13 Ways to Do Philosophy

On Different Modes of Philosophical Teaching and Inquiry

There are a lot of different ways to do philosophy—lots of different ‘modes’ of philosophizing. For a long time I was obsessed with one particular mode called ‘analytic’ philosophy. I thought any form of philosophy that didn’t fit within that camp either wasn’t actually philosophy or wasn’t good philosophy even if it did turn out to count as philosophy after all.

I was dumb.

One of the things that helped me see how dumb I was is the list below of various modes of philosophy which Dru Johnson cited in his book, Biblical Philosophy, and which originally came from Jaco Gericke in “The Hebrew Bible and Philosophy of Religion” (Society of Biblical Literature Resources for Biblical Study 70).

I recently had a really fantastic conversation with Dr. Dru Johnson about his book and why he thinks the Bible counts as philosophy, over on my podcast, Parker’s Pensées. Watch that episode below:

The following list opened my eyes to the fact that even within the analytic tradition of philosophy there are various different modes of doing philosophy—various tools to convey philosophical points and prime the philosophical pump. It was upon reading this list that I decided I want to try doing philosophy in each and every mode on the list, which eventually brought me to writing protreptic science fiction short stories.

Speaking of which, you should grab yourself a copy of issue 1 and issue 2 of my new science fiction and fantasy magazine called Sages, Mages, and Wisdom Machines:

But now to make with the list. I’m planning to write pieces on each of the modes in this list in the future but for now, let me just give them to you with a short little comment from me characterizing each respectively:

1. Dialogue with an embedded story (Socrates)

Dru or Jaco cite Socrates as the main figure associated with the philosophical dialogue, and that’s true, but we only know about them through Plato. So, I think we should at least include Plato here as well. The dialogue is a mode of asking good ‘Soctratic’ questions of one’s interlocutor in order to help them come to their own conclusions about a given topic—usually a definition of some topic, and usually the conclusion or definition you yourself hold to—though in the case of Plato’s Socratic Dialogues, the point was usually to clear the deck and show that folks who thought they were wise weren’t all that wise after all. If you want to get a feel for this mode, grab the following book from my affiliate link and read the Euthyphro dialogue: The Last Days of Socrates

2. Manual (Epictetus)

The Enchiridion of Epictetus is a manual for practicing Stoic philosophy. It’s actually a distillation of some of the more practical elements from Epictetus’s Discourses which was put together by a disciple of his named Arrian. This mode of philosophizing is perhaps the least philosophical of the modes on this list in that it’s more of a practical guide to life rather than an invitation to debate. In a similar vein, I’d also list something like the Pythagorean symbols which are a list of aphoristic precepts for living as a Pythagoreans. Check out The Enchiridion and Discourses and The Pythagorean Sourcebook for more on the manual mode of philosophy.

3. Allegory (Plato; Edmund Gettier; Frank Jackson, e.g., “What Mary Didn’t Know”)

I’m not sure if Edmund Gettier’s thought experiment counts as an allegory or a parable or just a thought experiment or what but the guy wrote a three page paper with a story at the center of it and it completely upended all of epistemology (the study of knowledge) forever! You can read that paper here for free and/or read the free Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on it here. Same for Frank Jackson who gave a thought experiment/story about a color specialist who knew everything about color except what it was like to see colors for herself and that story really threw a wrench into the entire theory of mind. You can read Jackson’s paper here for free and/or watch my podcast episode with him on it here.

I do think that Plato’s cave story is probably an allegory and it has got to be one of the most successful and famous of all time—but it’s philosophy and always has been. Read his Republic here to get a better sense of how Plato uses stories to do his philosophizing.

4. Sentences (Peter of Abelard) [Probably meant Peter Lombard here]

The compilers of this list probably meant the Sentences (sententiae) of Peter Lombard. Lombard basically compiled a commonplace book of theological sayings, comments on biblical texts, and other important theological works fo the most important theologians and in one spot (or several volumes). This tradition is sometimes referred to as gnomoligia, from the Greek gnome which is sometimes translated as ‘maxim’ but can refer to wise sayings in general as well. It’s the collecting of wise sayings (sententiae in Latin) in order to share them with others. The most famous gnomological commonplace book is King Solomon’s Book of Proverbs in the Bible, which is a collection of wise sayings both from Kind Solomon’s own mind as well as others he’s gleaned from in order to teach his sons how to be wise philosopher-kings (it didn’t work at all).

So read the Book of Proverbs, or Peter Lombard’s Sentences or check out Aristotle’s The Art of Rhetoric for his philosophy of gnome.

5. Disputations (Aquinas)

Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest philosophers of the Medieval period, conducted his philosophy in the mode of disputations. He’d raise a question, give several answers in ascending degree of correctness and then would give his answer to the question. He has several works wherein he utilizes this mode but his most famous is the Summa Theologica. This mode shows that he knew the literature well and allowed him to demonstrate why he disagreed with some of the typical or classic answers to the questions in view. Another representative of this mode is Francis Turretin in his Institutes of Elenctic Theology

6. Meditation entries (Descartes)

Descartes did his philosophizing in an armchair by the fireplace. He just retreated into his mind an thought through the deepest questions of philosophy—he just meditated on first principles and developed a whole method for making progress in philosophy and the sciences and everything. We just recently finished our read-along of Descartes’s a discourse on the method here on Parker’s Ponderings. You can find my companion essays here and you can grab his Discourse on the Method here.

7. Pseudonymous postscript (Kierkegaard)

I haven’t spent enough time reading Kierkegaard to comment on his work at all. I know I’m supposed to like him but I just haven’t found the time to try. You can read more about him—all about him—in this free Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry here.

8. Treatises (Locke, Hume)

A treatise is perhaps what most folks think of when thinking of a philosophy book or essay. It’s a big, systematic and comprehensive treatment of an idea or topic. It’s like a bigger philosophical essay. Check out John Locke’s 2 Treatises of Government or his Essay Concerning Human Understanding but they’re very dense—as treatises are wont to be. Or check out David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (he also used the dialogue mode of philosophizing in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which is some of his best stuff).

9. Journal entries (Marcus Aurelius)

Marcus Aurelius wrote personal reflections, philosophical meditations, and sententia in his personal journal in order to make his own philosophical manual. Today we read his journal as a source of inspiration but for him it was a practical tool for living out his Stoic philosophy. Journals are collections of thoughts—as opposed to diaries, which are collections of events, experiences, and time-bound emotions. Check out Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations and check out my other pieces on philosophical Journaling here.

10. Personal Reflections (Camus)

Here’s the Penguin overview of Camus’s Personal Writings

This volume contains some of Camus’ most intimate writing, as he reflects on his identity and childhood in Algeria and celebrates the beauty of the Mediterranean. The Wrong Side and the Right Side, Camus’ first book and most openly autobiographical work, describes his early years in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers and includes memorable portraits of his mother, grandmother and uncle. Nuptials rejoices in the sun, landscape and sea, and the physical and spiritual freedom they offer to even the poorest. And in Summer Camus evocatively depicts the sunlit cities of Algiers and Oran.

I haven’t read his Personal Writings but I have read a good deal of his notebook entries and they really made me appreciate him more. From the description above, it sounds like Camus is doing something similar to what St. Augustine did in his philosophical autobiography, The Confessions or what St. Anselm does in his extended prayer, the Proslogion.

11. Aphorisms (Cicero, Nietzsche)

The Aphorism is perhaps the best mode of philosophy! These are short, pithy, witty, philosophical sayings that are isolated from a broader system of philosophy. They’re like spicy proverbs. I love them so much. Jesus taught with parables and blended in lots of aphorisms. Cicero and Nietzsche used them. So did Blaise Pascal in his Pensées and so did E.M. Cioran, Descartes, Novalis and others but the prince of the aphorism is perhaps Georg Lichtenburg in his Waste Books.

12. Essay (Montaigne)

Now I said that perhaps the philosophical treatise was the most widely known mode of philosophy but the philosophical essay may beat it out for first place. This is just a short philosophical piece on a particular topic. This is mostly what philosophers do, be it continental, analytic, experimental—whatever—philosophers write essays. I don’t really read Montaigne ever—maybe in a history of philosophy course back in the day? I definitely have his works but he’s not a top priority given my interests. But if you want to learn about philosophical essays, check out my podcast Parker’s Pensées where I have philosophers and theologians on to teach about their essays.

13. Novella (Nietzsche)

A novella is a short novel. Philosophers write protreptic novellas in order to flesh out their philosophical messages and help them stick in their readers psyches more deeply than if they only put them in some tome. C.S. Lewis discusses this mode of philosophy as he discusses front door apologetics and side door apologetics—front door being essays and treatises and straight-forward philosophy works, and side door being philosophy, theology, and apologetics wrapped in a good story, a sort of Trojan horse for good thinking. Camus did this with his bad philosophy in The Stranger too haha.

We might also just include philosophical fiction in general here as well. I think of Frank Herbert’s Dune as a protreptic philosophical story meant to warn against leaders who use bravura to lead us to our doom.

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Now there are other modes I’m sure—book review or philosophical review in general, is surely another. Poetry is probably another—There are definitely others beyond those on the list above. But I found that list and wanted to share it with you all. I also wanted to write about it to help motivate myself to take up the modes I haven’t utilized yet in order to be a more well-rounded philosopher. I hope you enjoyed that and learned something.

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