What's Philosophy, Exactly?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 11 October 2024 "What is philosophy, exactly?" was a question that was answered: It is necessary to catch the black cat that is being searched extensively but is not there in the dark room. About all philosophical schools, this might not be accurate. By GGS "Philosophy is obscure, I mean deliberately obscure. " I don't remember who stated this but there's no denying the fact that philosophy is obscure and abstruse. When I was in school, someone presented a copy of the great Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's utterly unintelligible treatise 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus' to me. I couldn't understand anything that the man wrote or tried to convey. I ought to have the grace to admit that I've still not been able to comprehend even a smattering of his principles of Philo-linguistics, in spite of my sound grounding in Philosophy, Psychology and Linguistics at the highest level. I can explain the French genius Jacques Derrida's highly perplexing 'Deconstruction Theory' to my students, but feel vertigo the moment I see Wittgenstein's book. There're quite a few books especially in the realms of philosophy and poetry, which test the readers' patience and give them a complex as well as a sense of futility. Readers get confused and ultimately feel so inferior that they give up, and these philosophical books succeed in their primary objective: To bamboozle the readers. The creators of all these incomprehensible jargon immediately get intellectual and philosophical notoriety because most of the readers fail to understand them. There's also an inkling of sadism to it. The helplessness in understanding these writers and philosophers gives a kind of sadistic satisfaction to the ego of these cerebral people lulling them into a faux sense of superiority. The images and symbols conceived by expatriate American poet Ezra Pound are too recherche for ordinary minds. Pound deliberately and condescendingly resorted to private symbols and lavishly used them in his abstruse poetry, yet today he's considered to be a great poet and a major figure in the early modernist poetry. Modern poetry like modern art has so many layers (or perhaps only pretensions) that in order to get to the root of it, one has to have recourse to ' Intentional Fallacy ' and a host of probable interpretations. Today, the main criterion of judging a piece of art is its 'interpretational adaptability' rather than perspicuity. I remember, when I was studying Semiotics (science of signs and symbols) at one of the greatest universities in the world, my professor was none other than the exponent of Semiotics, the Italian professor and novelist Umberto Eco. He was the sole visiting faculty because the subject was unthinkably arcane. I opted for Semiotics just to impress my lady love, who took English as a major subject. You do all weird things when you're in love to woo or impress your object of interest. I miserably flunked in English. So, the next best majestic subject for me was Semiotics, which required no entrance exam. We were five students struggling to understand the most difficult theories of signs and symbols explained in heavy Italian-accented English of the genius. Once he explained the 'symbolism of cross' in such a profound and unintelligible manner that I thought I was being nailed to the cross. He simply crucified me to the extent of making me leave the subject without completing it. My other classmates soon followed suit. Professor Eco once explained with mysterious symbols why do women always go to the restroom in pairs or groups? This is one phenomenon that has intrigued men for centuries. But Eco had an explanation to it which was hardly understood by anyone. He brought conscious, subconscious and unconscious to put forward his recondite rationale for a simple habit ingrained in almost all women. I thought it would have been much better had I asked my beloved why she used to go to the restroom in group! Even Freudian dream analysis seems so easy when pitted against Eco's 'simplifications.'The erudite scholar's books, 'History of Beauty' and ' On Ugliness' have many takers but whether they are understood as well, remains to be answered. What's the use of making things all the more difficult and confounding? Many things in life cannot be explained in terms of signs and symbols. Their attempted explanations make them all the more obscure. Human mind tries to find meanings in all phenomena and ends up getting all illogical and irrelevant answers. Albert Camus used to say, "If you try to look for meaning in life and its aspects, you'll cease to live and enjoy it." Let a few things remain in the status quo. Don't play ducks and drakes with them. --- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/philosophy-exactly/d/133412 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism