Philosophy

What makes a good philosopher?

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So let's start with the most obvious part: "philosophy" comes from the Greek "philo" (love) + "sophia" (wisdom). Whether what we do now is all rightly conceived as wisdom might be a matter of debate, but it seems highly likely that no one will be a good philosopher unles he or she really loves philosophy. Moreover, although I don't believe a good philosopher has to love all philosophy, I do think it is important that he or she loves at least a lot of it. This is partly because the best philosophy makes connections to other areas of philosophy, and often brings in sophistication from more than a single narrow area in application to problems within that area. The other reason why such love is critical, I believe, is that philosophy is hard. Solving philosophical problems is a rarity, to be honest, and even understanding some of the solutions others have offered can take a great deal of effort and patience. One who does not love philosophy will find all that effort and patience quite difficult to come by. Love allows one to be comfortable, happy, avoiding the shortcuts and wanting "the real deal" out of involvement in really difficult problems. But this kind of work can be frustrating, anomic, tedious, and at times can feel like progress is nowhere to be found. Only love, I think, can help one to push through such obstacles.

Other than love, I suppose I would also claim that good philosophers generally need to be quite intelligent in analytical ways (though, alas, we can often also plainly embody the "absent-minded professor" stereotypes in ways that can be embarrassing!), and it helps for one to be a good philosopher that one is genuinely open to criticism and a good listener. In my experience, there can be quite gifted philosophers who do not have these traits, but I always think they could get even more from their gifts if they had them. Some years ago, in my APA-Pacific presidential address, I actually argued that the virtue of modesty is one that would be very valuable to those who wish to be good philosophers. I still believe that, but never believed that all good philosophers were modest. Rather, I think that if a good philosopher were also modest, the virtue would make him or her an even better philosopher. But to be at least good, I'm afraid modesty is not required--instead, just being good at philosophy will generally be a matter of having the love and also having great analytical skills. But even these are not quite enough, because to be good at philosophy, the analytical skills also have to be accompanied by an ability to "think outside the box" and to consider solutions from angles that others have not imagined before. Just having good analytical skills does not always guarantee intellectual originality. That, too, is necessary for one to be good at philosophy.

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