philosophers

I've come to realize how lucky I am with regard to my job and my colleagues. At the other jobs I've had (I'm afraid not too many - I'm a lazy son of a bitch) I had a nice enough time with my colleagues, but I did not socialize much with them outside the limits of 9-5. There was small-talk during lunch, but mostly what was said did not matter much. It was not very personal. At my present job, I regard everyone at the department as friends, and that has nothing to do with whether we meet often or on a more irregular basis. These are people with whom I can talk about anything, and I know that they will listen, take me seriously. I've learned an endless amount of things from them, about philosophy, but also about other things. There's no clear division between "work" and "non-work", in conversations or otherwise. In this setting of people, it would be slightly absurd to say "let's not talk shop" if "shop" is something other than formal things such as bureaucracy or similar matters concerning practical problems at uni.

On our way home tonight, rain falling heavily and the lights a-glaring, G said to me when we found ourselves having walked the wrong way, "this is what it's like to be a philosopher". That is, walking around (we happened to talk about "getting lost", about maps and what it is like to walk around in an unfamiliar surrounding) and being occupied in convesation to the point that one no longer pays attention to the direction in which one's feet is taking one (just like old Thales who was so engaged in watching the stars that he tripped and fell into a well).

At best, philosophy is miles away from scholarships, employment, small-minded argumentation and academic accomplishments. At best, philosophy is a quiet walk in the rain. One does not have to appear as something (intelligent, "learned", charming) but the only thing that counts is that one dares to dive into a conversation - regardless of what it is about - with an open heart and without any agendas. Of course, I have philosophical conversations with non-scholars as well. In the best case scenario, a philosophical discussion is not about "traditional" topics (as if philosophy could be described in terms of a specific set of issues) but it's often about the most surprising and unexpected things that suddenly become the object of serious (in the sense of 'honest', relentless) reflection. With many of my friends, even gossip will take on philosophical forms.

One thing that characterizes these discussions is that they are not mainly a forum for opinions, if you end by saying "that's just what I think, deal with it", then, from a philosophical point of view, there's a problem. Maybe there are conversations in which it is not a problem at all, but then they are not what I would call philosophical. In philosophical discussions, an appeal to facts will count to nothing, if facts are taken as "this is just how things are". I want to employ a cliché by saying that philosophy is aimed at clarity, not "knowledge about particular states of affairs". But this way of expressing it carries certain risks, and might lead to some misconceptions (that philosophy is not about the world, about ordinary things).

I think I've learned more about the character of philosophical conversation gradually, by the years. And there's still a lot I have to learn. The hardest thing in philosophy is that one has to devote one's whole person to the conversation taking place, and that in no case is it possible to retreat to "personal views" as a defense. There's no defense if the interlocuter does not understand what you try to say. That is, in a sense, the only measure. Bad philosophy is not due to deficient intelligence - bad philosophy is vanity. And maybe laziness, a lack of vitality: one does not have the energy to throw oneself onto the hard, unpolished ground of thought. Most of all, my colleagues have taught me a lot about talking and, even more important, listening. But, as I said, I've learned so much in occasions outside the seminar room: in bars, on walks, and so on. "Professional" philosophy is, in so many ways, the end of philosophy. Professionalized philosophy will be dead philosophy, dead letters and words that come from nowhere and will end up nowhere.