"We are all philosophers. I don't mean this in the "What do you make of Quine's 'Two Dogmas'?" sense. No, we are all philosophers in that we all do philosophy. Philosophy is a practice of wonder and logic; curiosity and introspection; dialectic and meditation; criticism and advocacy. We all do some of these things, some of the time. We all philosophize, but we do so in different ways."
"The philosopher: The Sphinx-philosopher is someone who argues by constantly interrogating your position. They might feign ignorance or pretend to be an ally, but they are always asking questions with a purpose. The toxic version of the Sphinx is the carnivorous one. If you get the questions wrong - if you fail the test of logic, knowledge, or social compliance - then you are an enemy. The constructive version of the Sphinx is the Socratic one. Questions are an opportunity to grow together."
Philosophy is framed as a set of practices: wonder and logic, curiosity and introspection, dialectic and meditation, and criticism and advocacy. Individuals enact some combination of these practices at different times, so everyone philosophizes in varying ways. Five archetypal approaches are offered as heuristics for recognizing how people question and reason. The Sphinx archetype interrogates others' positions, sometimes feigning ignorance or allyship while asking purposeful questions. The Sphinx can be toxic when punitive and devouring, or constructive in a Socratic mode that treats questioning as an opportunity for mutual growth. Sphinxic people tend to question rather than assert, unsettling social interactions.
Read at Big Think
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]