Gottfried Wihelm Leibniz wore many hats, trained as a lawyer, forced to be an archivist and even a dabbler in mine engineering. But, it is as a philosopher and mathematician that he is most famous today. Though Newton & Leibniz both presented calculus to the world simultaneously, it is Leibniz’ notation that reigns supreme. In contrast:
How many people know what a monad is?
How many refer to a monad outside of the context of a pretentious quasi-intellectual joke?
In the age of Leibniz the various disciplines were more tightly conceived, and he would have protested perhaps that both monads and calculus emerged from the same mold. This was a man who quested for the universal computer, unified knowledge was something he thought he could taste.
But not all philosophy is as inconsquential as Leibniz’ monads, sometimes all too tragically. One might argue that Hegel is just as ludicruous and garbled as Leibniz’ Most Perfect of World monads, but just because it might be thought of as ludicrous does not mean it was inconsequential, at least if you judge that Hegel had a strong influence on Marx. Shall we damn Hegel for his connection to Marx, and Marx for his connection to the deaths of millions in the 20th century? (Karl Popper blamed Plato)
To some of us, philosophy, narrowly conceived, is a play on words that somehow spawned an academic field. If philosophy transmutes itself into something that is of direct utility and import, it is rebranded (natural philosophy – > science, political philosophy -> public policy). But philosophy itself seems to be as persistent as religion. Of questionable lucidity? Perhaps, but no one said that the world abbhored garbled thought.
Above I pointed to Hegel as the grandfather of Communism. I will leave aside this point and reflect upon another grandfather: Nietzsche. This man, an aphorist for the ages, was appropriated by the Nazi regime in Germany as a philosophical precursor. No matter that there was little confluence between Nietzsche’s philosophy and Nazi politics. Just as the actions of some in the name of God would outrage the founder of their faith, so the Nazi genocide would likely have elicited revulsion in Nietzsche.
The mutability of Nietzsche’s work toward unexpected ends is no surprise. Though often preening and posing in rationalistic garb, as I note above, the rational often emerges from its philosophical pupae as something totally unrecognizable. To master the recursive loops that cycle through one’s brain is a futile task, philosophy is a prisoner in evolution’s penitentiary.
But just like the gullible women who fall prey to the charm of a serial killer behind bars, again and again the self-styled ubermensch fall under the sway of the prose stylists who pretend to wield axioms in the service of Truth and Understanding. If religion is the opium of the masses, philosophy is the marijuana of the elite. Each generation some individual attempts to resurrect the implementation of the intellectual perpetual motion machine, before succumbing to the limits of their own cognition. It is no surprise that men like Justin Martyr were once aspiring philosophers before their turned to that other unimaginable edifice, the God Hypothesis.
Several weeks ago I expressed distaste at the tendency for the followers of Ludwig Wittgenstein to ape his manners and habits. I suggested that some of this might be explained by the “imitation factor,” that is, the human (and animal) tendency to imitate high status or charismatic individuals. They were simply marching to the tune of evolution as it turned the lights on or imposed intellectual “lock down.” Men like Wittgenstein, philosophers, cogitors to the utmost, often assumed that they are touching the edge of rational transcendence (Wittgenstein felt he was a puzzle-master by the end). I would argue rather they are peculiar specimens who possess a combination of genes and underwent various experiences that rendered them susceptible to the self-delusion that salvation could be attained through the quest for the Truth. Some element of this trait can be found in all individuals, the “God Shaped Hole” in the brain that Carl Sagan wrote about. In some individuals God is replaced by philosophy, and the hole is a crater that has blasted away other intellectual functions, especially good judgement.
This is not necessarily negative, the compulsive and eccentric urges and visions of “natural philosphers” led to science. But as I noted above, philosophies can sometimes resemble religion sociologically, the main difference being the narrower focus and the rational conceit. Truth be told though, philosophy seems to usually just be spastic art garbed in luxurious verbal silk to distract from the termors and lack of self-control. The aphorisms of Nietzsche are imprecise enough that men who gassed small children were affiliated with a form of Nietzsche’s teachings. One could assert that the teachings were garbled, but I am skeptical that they were much more than impressionistic renderings of the great philosopher’s periodic mind-storms in the first place.
It seems that the age of prophets and god-men is gone. New Great Religions seem not to arise in our skeptical age. But philosophers do not offer magic, and so the modern age does little to corrode their spells and dilute their incantations. They think that they think, therefore they are, but in truth, they might be because of balancing selection favoring some alleles in heterozygote combinations, even if a homozygote monster is birthed on occasion.
Posted by razib at 12:50 AM