The Marks of an Authentic Philosophy 1

During the course of our last post, we established that though philosophy involves thinking, not all thinking is reasonable as such not all thinking is philosophy. Thinking “rationally” is what philosophy is rather associated with. That is a sort of a prelude to our discussion today – the Marks of a true philosophy. In addition to thinking reasonably or rationally, philosophy has five (5) other clear characters or otherwise marks. First is that true philosophy begins with wonder, not doubt. Secondly, philosophy is dialectical, not mathematical. Thirdly, an authentic philosophy is clear, not cryptic. Number four, authentic philosophy is perennial, not just contemporary or modern. Fifth, philosophy is open-ended and not closed.

·        Philosophy begins in wonder not doubt

When man is confronted with mystery, or with something whose causes are still unknown, he wonders why. What is this? Why is this so? Such, for Socrates, is the beginning of wisdom. Plato quoted Socrates in the Theaetetus as saying, “wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder”. Aristotle agrees with the point, saying: “it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at the first began to philosophize.”

What does it mean to wonder? To wonder could simply be seen as to realize/notice that there could be something extraordinary about the ordinary things we perceive. For example, we are so accustomed to seeing that after “daylight” comes the “night-time”. However, it takes ‘wonder’ to question and investigate the relationship between ‘daylight’ and ‘night-time’. Does the daylight necessarily cause or bring about the coming of night-time, or vice versa? Are the night-time and daylight two separate entities?

Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy made a mistake of thinking that “doubt” not “wonder” was the beginning of philosophy. According to him, one must doubt every fact and opinions to rebuild philosophy on a new foundation: doubt. The result of his “methodic doubt” was “I think, therefore I exist” (corgito ergo sum)- existence of the self (later including others and God) from the simple fact that he realized that he was certainly doing the doubting. 

It is true that "wonder" like "doubt" implies the absence of perfect knowledge and certitude. Nevertheless, it does not, like "doubt", leave us with no desire to seek further. Implicitly, it is "wonder" that motivates us to search further. If a man for instance knows that human beings always die and he does not know what the cause is, he wonders about it and from there proceeds to inquiry. This inquiry that is motivated by wonder most likely leads to some level of knowledge and understanding that is equal to wisdom.

Wonder is the principle, source and wellspring of philosophy Joseph Piper once remarked. Wonder is not the starting point of philosophy in the simple sense of initium, a mere beginning. It is rather a principium, a source of philosophy. There is always something to wonder about or to know, so "wonder" motivates the philosopher to keep on searching and asking more questions. There is no end to this search because truth like being is inexhaustible. 

Our next post on THE MARKS OF PHILOSOPHY will be  philosophy as dialectical. 

Stay tuned to this blog until I come your way again next time. Meanwhile, think (and act) just for the love of wisdom. 

For further readings see;

• Theaetetus  (Plato)
• Metaphysics (Aristotle)
• Some Problems of Philosophy (William James)
• The World as I See It (Albert Einstein)
• Summa Theologica (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
• Leisure - The Basis of Culture (Joseph Pieper)