I THINK

I am a philosopher and I love it. That's my job. I think clearly and express my thoughts in my writing. Some writers are therapists, counselors of various sorts and even political advocates. I philosophize and write about sound ideas. If I were to say, 'I love my J.O.B.', you would wonder why I said it. Whether you loved or hated your own work, you would wonder why I loved mine. Human nature seeks the reasons that sentient beings do what they do. We want to know how others get things done. We share fruitful information and knowledge. Philosophers, it seems to me, are the behind the scenes moderators of this sharing.

The earning of one's daily bread is traditionally seen as a nuisance in the West. In our Judaeo-Christian culture, work is viewed subtly as a curse. You are human so you did something wrong, committed some sin. In that ethic, earning is by the sweat of thy brow for all the days of thy life. That is a decidedly negative proposition. Just to pluck a good sized dusty potato, one must do more than a bit of digging, and have a substantial degree of good luck. Whether it is prospecting for gold ore or growing potatoes, thy brow will sweat if you intend to make a go of it. The good book says so, and I believe my lying eyes.

Western society is staggering toward a humanist cultural industrial model for workers. The old bulwarks of religion and law are challenged by living breathing beings all over the globe, and especially in the West. In a humanist society, people have considerable choice over what they want to do and how they want to do it. We have so much choice, that choice itself is become the problem. If you have to get thy brow sweaty, why not think?

That is how my job chose me. I am the philosopher. I did not start out wanting to be a philosopher. I have been before the mirror of several iterations regarding my job preferences. Policeman, fire chief, cowboy, competitive gamer, soldier, lawyer (that was a close call), baseball player, and many more ideas sprang into my noggin over the years. I am a philosopher and it was not by direct choice. This election has come about because the world increased in complexity. Life demanded that I learn how to think or not to think, depending on your point of view. A guy must be able to find his way out of wet paper sacks or he might end up as a lawyer or politician. No offense to either of those often criticized professions. Those two jobs are much the reason that I am a proud philosopher.

First of all, one hears or reads stuff that just does not seem accurate upon the face of it. My ex-wife used to have a saying: "must is cause must ain't just don't sound right". That was one of the few things over which we shared a laugh or two. When she would catch a newscaster uttering a non sequitur she would say, "must is" and I chimed in with "must ain't". One get's an uneasy feeling when something about a given politician's story does not jibe with one’s personal experience. You may be going through life singing aloud when some joker is heard spewing less than accurate information into the microphone. It stops your aria in mid howl. Dillydally and don’t do something about it! You will begin doubting your own mind. You are forced to take action in finding the fact of the matter about what that joker was spewing over the air waves. That's what happened to me. As they say in the movies: what was I prepared to do about it.

I was falling down more rabbit holes (looking for fake news) than there are hours in a 25 hour day. It had to stop. That's when I began to draw upon my minor course of study of philosophy. Instead of trying to parse the verbiage of every dubious argument I encountered, I began to look at the form of the proposition that carried it. Any glaring fallacy in a proposition, can be a sign of incomplete thinking that will render insufficient information upon which to form a sound conclusion.

If a presenter hasn't taken the time to insure the soundness of his or her idea, then neither will I. A solid rationale and objective overview will indicate when there is a good idea present that is just needing a better explanation. It can also show why no explanation is possible or probable. As a philosopher, I am out of the looking glass and into the light. I'm not falling down rabbit holes unless I choose to leap for reasons that are perfectly clear to myself.

A good philosopher spots the half-truth and outright lie from a mile away. The devil is a liar. When I hear an utterance that doesn't sound right, I have options. Tom Q. Public is often perplexed about the reason something doesn't sound right, but the philosopher can attack a bad idea based on its formatting. I can let the vagrant utterance go or challenge it.

Philosophers know where they stand in the midst of our public debates. They will not throw blows at every two-bit argument that winks at them while strolling past. They are informed attendees to everything informational. They help shape public dialog. At a certain point, I mentally challenge the sophistry of the entire class of less than clear thinkers in the world. The ad hoc advocates for a cause that I may or may not agree with must contend with my version of the story whether they like it or not. I will not be ignored. If it won't fit into scholastic models of logical soundness, it is suspected of being a by product of insufficient reason. I have the power to reject the offering.

I reached about 26 years old. As a trained school teacher, I knew that some ideas I was attending in the public sphere were less than honest or at least less than accurate. Decoding such garbled information was difficult before I begin to look at things objectively. That is what philosophers do, they look at written or verbal messages objectively. As long as I relied upon the emotions of, "that doesn't sound right", I was part of the problem. When you tell a politician, "that doesn't sound right", he will wallpaper your noisy hind end and dice you into bits of hamburger. You will walk away from such encounters feeling like the idiot whom tried to upstage the comedian in the main auditorium. You will find yourself telling the wife, "but I was right", all the way home. You may bet such politicians are well schooled in the Machiavellian art of verbal sparring to deceive. Being of a philosophical bent gives you instant objectivity over the GIGO of everyday living.

The beauty of philosophy is that it enables one to correctly identify fallacies as formal, deductive or logical, and even the non sequitur based on well-argued standards of scholasticism. The alert man or woman philosopher receives information objectively rather than based on the emotional qualities of the invitation. When the speaker or author of an idea would cajole, plead, deceive or otherwise conscript the unwitting society member to their cause, the philosopher remains discerning. He or she helps everybody close to him to tamp down untruth, half-truth and lies. I am certain that I get invitations to soirees simply because I have a philosophers reputation. I never have to attack the speaker in an effort to criticize an idea. A philosopher aids in clarifying the good or bad ideas in any argument. As a bonus I get all the free martinis I can handle.

Philosophers have a bigger job than self protection and mere spotting of logical errors in progress. Philosophers define the road traveled upon for society by reflecting on cultural trends. He or she specifies sound direction for the sentient beings. Philosophers look at thinking as it has been presented by thinkers down through the ages. They dance with the idea of truth and ways to measure it. They stand against the tyrant, the brute and the thief by exposing real motives, and by showing the heart and root of any idea. They offer us a sense of propriety about how to think or rather to think at all regarding a given subject. It is not by accident that those like Socrates, Aristotle or Plato have an honored place in Western scholarship.

Socrates was willing to die for his version of the ideal, and he demonstrated what he thought to be noble. We know little of him beyond his historic stoicism, but what is known of him gives a recommendation of valor, honesty and the freedom to behave courageously. Socrates's life example supports the notion that the crowd is not always right, and the powers of the state get dimmer when compared to ideas of individuals.

The fact that Socrates sired the Platonic school and that school the Aristotelian school, has directed social development in the Western world from 325 BC until today really. Modern ideas regarding how to standardize an approach to assessing Western history based in materialism versus idealism of the East are slowly emerging. Such ideas can become the guide posts of how to live successfully in our nation states, and those nation states in the modern world.

Philosophers are not miracle workers. I know I make it sound romantic. Neither philosophers or their work product commands God like authority. We cannot force folks to take advice. Philosophers are like the kid who brings the teacher an apple, and winds up getting an "E" for his excellent effort. Their work suggests, 'I told you so', which I suspect is oh-so-satisfying.

When a given philosophy grows legs and transports ideas across generations, it was prophetic when written. Such shared predictive thoughts are always valued in hindsight. Bold thinkers confirm or deny the status quo ante. When a given philosopher's work is spot-on, a scholastic reputation for reliability is gained. A good reputation for sound thinking will encourage more citizens to take one's point of view seriously, and on a ever widening stage. When a given philosopher is off the mark, we let his offerings slid into the dust bin of opinions. Every body has one of those.

Before I stop with this 'de Bergeracion' display of affection, I'll tell you how my affair began. I took a class in logic to fulfill requirements for an Associate of Arts Degree at the local community college. I throughly enjoyed it. When the time came to elect a minor course of study in my undergraduate program, I choose philosophy. It has been the more fruitful part of my higher education adventure, the perfect complement to public communication & journalism, English Education & literature. Being aware of sound thinking techniques has aided everything I do in dramatic ways.

You too can win bets and drink all the free martinis you can handle. Just take a class in formal logic at the local community college. While you are learning how to spot logical and rational errors over cocktails or beers, try an online recording of "HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY", by William Turner, from LibriVox Audiobooks. It is free and fascinating in audio, but daunting by candlelight.

I like to think that I can express what it means to be human based on a personal experience of digging for potatoes and enjoying the pastime. I am a philosopher who can justify being alive to any man, ex-wife or child. I hope the aliens interview me first when they touch down. If they say the wrong thing, I will nail them to the wall when their statements don't sound right. That's a promise.