likewise, in certain areas of science the conversation becomes so broad and full of speculation and wonder that the discussion is more properly categorized as philosophy instead of science (not that you're going to get many scientists to agree to that!)