Ontic Cafe's Philosophy Short Shots

Philosophy is a vast discipline, with many sub disciplines - and that is just Western continental and Anglo American philosophy. Everyone thinks that they are a philosopher, and most people have had what we call a philosophical discussion at some point in their lives.

However, students who come to undergraduate philosophy courses often discover something surprising about formal philosophical training. It can be quite hard. The new terminology and abstract concepts come thick and fast, and it can take a quick mind to adjust to such a new kind of learning.

Then there is the habit many philosophers have of being intentionally abstruse - hard to understand. Even other philosophers don't like it!

The German existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger once said:

"Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy. Those who idolize "facts" never notice that their idols only shine in a borrowed light." 

The world renowed American linguist Noam Chomsky once said of the work of the much loved and vaunted postmodern continental philosopher Jacques Derrida that it was impossible to understand. Chomsky has called the work of Jacques Lacan and Derrida absurd, infantile and ridiculous:

Thus we go from one absurdity to another - Stalinism, existentialism. Lacan, Derrida - some of them obscene ( Stalinism), some simply infantile and ridiculous ( Lacan, Derrida).

What hope then have new students and novices got of understanding what is going on with philosophy- and given the kind of infighting apparent in the above, why bother with it at all?

Well, this is Ontic Cafe, and we know the value of good quality philosophy. It i discouraging to the open minded novice that the analytic philosopher John Searle said of 19th century continental philosopher Derrida that:

...Michel Foucault, who was more hostile to Derrida even than I am ... said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking French...[H]e said, "He writes so obscurely you can’t tell what he’s saying, that’s the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, 'You didn’t understand me; you’re an idiot.' That’s the terrorism part." 

Here is the interview:

This is all arguably very discouraging, but there is much hope. Paul Grice - another analytic philosopher of the Anglo-American tradition - presented four maxim's for philosophical writing that Searle repeatedly mentions as "be clear, be brief, be orderly, and avoid obscurity of expression." 

You can look up the full set of Grice's maxims of conversational clarity according to his cooperative principle (2) The idea is to help the other person to understand by avoiding the obscurantism that Derrida and Lacan are accused of.

The Ontic Cafe short shots series is to be launched over the next week. We will be selecting some of the best and most interesting dilemma's, paradoxes, and arguments from the analytic tradition and explaining them quickly and basically. We will aspire to adherence to Grice's maxims. 

Here is the list of the first four short shots soon to be released by category or sub discipline:

1. PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: Rene Descarte's pineal gland, animal spirits, and the explanatory regress for Cartesian dualism about mind.

2. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: Aquinas' ontological argument.

3. METAPHYSICS AND PLATONISM: The epistemic argument against the existence of Platonic entities.

4. LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS: Russell's paradox: the set of all sets that are not members of themself.

First will be given a short explanation situation the problem, and then the problem will be stated clearly. Short shots are limited to 3 minutes in length.

Stay tuned.

1. Heidegger, Martin. Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning) (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999), p. 307.

2. Grice, H. P. Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1989 26-7.