Be The Fruit

The Dangers of Philosophy

by Bill Blair on 03/11/07 at 4:47 pm

As some of you may know, I am currently taking a Christian Philosophy class.  This class is very mind-stretching in that it forces you think beyond simple propositions and really develop an understanding of why you believe what you believe.  The reading for this course can be very tedious because it can be very philosophically technical.  All of this has infected my mind and made me think philosophically about most in things in my life.

I have learned that thinking philosophically about everything can be rather dangerous.  A while back my wife asked me one of those questions that husbands hate to be asked.  It was something akin to, “Why haven’t you told me I am pretty lately?”  Being the keen philosopher I am, I responded with something like this:  “Honey, I think if we look at your question we need to define lately.  At what time T does lately occur?  Is T within the last hour, day, week or month?  Furthermore, if we adopt a B-Theory of time then time T may have less relevance.”

I am sure you can understand that such a response did not go over well.  So, philosophy can be dangerous and should only be used with great care.  Used in the wrong circumstance, philosophy can be dangerous to your health.

From now on if asked anything from my wife about how she looks, I have to remember this famous question.  What does Athens have to do with M*A*C?(Tertullian reference for those who don’t know.)