THERE is an old saying that philosophy bakes no bread.
It is perhaps equally true that no bread would ever have been baked
without philosophy. For the act of baking implies a decision on the
philosophical issue of whether life is worthwhile at all. Bakers may
not have often asked themselves the question in so many words. But
philosophy traditionally has been nothing less than the attempt to ask
and answer, in a formal and disciplined way, the great questions of
life that ordinary men might put to themselves in reflective moments. The world has both favored and feared the philosophers' answers. Thomas
Aquinas became a saint, Aristotle was tutor to Alexander the Great, and
Voltaire was a confidant of kings. But Socrates was put to death, and
Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. Nowadays, Historian Will Durant
has noted, no one would think of doing that—”not because men are more
delicate about killing, but because there is no need to kill that which
is already dead.” Philosophy dead? It often seems so. In a world of war and change, of
principles armed with bombs and technology searching for principles,
the alarming thing is not what philosophers say but what they fail to
say. When reason is overturned, blind passions are rampant, and urgent
questions mount, men turn for guidance to scientists, psychiatrists,
sociologists, ideologues, politicians, historians, journalists—almost
anyone except their traditional guide, the philosopher. Ironically, the
once remote theologians are in closer touch with humanity's immediate
and intense concerns than most philosophers, who today tend to be
relatively obscure academic technicians. No living U.S. philosopher has
the significance to the world at large that John Dewey or George
Santayana had a generation or two ago. Many feel that philosophy has
played out its role in the history of human culture; the “queen of
sciences” has been dethroned. Once all sciences were part of philosophy's domain, but gradually, from
physics to psychology, they seceded and established themselves as
independent disciplines. Above all, for some time now, philosophy
itself has been engaged in a vast revolt against its own past and
against its traditional function. This intellectual purge may well have
been necessary, but as a result contemporary philosophy looks inward at
its own problems rather than outward at men, and philosophizes about
philosophy, not about life. A great many of his colleagues in the U.S.
today would agree with Donald Kalish, chairman of the philosophy
department at U.C.L.A., who says: “There is no system of philosophy to
spin out. There are no ethical truths, there are just clarifications of
particular ethical problems. Take advantage of these clarifications and
work out your own existence. You are mistaken to think that anyone ever
had the answers. There are no answers. Be brave and face up to it.” Revolt of the Logicians
