I was asked recently by a friend about why I valued taking classes in philosophy. The post below evolved from my response.
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"If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist."
- Exhortation to a social science PhD student
Distance. Time. Dollars. We were brought up in a modernist era obsessed with "objective," measurable metrics, whether in PhD programs, High Finance, or in our personal lives. We were inculcated to value the material - that which is provable and perceivable to all. I may disagree with you about whether Kim Kardashian is "happy," but her magnificent Rolls Royce cannot be argued with. Her five bedroom, Mediterranean-style Beverley Hills mansion speaks for itself.
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| Kim Kardashian's $4.8M Beverley Hills Residence |
Why waste time squabbling over subjective matters that can never be settled objectively? Pragmatism dictates a focus on the "how," which can be answered objectively, rather than the "why," which is doomed to endless debate. We, the children of High Modernists, have inherited their obsessive concern with the physical. Their concomitant neglect of the intangible, at first innocently pragmatic, now manifests in us as outright denigration. The metaphysical, that which is "beyond physics," is immaterial: it cannot be apprehended with the language of physics and measurement, and is therefore irrelevant. Hence: "If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist."
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| Kim's Dining Room Features a Fireplace and Ample Natural Light |
Philosophy exists unabashedly beyond the realm of the physical and measurable. Philosophers are concerned with what we should value - why? - rather than how something should be valued. Value is subjective; dollars, a Harvard J.D. and a Yale Law professorship are not. In other words, philosophers create values; classical scientists create measuring sticks.
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| Staying Objective |
Individuals seeking to understand what values can and should shape their lives, the lives of those around them and society at large will find value in philosophy; those who would rather not deal with the slippery and the unmeasurable will find little value. Yet by definition, though the pragmatists may not apprehend the irony (too intangible) nor be fully aware, they will be dependent upon others to tell them what is truly of value.
