Although in appearance much of the world does not "have time" for philosophy, the reality is that it is impossible to escape its molding influence.A huge part of who we are, as social and self -reflective beings;And of our environments, that is, the systems in which we operate and interact, is directly formed by traditions, beliefs and values derived from different philosophical schools;And more importantly, without philosophy we can never understand and, therefore, change, what constitutes us as individuals and what structures and encourages our societies.
Therefore, and taking advantage of the fact that this November 18 is celebrated on World Philosophy Day, we have asked one of our experts, DR.Pablo Arnau Paltor will explain the importance of this discipline, its current validity and how it can help us better understand both our environment and ourselves.
The doctor.Pablo Arnau Paltor is a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Valencia and a professor of the Degree in Early Childhood Education and the University Master's Degree in Teachers of Compulsory Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching of ViU.He is the winner of the Miguel Hernández de Poetía Award (1996) and has worked as a high school professor of Philosophy between 1996-2017.
At a time when in Spain the elimination of the ESO philosophy subject has been announced, the question is forced. What is the importance of philosophy and its teaching in the current context?
It is never good news the disappearance of any subject of humanities of the curriculum, but, to tell.In addition, philosophy in primary school in two courses has been introduced.The latter seems to me special relevance, since this type of training has already been implemented in several Europe.In the United States, for example, they have a mandatory debate subject from the first elementary school to the last high school.Oral expression is one of the weaknesses of our educational system and has a lot to do with philosophy, because knowing how to speak is to think;So, in my opinion, the appearance of primary philosophy is with a lot.
What role does philosophy have in the construction of our current cultures, both in the West and in the rest of the world?In what ethical, cultural or customary practices, can we find ideas developed by philosophy and subsequently naturalized as if they were part of a ‘natural order of things?
Giambattista Vico who is an excellent philosopher of culture, already said in the seventeenth century that in the history of societies reflection always occupies the most last period, in addition to relating it to the decline.In the life of cultures the psychological evolution of individual knowledge is reissued: first we act and create the customs that allow us to inhabit and constitute the world;Reflective thinking appears in a much later phase.As Hegel said philosophy is like the owl of Minerva that raises the flight when the forest is already numb.European civilization is the only one that has separated the thought of religion or the way of life.There is an oriental philosophy to the extent that we see it with our eyes, but there is no historical moment in which thought asserts itself and that first Greek illustration is part of our foundation as a culture.For better or worse, that fact brought with it the appearance of new science and technology and subsequently the second great illustration in which the separation between knowledge and religion in the most important social revolution in history is taken to the extreme.I say for good or worse, because our civilization has been globalized thanks to those transcendental moments of history, including Roman law and secularization of Christianity.
It is said that the human being is the only animal that needs to know who it is to be;Well, in the case of Western culture, the human being has been subject to himself in theoretical terms and that fact is unusual to the appearance of the concept of freedom and human rights.It is true, as Hegel himself thinks, that our history is not linear in the sense that progress has cost a lot of blood and destruction, many comings and goings.But it would be absurd to deny our past by highlighting those moments without making it clear that the gain has been of immeasurable proportions.If Socrates had not existed, it is very likely that our story would still be the exploitation of man by man.As the generation that we did not know the postwar.But we must not forget that there is water in the valley, because there are frozen summits.Both philosophy, such as classical languages, literature, history and, in general, humanities are not an adornment of scientific formation, but the way of not forgetting that Europe is above all an inclusive humanism.
What tools gives us philosophy to understand the functioning of our current societies?
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The philosopher is the one who tries to decipher what is really happening and what happens to us.The speed of change in the interpretation of the world has become unassimilable and there is no motionless scenario that allows us to move our confusion away.We live hunched over the weight of public certainties, but with the interior overwhelmed by doubts.In order to inhabit the world without being subject to its inertia it is necessary to be extemporaneous, as Agamben says.In my opinion there is much more to discover in Homer's Iliad than in the nuclear fusion, because there is a danger that we will throw the quotas of freedom we have achieved by boarding.And, of course, that a regression is possible.From Philip K's novel.Dick, do androids dream of electric sheep? In 1968, popularized by Blade Runner in 1982 the dystopia have already been frequent that draw a dark future for humanity.
In my opinion, human knowledge has acquired such a level of sophistication and complexity that there is a danger that technology marks the rhythm of change and that humanism in which we gesture as civilization is lost along the way.Until recently, our knowledge served us to fight the stalks of nature;Now is our own knowledge that constitutes the danger of nature and ourselves.Without that humanistic dimension we would lose ourselves as Leopold Bloom does in the Ulysses de Joyce without Itaca to which to return or where to be recognized.
The existence of figures such as Slavoj Zizek, Darío Sztajnszrajber or Michael Sandel, often equated with 'rock stars' for their ability to mobilize people and fill theaters and auditoriums worldwide with their presentations and readings. Indicates that there is abroad interest among the population to approach philosophy?Is more dissemination work necessary, in addition to training?
The Information and Access to Knowledge Society does not automatically bring a global vision, but can lead to a blind technology and the consideration that only experimental science has the monopoly of truth.Given this vertiginous career there is a type of philosophy that has canceled its relationship with the truth: the so -called postmodernity wants to replace that concept with forms of power.I have heard Derrida say that friendship is a wooden iron.If there is no measure of the human, the monstrous appears inevitably, and that implies the resignation to think because there is nothing to understand.
That pessimism that is a form of cynicism is also counteracted by a social demand for broad responses that help us understand what is happening.The philosophers, such as poets and artists in general, have become the heroes of our time because they have diving in chaos, have climbed into the steep mountains, and have brought us in the form of treasury interpretation keys.His fame is very meritorious because they bring lights where there is darkness.Nietzsche said that true intelligence is to make the complex simple.The dissemination has to do with that eagerness to help, of a certain commitment to the truth and the conviction that it makes us freer.
In this line, what do you think of philosophical and cultural theory that is done by social means such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, in which, using a visual or lower format, they are exposed, analyzed and discussing central ideas of the workof various philosophers and philosophical currents?Do you think the meme for its ability to spread and build a set of highly synthesized references in an easy -to -apprehension format, is an adequate vehicle to bring people closer to people?
In the film the great bet (2015), on the real estate bubble of the subprymes, the rapporteur wonders how it is possible that a global economic disaster did not see coming, and it is answered brilliantly: “The truth is like poetry,nobody is interested ".If philosophy, or poetry, or artists do not connect with the world in which they live become part of the problem.Jacinto Chaza, a Spanish anthropologist whom I admire, believes, as Vico, that in large part the Neolithic is coming to an end and that the predicative language is showing exhaustion.I agree with him.There are many indicators and parameters of our culture that show, together with the scientific advance, a new form of Paleolithic.The information channels have acquired the character of the visual and the performative: today we can follow an entire course of clinical psychology of Harvard University, to be part of a congress with a mobile, listen to Madame Bovary in its original language and, above all, attend the universal mythological versions in the form of films that make us awake.Audiovisual culture can bring us closer to that way of knowing that it was preserved for 300.000 years before the appearance of writing.And we can do it without giving up it.I think that "regression" plays in favor of the renewal that every society needs when it seems to decline or abdicate itself.
The Internet revolution, contrary to what is often believed, can change the panorama of knowledge towards "the life we really live", as Dilthey wanted when he designed human sciences at the dawn of the 19th century.So far we have had prodigious writers.From now on we can continue having them along with their voice.The first forms of language were dance and song.Why should we do without them if technology makes us possible?The image and rhythm can be articulated as a language and cannot do any evil if it is about talking about a rebirth of culture that would no longer concentrate on the spotlights of wealth and patronage, but worldwide and for all.The invention of the printing press would be very short if we compare it with the media revolution of knowledge.And who, suspicious, complained about the possibility of manipulation at a massive level, should be asked when knowledge has not had a dangerous dimension.