What is it to be a philosopher?  Some would say that a philosopher is an academic whose career consists of writing inscrutable papers designed to be read only by others who possess an advanced degree in the field.  At the other extreme, some would say that everyone is a philosopher by virtue of the fact that adherence to some philosophy or other, whether it may be, e.g. a philosophy of child rearing, or a religious philosophy, or even an exercise philosophy, is something most people would attest to.

I don’t believe that either extreme is correct (though I will admit I think there are certainly some professional philosophers that fit the first description). Instead, I believe that to be a philosopher is to actively engage in an ongoing process.  Simply to espouse some set of philosophical principles does not sufficiently meet the criterion.  The necessary process is one of continually refining one’s way of thinking and one’s approach to problems.  It is a process of ongoing improvement of one’s rational relationship to ideas. (Not necessarily all ideas – one can certainly be a philosopher of something in particular, or of multiple somethings).  The defining characteristic being the ongoing effort to challenge one’s self to think as clearly as possible about the subject matter in a way that avoids self-deception and which allows for the creation of new (to the individual) or novel frameworks and approaches to understanding the area of inquiry. Continue reading →