{"id":8618,"date":"2023-11-14T06:16:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T14:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=8618"},"modified":"2023-11-14T06:16:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T14:16:19","slug":"some-thoughts-on-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/some-thoughts-on-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

I picked up a little book of philosophy out of a street library the other day: William James’ Pragmatism and Other Essays<\/em>. It is somewhat water damaged and contained the receipt from its original purchase: April 27, 1968. Cost: 54 cents and two cents sales tax. First publication: 1907.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study of philosophy has always interested me but I never actively pursued it in college outside of one undergraduate course. I regret this now. It’s a serious gap in my cultural knowledge. Over the years I’ve tried to rectify that by reading books of Eastern and Western philosophy whenever they happen to appear\u2014which is why I’ve been reading James here and there for the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cThe Present Dilemma of Philosophy,\u201d an essay that James delivered first as a lecture, he writes: \u201cI know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That might have been true of his audience because they were students of philosophy, but I hardly think that’s true of most Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans have no philosophy whatsoever except rabid consumerism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading James inspired me to consider my own current philosophies of life and the philosophies or non-philosophies of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was teaching, I had one main philosophy with students: engage, engage, engage them with content and experiences. It always astounded me that almost every teacher I ever worked with had no teaching philosophy that they could articulate. I remember serving on several hiring committees and asking prospective candidates, \u201cWhat is your teaching philosophy?\u201d and I was met with silence and confusion\u2014they’d never thought about one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade or so ago, I had no philosophy for romantic relationships or friendships. I do now and they serve me well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always had a philosophy as a coach for sports: make it fun and never quit during a competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, I developed what might be the world’s only philosophy for building driftwood forts. I hope to write a book about it one day. Indeed, I have already written it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans at all levels of governing practice a political philosophy\u2014don’t govern; do the opposite of good governing to achieve your non-governing beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evangelical Christians practice a philosophy exactly contrary to the philosophy espoused by Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have several philosophies for my writing: 1) engage with what interests me and let my mind unfurl as I write about it; 2) amuse myself; 3) find and document previously unknown or lost Oregon stories; 4) give up any idea that I will ever make any money from writing; 5) ass to chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a philosophy for reading: read anything interesting or novel that I come across at random. The same holds true for listening to music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a philosophy for coffee: drip, black, cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main philosophy in dealing with others: follow through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important philosophy in my life: maintenance of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a philosophy for choosing a dive bar as a place to write: languid, with an occasional freak wandering in to break up the languor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I picked up a little book of philosophy out of a street library the other day: William James’ Pragmatism and Other Essays. It is somewhat water damaged and contained the receipt from its original purchase: April 27, 1968. Cost: 54 cents and two cents sales tax. First publication: 1907. The study of philosophy has always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8620,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8618\/revisions\/8620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}