Jonathan Ree, presenter. Copyright image Christiane Gehron
About the presenter
Jonathan Rée is a freelance historian, philosopher and househusband living near Oxford. His books include Descartes, Philosophy and its Past, Proletarian Philosophers, Philosophical Tales, Heidegger, and I See a Voice. His journalism has appeared in the Evening Standard, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Lingua Franca, London Review of Books, Prospect, The Independent, and Times Literary Supplement. He recently gave up a career as a university lecturer in London in order to have more time to think.
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Self-conscious, analytic philosophers like their philosophy to conform to this: a detailed, clear, rigorous approach, based in logic and generally sympathetic to the sciences. From this perspective certain individuals in the history of philosophy are going to receive favour over others. Hume's clear prose style, scientific outlook and rigorous logic will be preferred to Rousseau, with his appeals to the emotions and grand rhetorical flourishes. From this perspective the six philosophers on our Journeys are not representative of the subject (although Wittgenstein, as always, is a special case).
Having said all that, philosophy has been undergoing a transformation in recent years. The technique of analysis, although a powerful philosophical tool, is now only one of many that philosophers, even analytical philosophers, use. There is growing attention to the empirical sciences, and also what we can broadly call ‘the facts of experience’. With this wider approach comes an interest in the work of past philosophers who have, perhaps, not been given their due. This series of programmes exemplifies this in, at least, two ways. First, in the range of philosophers Jonathan considers; and second, in the breadth of the approach he takes. He not only explores whether the philosophy stands up in itself (that is, whether or not it is true) but the way it was influenced by the intellectual and physical surroundings in which it was produced. There is no doubt that our six thinkers touch upon profound issues in human life, from the nature of evil with Arendt and Kierkegaard on personality, to the very basics of language and life with Wittgenstein.
All of our six philosophers had problematic relations with academic philosophy. The conclusions Arendt drew from her observations of the Eichmann trial lead to her being treated with suspicion and hostility by her colleagues. Wittgenstein resigned his academic post, and would recommend his students to take jobs in factories rather than work in philosophy. Both Rousseau and Marx were suspicious of, even hostile to, the professional philosophers of their day. Kierkegaard never held an academic post, and, especially in his final years, was given to denunciation. Nietzsche is perhaps the paradigm of the philosophical outsider. His image is perhaps too influenced by the insanity that marred the end of his life, but his works contain vociferous attacks on almost everything academic philosophy considered sacred. In their lives (and, of course, their journeys in thought) they remind us that philosophy is not, and never was, the preserve of professional philosophers. As a subject it is very exacting – intellectual sloppiness will not do – but the springs of interest that feed its concerns are those that should nurture any reflective life.
Does this mean, then, that university departments are not needed for the health of philosophy? I would argue that they are needed for at least two reasons. First, eliminating sloppiness from thought requires training and practice. It is a hard-won skill, and like most hard-won skills, it does, in general, need to be taught. Second, unless (like Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard) you have the means to give yourself time to spend in the exacting business of refining your thoughts, the universities provide a space in which one can debate the kinds of concerns that interested our six philosophers. It might be that you would not end up studying exactly our six (at The Open University you would read Wittgenstein, Marx and Rousseau, but not Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Arendt). However, the concerns are recognisably the same, and the motive to reflect on what we find important has not changed much.
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Having said all that, philosophy has been undergoing a transformation in recent years. The technique of analysis, although a powerful philosophical tool, is now only one of many that philosophers, even analytical philosophers, use. There is growing attention to the empirical sciences, and also what we can broadly call ‘the facts of experience’. With this wider approach comes an interest in the work of past philosophers who have, perhaps, not been given their due. This series of programmes exemplifies this in, at least, two ways. First, in the range of philosophers Jonathan considers; and second, in the breadth of the approach he takes. He not only explores whether the philosophy stands up in itself (that is, whether or not it is true) but the way it was influenced by the intellectual and physical surroundings in which it was produced. There is no doubt that our six thinkers touch upon profound issues in human life, from the nature of evil with Arendt and Kierkegaard on personality, to the very basics of language and life with Wittgenstein.
All of our six philosophers had problematic relations with academic philosophy. The conclusions Arendt drew from her observations of the Eichmann trial lead to her being treated with suspicion and hostility by her colleagues. Wittgenstein resigned his academic post, and would recommend his students to take jobs in factories rather than work in philosophy. Both Rousseau and Marx were suspicious of, even hostile to, the professional philosophers of their day. Kierkegaard never held an academic post, and, especially in his final years, was given to denunciation. Nietzsche is perhaps the paradigm of the philosophical outsider. His image is perhaps too influenced by the insanity that marred the end of his life, but his works contain vociferous attacks on almost everything academic philosophy considered sacred. In their lives (and, of course, their journeys in thought) they remind us that philosophy is not, and never was, the preserve of professional philosophers. As a subject it is very exacting – intellectual sloppiness will not do – but the springs of interest that feed its concerns are those that should nurture any reflective life.
Does this mean, then, that university departments are not needed for the health of philosophy? I would argue that they are needed for at least two reasons. First, eliminating sloppiness from thought requires training and practice. It is a hard-won skill, and like most hard-won skills, it does, in general, need to be taught. Second, unless (like Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard) you have the means to give yourself time to spend in the exacting business of refining your thoughts, the universities provide a space in which one can debate the kinds of concerns that interested our six philosophers. It might be that you would not end up studying exactly our six (at The Open University you would read Wittgenstein, Marx and Rousseau, but not Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Arendt). However, the concerns are recognisably the same, and the motive to reflect on what we find important has not changed much.
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