Q&A: Does Philosophy Really Help Us Understand the World?
Does Philosophy Really Help Us Understand the World?
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael Abraham,
A question that’s been bothering me lately:
Is there really any point in trying to understand the world?
After all, the very same logical arguments are received by person A as very convincing, while person B laughs at those arguments. Both are equally intelligent, and still they disagree. Maybe they’re really just proving to themselves whatever they want to prove, and in fact there’s no need for discussion, because in any case no one understands the other.
The same thing happens with me too: it’s important to me to prove something (really, I want to prove it), and I’ll do everything I can to do that, so maybe there’s no point in thinking at all—just experiencing the world, and that’s it…
Answer
This is a standard skeptical argument. To a true skeptic, I have nothing to say. But you need to examine whether you really are a skeptic. There is another way to interpret the very situation you describe. You assume that if someone argues with me or sees the situation differently, then there is no way to know and no point in arguing. But there is also the possibility of saying that one is right and the other is wrong. Therefore, what is incumbent on you to do is to examine your counterpart’s arguments carefully and reach a reasoned conclusion (not what you want, as you wrote, but what you think. A big and very significant difference). That is the most and the best you can do, and you are not free to desist from it.
Now you have to think about which of these options seems more plausible to you (that discussion is pointless, or that one simply has to be careful), and decide whether you are a skeptic or not.