We Think, Therefore We Are - FT

7/28/2019 We Think, Therefore We Are - FT

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We think, therefore we are

Greg Funnell

A meeting of the London Philosophy Club at Conway Hall

When I graduated from university just over a decade ago, I decided to become a fre

lance philosopher. I was inspired by the cover of the Penguin edition of Kierkegaard

Either/Or, which showed a solitary thinker deep in rumination in a garret. This, I deci

ed, was the life for me. I announced that I was moving to Denmark, held a leaving part

and then decided not to go. I recollected that I didnt know anyone in Denmark, couldnspeak Danish, and realised that the move would be a disaster. It was my first great phil

sophical insight.

Philosophy today has moved a long way from that stereotype of the lonely thinker. I

practice is becoming ever more communal. As well as attending discussion circles, s

lons, debating clubs, literary-philosophical societies and events from the likes of TED

5x15, the School of Life and Intelligence Squared, people are gathering in philosoph

clubs, Socrates cafs, Enlightenment cafs, even death cafs (for those who want to r

flect together on mortality). Music festivals, too, such as Latitude and Bestival have the

own ideas tents yes, philosophy is one of the new rock n rolls. But how can the cu

rent wave of philosophical clubs ensure they are more than a fashionable trend?

The London Philosophy Club, of which I am an organiser, is the biggest in the UK. Ou

2,000 members include bankers, lawyers, therapists, advertising people and a few acad


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mics looking for a more social form of philosophy. We hold free monthly meetings

pubs, cafs, galleries, parks and restaurants. Sometimes we try to match the topic to th

venue: last week a group met to discuss Italian philosophy in a pizza restaurant by th

River Thames.

Typically, a speaker is invited to give a 30-minute talk. Lord Maurice Glasman, E

Milibands favourite philosopher, turned up at the Green Man pub in Euston, north Lo

don, two minutes before the start of a recent meeting, downed a double espresso and

Red Bull, then launched into a bewitching monologue on the search for the commo

good. We followed this with a question and answer session where Glasmans thesis w

politely assaulted, before breaking into smaller groups to discuss the main ideas. Its su

prising how quickly people share their beliefs with complete strangers.

When people join, we ask them why they want to become part of a philosophy clu

Some have a degree in the subject and miss the practice of philosophising; some want

space to think about the big questions of life. Above all, they want to philosophi

with others to listen and to be heard.

Each member has his or her particular interests. Im fascinated by Socrates idea that ph

losophy can be a therapy for the soul (its where the word psychotherapy com

from), and at a meeting last month we explored the links between philosophy and cogn

tive behavioural therapy. In the breakout groups, one elderly gentleman spoke with qu

et dignity about being committed to a mental care facility. A floppy-haired undergrad

ate discussed how hed learnt to reason with his temper and to choose wiser reactions

lifes slings and arrows. I was particularly moved by Matthew, a 30-year-old who told u

hed inherited bipolar disorder from his father. Hed learnt to manage it using a comb

nation of CBT and ancient philosophy. My father killed himself, but Im hoping Ive g

the better of the condition, he said. Philosophy isnt an abstract intellectual exercise f

me. This is life and death stuff.

Philosophy In Pubs was started just over a decade ago by Rob Lewis: inspired by

course hed taken at the Workers Educational Association, he set up PIPs with h

teacher, Paul Doran, to help spread a thinking culture in the working classes. The

are now 35 PIPs across the UK, where recent discussions have included the problem

with realism and bad marriages make philosophers. Its an open-endedness that a

pears to attract participants. Doran says, Id like it if you could walk into any pub in th

country and ask, What time is your philosophy night?


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This isnt, of course, the first outbreak of communal philosophy. In Athens in the fif

century BC, it was very much a social activity although one mainly confined to the u

per classes. Pythagoras, the first person to use the term philosopher, lived in a com

mune with his followers, as did Epicurus. The Stoics gathered in one corner of th

Athenian market place, the Cynics in another. The Greeks understood that, if you wan

to know yourself and change yourself, its easier to do it with others.

Getty

Raphaels School of Athens (1509-10), with Plato and Aristotle

Fast-forward to the Enlightenment, and public forums played a central role in the sprea

of new ideas. By the 18th century there were some 3,000 coffeehouses where people

typically, affluent men debated ideas. By the early 19th century the movement inclu

ed women and working-class men who met in pubs across the country to discu

Thomas Paines Rights of Man, which was itself written in the Angel pub in Islingto

north London. This period was perhaps the high point of grassroots philosophy it ha

noble ideals, a clear goal in the attainment of universal suffrage, and its meetings an

rallies could attract thousands of people willing to brave government spies and caval

charges.

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Yet todays movement is arguably happening on a far larger scale. Melvyn Bragg, th

novelist and broadcaster who presents In Our Time, a radio programme devoted to th

history of ideas, puts this down to the rise of a mass intelligentsia. It used to be a ve

small minority that got together to discuss ideas, he says. Now its a very large mino

ty. And thats mainly a result of the colossal increase in university graduates, from 5 p

cent in 1960 to 40 per cent today. Theres now a huge section of the population willin

and able to take on challenging ideas.

Bragg also points to an ageing but mentally active population: The trend for using you

leisure for intellectual activity started with older people, who decided that, rather tha

sweltering on a beach in Spain, theyd prefer to go to a book festival or to courses pr

vided by the University of the Third Age. They like the ideas, and they like the social a

pect too, he says.

Derek Tatton is director of the Raymond Williams Foundation and runs a discussion c

cle in the Blue Mugge pub in Leek, Staffordshire. Adult education has been tran

formed by the internet, he says. Theres now much less formal adult education, but i

formal learning is flourishing in exciting and unpredictable ways. Sites such as mee

up.com and Facebook allow self-run organisations to arrange meetings and attract ne

members.

The internet provides resources that would previously have been harder to come b

Tatton says, We might use In Our Time as a starting point, or a TED talk. We recent

used the online video of the debate at Oxford between Richard Dawkins and the Arc

bishop of Canterbury. It has also played a crucial part in building like-minded comm

nities. Take the Skeptics movement, which flourished in the US in the 1970s and now h

several million members. While there had previously been sceptics, critical thinkers su

picious of religion, in the US they didnt always have places to congregate outside of b

cities. In the Bible belt a handful of Skeptics might find themselves in a sea of evang

lists. Online, they can now find local meet-ups, chatrooms and podcasts. They can eve

make the annual pilgrimage to The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas, where around 2,00Skeptics congregate to socialise and meet Skeptic heroes such as Richard Dawkins an

Daniel Dennett.

. . .

The big question facing philosophy clubs is what kind of impact they can hope to hav

on our society. How can they exert the kind of influence of their 19th-century counte
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parts?

It is perhaps no accident that such clubs flourish during periods of economic and mor

crisis. Theres a sense that the ruling elite can no longer be trusted to know where its g

ing, so citizens have to become more active. The Occupy movement is in some ways

giant philosophy club, an example of a popular willingness to come together to fin

ways to transform ourselves and our society. Yet as Occupy also shows, its uncle

whether such informal, grassroots, non-hierarchical organisations can be more than tal

ing shops, whether they can be an effective means to respond to global challenges.

they are to do so, they face stiff organisational challenges.

The question of funding goes back to Pythagoras (who was forced to pay his first st

dent to take his classes) and Socrates (who famously refused any payment). Idealist

volunteers can run clubs for a few years but to develop they may need a more sustai

able model. Derek Tatton says: Its back to the 1890s, when adult learning didnt hav

any government support and relied on funding from philanthropists like Andre

Carnegie. The clubs that survive will probably need to become slightly more form

and to attract funding, either by charging members, or by winning charitable donation

There are plenty of small grants out there from foundations such as the Big Lotte

Fund, or organisations can go the route of Alain de Bottons School of Life, and charg

per event.

The movement must also improve its relationship with academia. Academics accu

grassroots philosophy of incoherence, with grassroots philosophers retorting that acad

mic philosophy is irrelevant. This mutual suspicion dates back partly to the shift fro

informal to formal education the London Mechanics Institute, founded in 1823, eve

tually became Birkbeck College and philosophys becoming, in the eyes of grassroo

philosophers, increasingly specialised, theoretical and introverted (that image of th

lonely philosopher again), losing its outward focus on improving peoples lives.

At Queen Mary, University of London, where I run the Well-Being Project at the Cent

for the History of Emotions, were trying to build more links between academic an

grassroots philosophy. There is a huge popular demand for academics to share their e

pertise Harvard professor Michael Sandels lectures on justice have been watched o

YouTube almost 4m times, his recent LSE/Radio 4 lecture series attracted thousands

and we need to find a better way to help them do that. Some philosophy departmen

are already finding ways: Sheffield, for example, encourages its undergraduates to run

philosophy caf in the local community; Warwick has a monthly ideas caf; the Univer
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ty of East Anglia launched conversation cafs earlier this year.

Ultimately, the biggest challenge for grassroots philosophy could be agreeing on com

mon values and goals. Philosophers such as AC Grayling have talked of making philos

phy a secular alternative to religion. But to create genuine communities you need share

ethical commitments. What can philosophy clubs demand of their members, beyond th

entrance fee? Can we create strong ethical communities without turning into weir

sects? For now, the movement is making it up as we go along. Come and join the gre

experiment.

Jules Evans is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations (Rider Book

London Philosophy Clubs next meeting is July 10, at Conway Hall, London, where Profess

Richard Ashcroft will discuss bioethics

.......................................................................

Philosophers spats: A poker, a pig and a boxer

Those who excel at reasoning are not always reasonable, writes Peter Leggatt

Wittgenstein vs Popper

John Maynard Keynes, after meeting Ludwig Wittgenstein on his return to Cambrid

in 1929, told his wife, Well, God has arrived. I met him on the 5.15 train. What Keyne

didnt mention was that the great philosopher was returning from a stint as a teacher

Austria where he once pulled a female pupils ears so hard they bled. And Wittge

stein certainly wasnt reasonable at the meeting of the Cambridge Moral Sciences Clu

on October 25 1946. It was the only instance in which Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell an

Karl Popper three of the greatest philosophers of their generation were together

the same room. Popper, contesting Wittgensteins notion that there are no real phil

sophical problems, only linguistic puzzles, presented a paper called Are there phil

sophical problems?. Wittgenstein, it seems, took up a hot poker and demanded Poppfurnish an example of a moral rule. Popper claimed to have replied: Not to threaten vi

iting lecturers with pokers.

Scruton vs Singer

Cambridge philosophers remain pugnacious. Roger Scruton, a former fellow of Pete

house, is an expert on Immanuel Kant and scourge of animal-rights activists. He also h
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Life-Jules-Evans/dp/1846043204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340929274&sr=8-1&keywords=Philosophy+for+Life+and+Other+Dangerous+Situations


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Roger Scruton

his own farm. Scrutons signal opponent

is Peter Singer, the Princeton professor of

bioethics and defender of animal rights.

As Singers book Eating records, Scruton

recently reared and butchered an animal

named after his nemesis Singer the pig

and can thus claim to have slaughteredSinger.

Ayer vs Tyson

AJ Ayer, author of Language, Truth and

Logic, was 77 when he took on Mike

Tyson. According to Ben Rogers biography, Ayer was a guest at a party in New York

1987 when a woman cried out that her friend was being assaulted in the bedroom. Th

philosopher went to investigate, and found Mike Tyson advancing upon the model Na

mi Campbell. When Ayer told him to desist, Tyson shouted back, Do you know wh

the fuck I am? Im the heavyweight champion of the world. In an apogee of mind ov

matter, Ayer replied: And I am the former Wykeham professor of logic. We are bo

pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men. Campbe

left the room; the philosopher and the boxer began a dialectic.

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We Think, Therefore We Are - FT