Post by Admin on Apr 27, 2024 11:58:33 GMT
Philosophical reflection often begins with a disruptive mood
psyche.co/ideas/philosophical-reflection-often-begins-with-a-disruptive-mood
For many of our greatest philosophers, it was their moods, from wonder to estrangement to anxiety, that first inspired them
It’s often thought that philosophy begins and ends with abstract and rational thinking. Like science, it’s seen as a methodology of logic that allows the philosopher to be detached, disengaged, free from the irrationality and subjectivity of emotion, and precise in the pursuit of objective truth. However, the history of philosophy shows that disruptive emotions and moods are central to the experience of philosophising. Philosophy means love of wisdom. It includes a care of the self, and our attitude towards the world is extremely important for wellbeing.
Perplexity, wonder, surprise, estrangement and existential anxiety are some of the disruptive moods that spark philosophical reflection. For example, it is often the case that in the grief following the death of a loved one, we find ourselves asking philosophical questions: What is it all for? What does it mean to exist?
There is a pattern in the history of philosophy that allows us to identify moods as the trigger that calls for and sustains philosophical reflection. Although not every philosopher is inspired by a disruptive mood, many of them are. Plato’s Socrates speaks about himself as being perplexed and lost. Michel de Montaigne writes about the melancholia, deepened by the death of a dear friend, through which he came to philosophy. René Descartes’s methodological doubt emerged out of a sense of insecurity experienced in the disruption of his Catholic taken-for-granted beliefs. Karl Marx’s politics meant he was alienated from conventional ways of being-in-the-world. Søren Kierkegaard’s anxiety led him into the world of philosophical reflection (‘all existence makes me anxious,’ he once wrote). Friedrich Nietzsche writes of the relationship between his emotional pain and his philosophy. While Martin Heidegger does not write of his own anxiety, much of his thinking arose in response to a disillusionment with technology and modernity. Max Weber experienced the depression of a disenchanted world.
Different moods disclose and frame the world in different ways. In the mood of perplexity, Socrates becomes attuned to an understanding of virtue, while Plato sees wonder as the horizon of metaphysical thinking; wonder, for Aristotle, is the basis of enquiry into what is. In a mood of disenchantment, the Romantics launch their great project of re-enchanting the world, and the Marxists take alienation and estrangement to be the revolutionary basis for the liberation of workers from the capitalist class. Kierkegaard understands his own profound anxiety as the trigger for moving beyond the finite to the world of possibility. Nietzsche shows us that the anguish of nihilism leads to the re-evaluation of all values, while Heidegger finds a different lesson in anxiety, taking us beyond the ‘average everyday’ ways of being to an ‘authentic’ attunement to being. In general, existential philosophers see the mood of the anxiety of meaninglessness as throwing us into the scary and exciting question of meaning.
By emotionally disrupting the familiarity of our everyday world, these moods of disruption allow us to step back, to question, to make sense of that world in new ways. The familiar world becomes explicit to us – no longer presumed but provoking – and we can question the ways of our being in that world. When we engage in philosophical questioning, we are questioning the way in which we make sense of our own existence, the existence of others, and our relationships to them. In reflecting philosophically, our way of being in the world is at stake.
psyche.co/ideas/philosophical-reflection-often-begins-with-a-disruptive-mood
For many of our greatest philosophers, it was their moods, from wonder to estrangement to anxiety, that first inspired them
It’s often thought that philosophy begins and ends with abstract and rational thinking. Like science, it’s seen as a methodology of logic that allows the philosopher to be detached, disengaged, free from the irrationality and subjectivity of emotion, and precise in the pursuit of objective truth. However, the history of philosophy shows that disruptive emotions and moods are central to the experience of philosophising. Philosophy means love of wisdom. It includes a care of the self, and our attitude towards the world is extremely important for wellbeing.
Perplexity, wonder, surprise, estrangement and existential anxiety are some of the disruptive moods that spark philosophical reflection. For example, it is often the case that in the grief following the death of a loved one, we find ourselves asking philosophical questions: What is it all for? What does it mean to exist?
There is a pattern in the history of philosophy that allows us to identify moods as the trigger that calls for and sustains philosophical reflection. Although not every philosopher is inspired by a disruptive mood, many of them are. Plato’s Socrates speaks about himself as being perplexed and lost. Michel de Montaigne writes about the melancholia, deepened by the death of a dear friend, through which he came to philosophy. René Descartes’s methodological doubt emerged out of a sense of insecurity experienced in the disruption of his Catholic taken-for-granted beliefs. Karl Marx’s politics meant he was alienated from conventional ways of being-in-the-world. Søren Kierkegaard’s anxiety led him into the world of philosophical reflection (‘all existence makes me anxious,’ he once wrote). Friedrich Nietzsche writes of the relationship between his emotional pain and his philosophy. While Martin Heidegger does not write of his own anxiety, much of his thinking arose in response to a disillusionment with technology and modernity. Max Weber experienced the depression of a disenchanted world.
Different moods disclose and frame the world in different ways. In the mood of perplexity, Socrates becomes attuned to an understanding of virtue, while Plato sees wonder as the horizon of metaphysical thinking; wonder, for Aristotle, is the basis of enquiry into what is. In a mood of disenchantment, the Romantics launch their great project of re-enchanting the world, and the Marxists take alienation and estrangement to be the revolutionary basis for the liberation of workers from the capitalist class. Kierkegaard understands his own profound anxiety as the trigger for moving beyond the finite to the world of possibility. Nietzsche shows us that the anguish of nihilism leads to the re-evaluation of all values, while Heidegger finds a different lesson in anxiety, taking us beyond the ‘average everyday’ ways of being to an ‘authentic’ attunement to being. In general, existential philosophers see the mood of the anxiety of meaninglessness as throwing us into the scary and exciting question of meaning.
By emotionally disrupting the familiarity of our everyday world, these moods of disruption allow us to step back, to question, to make sense of that world in new ways. The familiar world becomes explicit to us – no longer presumed but provoking – and we can question the ways of our being in that world. When we engage in philosophical questioning, we are questioning the way in which we make sense of our own existence, the existence of others, and our relationships to them. In reflecting philosophically, our way of being in the world is at stake.