Donald Clegg: Bible works for some, but philosphy works for me

I receive occasional comments from readers who express confusion as to where I go shopping for my morals since I’m not religious. So I’d like to continue the occasional conversation about humanism I engage in, perhaps showing that “Godless” doesn’t necessarily equal hapless. Being the odd duck that I am, most of my pillars come from that venerable category of musings that we call “philosophy.”

Wait – don’t go. I’ll try to ease you through this with an extended joke. Since most professional philosophers live and breed in academia, where tenure is gold, let’s ask the Great Question:

Why didn’t God receive tenure?

“”Publish or perish.” Only one book, enough said.

More to come (and thanks to the University of Miami philosophy department for a few of these), but first, let’s do philosophy.

Einstein said, “Things should be made as simple as possible but not more so.” This is deceptively profound, like a lot of what old Al (I call him Al) had to say, and equally difficult to achieve, but I’ll give it my best shot.

The pillars of philosophy, as far as I’m concerned, aren’t the stolid posts of logic, ascending from simple induction and deduction, before reaching the austere plains of symbolic logic. (This also happens to be a good reason why I’m not a professional philosopher.) I think philosophy is most concerned with meaning, in the good old-fashioned sense.

“He only cited Himself as the Source. Lack of a decent bibliography.

Finding meaning in life is part and parcel of living the Good Life, as Aristotle and various worthies have told us down the ages, and it would appear, at least to me, that understanding a bit more about who, what, and where we are is part of both goals.

That is, can we live the Good Life without finding meaning?

I say, “No.”

“Plagiarism. A lot of folks doubt that He even wrote it Himself.

The three chief tools philosophy offers up in aid of this Noble Quest are ontology, epistemology and metaphysics. Ontology is the study of our being (or the nature of it), which is just another way of saying, “Who are we?”

Matters of “what” are the domain of epistemology, the study of knowledge, which gets into its various types, limits to them, questions of what knowledge is, and that sort of thing. A real bramble-bush if ever I’ve seen one.

Metaphysics, as misunderstood and ill-defined a critter as I’ve met, concerns itself with “where,” as in “Where the heck are we?” We all have to stand someplace and it’s useful to know not only where it is, but its nature, and whether it’d be a good idea to move along to firmer footing.

“He annoyed the tenure committee by always saying, “I know everything.”

Practically speaking, I define metaphysics as the “study of basic assumptions,” those seemingly made-in-granite “truths” (or Truths) that all too often really do keep us literally in our place. Sometimes, even if it’s terribly uncomfortable, we have no idea where else to go, as I’ve found numerous times in my own life. So we stay put.

I refer to myself as “Idiot Boy” in these instances, looking back at the subsequent comedies of error that have transpired, by staying put.

Remember, comedy is just tragedy plus time, as Carol Burnett said.

“Lousy teacher. He hardly ever came to class Himself and told His students, “Just read the Book.”

Here’s a personal anecdote that provides a perfect entry point to this who, what and where of philosophy. My wife called one time, saying she was going to get her hair cut, and that Lorie would be asking, “So what are we doing?” Shorter, let it grow, really short, just what? She wasn’t sure.

This is clearly an ontological affair, as her (and our) state of being is tied, in a nontrivial fashion, to appearance, certainly including the state of her ‘do.

Asking whether that should be the case or not would move the discussion into metaphysics.

And epistemology, including a certain useful knowledge of Husband and Wifely affairs, told me, “I ain’t going near that with a 10-foot pole.” I’m a fool often enough, but not always totally Idiot Boy.

And I think that’s enough of an introduction for now. Jokes aside, philosophy works better than the Bible for me, and has caused no lasting harm.

Well, just one more.

“He threw His first two students out of class for “learning.”