Culture changes. We bid goodbye to somethings and welcome others. We do not miss the hula hoop or Nehru jackets, but we cannot do without email and compact discs. Most unfortunately, however, in the kaleidoscope of change, somethings that are indispensable are squeezed out. I am speaking here of the untimely dismissal of philosophy as the love of wisdom. Is philosophy really dead? The late Professor Lewis Samuel Feuer, a sociologist and professor emeritus of the University of Virginia, put it bluntly, “American philosophy is dead.” His stark pronouncement was reported in The New York Times, though not in the obituary column.
The situation is “peculiar and even strange,” observed the distinguished philosopher Josef Pieper in The Future of Thomism (1992). Skepticism, relativism, cynicism, and deconstruction have pushed true philosophy into virtual oblivion. The problem that philosophy now faces is not this or that issue that is germane to the philosophical enterprise, but, as Pieper lamented, “Why philosophy at all?”
What has happened in contemporary culture that is inimical to philosophy? We might take a cursory look at three factors: democracy, progress, and affluence. These factors are all good in themselves, but when they are not properly understood, they become enemies of philosophy.
Democracy stresses the notion of equality. This is fine as long as it does not demean distinctiveness. Everyone has an equal right to vote, but not everyone is equally wise. When equality suppresses distinctiveness, the claim is made that no one is more right or wrong than anyone else. Philosophy students, therefore, are not less wise than their teachers. Children are not less wise than their parents. Plato and Aquinas are of merely historic interest. They have nothing to teach us. One man’s philosophy is as good as the thought of any other man. Hugh Hefner learned nothing from Aristotle.
Democracy, in the proper sense, demands education. In Ray Bradbury’s novella, Fahrenheit 451, all books must be burned since, after reading a book, a person will think he is no longer equal to his neighbor.
Equality, however, relates more to opportunity than it does to achievement. In a democracy, not everyone will take full advantage of his opportunity. The central irony of democracy is that while it welcomes equality of opportunity, it also praises inequality of achievement. Philosophy as love of wisdom is one of the great achievements of democracy properly understood.
Progress is only too apparent. In science and its applied fields, ranging from medicine to computers, the fact that there is progress is unarguable. But it is not at all apparent that there has been progress in morality. General Omar Bradley said it well when he made the comment that “ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”
Progress is often confused with change. With change there is also novelty. And novelty passes for progress. Scripture tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. The nature of the human being, his divine origin, his destiny and moral responsibilities persist. They are constants. The great danger of novelty is to erase the best of tradition, whatever wisdom has been passed down from generation to generation concerning the human drama. Novelty is always new, seldom important, and never progressive in the truest sense of the word.
Philosophy that seeks an understanding of the nature of the human person and his essential responsibilities in life has no need of novelty. When novelty replaces philosophy it replaces wisdom along with it. Thus, philosophy is commonly derogated as atavistic, belonging to the Middle Ages, and the attempt to impose one’s private values on another. Novelty, however, is doomed to be replaced by an ensuing wave of novelty. Philosophy is timeless, novelty belongs to today but not to tomorrow.
Affluence relates to material or financial prosperity. In itself, it is something to be cherished. However, affluence brings into play the powerful temptation to make wealth the ultimate object of one’s life. When this occurs, wisdom loses its primacy. Love of money, the root of all evil as the Bible notes, breeds a disdain for wisdom. The rich man has considerable problems working his way through the eye of a needle in order to gain entrance into Heaven.
The catchphrase, “The one who dies with the most money wins,” reveals the emptiness of wealth as a life goal. Life is not a sport. It is not about an accumulation of material goods, but a personal expression of love and obedience to the Will of God. One cannot carry his financial assets into the Promised Land.
Democracy, progress, and affluence are limited goods. Each one of them needs to be complemented by wisdom. Without wisdom, they become caricatures of themselves, no longer serving human beings but becoming their enemies. In the contemporary world, when philosophy attempts to make its entrance, it is rebuffed as a kind of disease.
One example should be sufficient. The philosophical judgment that certain sexual acts between the same sexes are unnatural, although solidly rooted in both Scripture as well as in science, is routinely dismissed as “homophobic.” Rational discussion, therefore, is precluded. The person who purports to be a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, is maligned as someone who is operating from a disease.
In this world where democracy, progress, and affluence are given far more significance that they deserve, is there any room left for philosophy? Even though philosophy is not a characteristic at the present moment of the surrounding culture, it will continue to be a prized possession for certain individuals. Nevertheless, they should know what they are battling against. One must be courageous before he becomes wise.
Philosopher Jacques Maritain has a word of hope when he comments that despite the cultural stifling of the intellect, it “cannot be affected in its essential constitution.” In other words, the sun continues to exist even when clouds cover the sky.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus of St. Jerome’s University and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review. His latest books, How to Navigate Through Life and Apostles of the Culture of Life, are posted on amazon.com.)
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