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Understanding Philosophy

 Although I am a mathematician, I still study philosophy. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned about that study. Philosophy is very much different than mathematics in that often the language is imprecise. Below are a few lessons I've learned trying to understand this strange world. These remarks apply to general philosophy, not the philosophies of mathematics and science, which are quite different.

  • Philosophy often is deeply involved with vague subject matter such as “truth” and “love.” Yet these are very important topics to understand. There are quick answers and highly complex ones. Your understanding is often connected with your belief systems as well as critical thinking. It is difficult to be unbiased. (In a twist, one could argue the being unbiased is itself a form of bias.)
  • Every contributor often discusses only small variations to the body of knowledge. Even the meaning of some philosophers changes with time as the meanings of words change and the culture drifts in other directions. For example, reading Spinoza today in our mostly nonsecular environment has different understanding that when it was written in an entirely secular environment.
  • Often the language used is vague and difficult to understand unless the reader is very familiar with the subject. It is important to know the basics well.
  • When new “big” contributions are made, it sometimes catches on in the general literature, but soon declines in influence after competitors highlight flaws. There is little consensus within any of the subareas of philosophy.
  • In philosophy, it is important to read and reread almost everything until it settles into your thinking. Philosophy is not a collections of maxims, aphorisms, sayings, and the like.
So, if you try to understand philosophy and are having trouble, it's not you as much as it is the nature of the subject.
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