What Use Is Philosophy?

This is pretty much, in the legal vernacular, a threshold question: "What use is philosophy? Why talk about it? Hasn't philosophy just been replaced by science? Isn't it now defunct? What's the point?"

I'll admit, this is a pretty good question. However, if there's one thing I've learned it's that a perspective can more clearly be defined by it's questions than its answers: "Don't you want to be normal?" "Why don't you just grow up?" "Wouldn't that make you a Conservative?" "You are intelligent, right?" A thousand debates might never show the insight that these questions allow. People's questions most often reveal things about themselves that you they won't reveal in their statements.

You see, when a person *says* something, unless they're an egomaniac they are performing for an audience. They're presenting what they think you want, or will be the best to convince you of their perspective. Questions are quite different. Some people (I'm not pointing fingers... except at myself) routinely use false questions to steer the debate, "Don't you mean X?" "What are you referring to?" "How is that important to you?" "What do you think about X?" These questions are not really questions, they're a cross-examination, an attempt to steer the story into a place where they can leap upon it and dissect it like that frog in biology.

True questions are from a person's need to understand in context. A person asks from what they deeply desire, to fill a need for knowing. "Don't you want to be normal?" Comes from a person who sees the only path to acceptance is through conformity and group identity. They see "normal" and "average" as good things, and don't understand people who don't want them, nor do they understand people who want acceptance for things other than those. "Why don't you just grow up?" Stems from a desire for proper, adult, behavior. This person believes in play acting, in rigid rules of behavior, and does not understand that one can be adult, and yet enjoy childish things. Adulthood, the good, is the anti-child, instead of the fully-grown youth.

The question "What use is philosophy?" itself can reveal why Philosophy, the study of knowledge as itself, does not need to have "use" to be good, and how "use" begs the question of philosophy.

Opening

Since it has been quite a while since I've written any formal or informal philosophy, I figured I would start slowly, with my philosophy of blogging:

I never plan on being published. It's a long, costly, arduous and frustrating process which I will save my energy for when my sister tries.

However, I'm quite a prolific writer of scenes, philosophy, novellas, short stories, editorials and political commentary. Many of these things, people like to read. Many of these things I have on hard copy scattered amongst the million others in my room.

I still have friends asking me "where can I read your metaphysical philosophy?" (Yes, I do, I have friends as strange as I am) Rather than say "well... it's around here somewhere... ah, here's a page... and here's another... hold on, let me go through my notebooks," I can say "read my blog."

While blogging is a lot like standing at a street corner, yelling at people and hoping they respond (The people themselves are standing at street corners, yelling at other people to see if they respond), I think I'll try my hand at it nonetheless.

-WC