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Tallis in Wonderland

On Failing to be a Philosopher

Raymond Tallis thinks through what not thinking things through involves.

There are many ways of failing to be a philosopher. The most efficient is not to bother being a philosopher in the first place. It is the strategy of choice for the vast majority of the population. Some of the things that exercise philosophers – or seem to do so – are of limited interest to the man or woman in the street, the pub, the lounge, or the kitchen. Agonizing over whether objects are logical constructions out of sense data, whether mind is localized to individual subjects or is spread throughout the universe, or even whether we are free agents, is a minority pastime.

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