25 June 2013
Discussed Text: Simon Critchley, "What Is A Philosopher?"
After today’s class, my friend told me that he wanted to know how Philosophy kills. The question then began bugging in my mind for an hour. I started looking around imagining how it could possibly kill someone today in this modern age. It was hard finding the answer so I took more time.
I googled the question and I found something interesting, a list of dead Philosophers. I think many Philosophers in the list can help me answer my question. I’m not sure if this has relevance, but most of them ended up either killing themselves or suffering a tragic death, like Aristotle who was forced to kill himself upholding his ideal and Simone Weil who starved herself to death.
Now I am thinking of two possible answers. First is about the story of Theaetetus. Sometimes, reflecting too much makes you unaware of what is in front of you. You forget how to live and act in reality then you become someone that you tried to avoid most, a fool. It can also be that it is not too much Philosophy that kills but rather having a wrong Philosophy if there is such, or a Philosophy which is not in accordance to proper living just like Simone Weil who became too passionate of her beliefs that she starved herself to death believing that self starvation was the best way of self denial.
Second is the Aristotle example which has something to do with society. You become wise as him that your ideals are now too hard to be comprehended and accepted by society. They might think that you have gone crazy or your ideals are too influential that it might endanger their well-being. Or maybe it is a matter of having conflicting Philosophies that makes people kill one another. It comes down to a battle of pride, a clash between points of view or simply disagreements that cost lives.
Or maybe I am wrong with all I have written and wrong for asking immediately the question, “How does Philosophy kill?” and not debated first with the question, “Does Philosophy really kill?”
