How to be a Philosopher

Bruce Hansen is a professor of philosophy and religious studies and an honors program advisor at Fullerton College. Known for his humor and depth, Dr. Hansen has inspired FC students for many years. He guides his students in higher thoughts and studies, and through his engagement prepares them for both thoughtful and successful lives. In an interview one afternoon between classes and commuting on the train, he offered some thoughts on living as a philosopher.

1. Bring Philosophy into Your Life Completely I don't separate day to day from philosophy. There are questions I have carried for years, pondered for years, and I carry those questions into the day to day.

"I remember as a boy reading a passage in the Gospels that said, Blessed the one who suffers for my sake. I wondered, what in the world could that mean? I read many, many explanations of what that does mean, none of which satisfied me. But I think that over the years I've gotten a somewhat fuller understanding of it. "

2. Don't Let Ideas Get between You and Reality I was very interested in the German idealists, Marx, Heidegger, and French existentialists like Sartre and those guys. But it occurred to me early in my twenties that they were all about talk. They were all ideas about ideas.

It occurred to me fairly viscerally, not just intellectually, that if I were to go down that line I would never get back to things. So I took a stand, saying 'I'm going to try to drop the idea and see if I can discover things.'

3. Don't Be a Product of Culture It is probably the case that most all of us have become acculturated unconsciously, even as children. Before anybody could get distance, it would have to occur to them in some sort of insight that, in fact, they are a product of a culture. They would have to be uncomfortable, unhappy, even disgusted with mindlessly making passage through the world.

If that were to happen to somebody, which it doesn't happen to many, they would then be in a position to begin to think against the grain. That, to me, would be the mark of somebody who's gotten some distance on their age, their generation, and their culture.

To get distance, you have to practice thinking against the grain, and that's going to make you stand out. In standing out, you will be under pressure to come back to the herd. And so how long you can stand out there, that will be the test.

4. Have Courage The ideal philosopher, it seems to me, is one who is capable of thinking against the cultural grain and in doing so, is going to run into trouble. Socrates would be a perfect example, Jesus would be an example, Confucius would be an example. In each of these cases, it seems to me that they are operating from an awareness of what is needed… they are conscioust of the situation, as opposed to an idea about the situation. They had the moral courage to act to meet the need in that situation. That may put them at odds with the culture.

I think that once one starts to think for themselves, they will need to act on their sense of what is needed, what is necessary. Of all the virtues that philosophers and society hold dear, I would say that courage is the most fundamental. Without courage you can accomplish nothing else. Any attempt to get free of a mindless passage is going to require that you separate yourself from the herd to some degree. None of it can occur without courage. So in all thy getting, get courage." T

Essential Readings Dr. Hansen recommends reading the early dialogues of Plato - his Apology and the Crito - to get an idea of how the ideal philosopher would conduct his or herself. He cautions, "I'm using the word philosopher here as my ideal of a philosopher, I'm not using it as descriptive of the profession as you see it in the academy, myself included. I don't claim to be that ideal philosopher."